COVID-19 Impact on Inorganic Chemicals in Chemical and Materials Industry | DBMR

Posted by swarajya on April 28th, 2021

COVID-19 Impact on Inorganic Chemicals in Chemical and Materials Industry

INTRODUCTION

Inorganic chemicals represent the physical and chemical properties of inorganic compounds, which consist of various minerals, organometallic compounds and metals. Whereas, organic chemicals render the carbon-containing compounds and inorganic chemicals are the remaining subset of compounds other than organic compounds.

The inorganic chemicals are divided into bases, salt, acids. These categories have different applications in various industries. Inorganic chemicals are used as pigments, catalysts, coatings, fuels, medicines, surfactants, and more. They usually have specific electrical conductivity properties and high melting points, which enables various applications in different sectors. For instance:

Ammonia is used as a nitrogen source in fertilizers, and it is one of the major used inorganic chemicals used in the production of manufacture of plastics, explosives, textiles, pesticides, dyes, and other chemicals (used in adhesives, foams, and tough chemical-resistant coatings), hydrazine (used in jet and rocket fuels).

Chlorine is a greenish-yellow gas at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. Chlorine is used in the manufacture of polyvinyl chloride (used for pipes, clothing, furniture among others), agrochemicals (fertilizer, insecticide, or soil treatment), and pharmaceuticals, as well as chemicals for water treatment and sterilization.

Titanium dioxide, a white powder pigments, which occurs naturally as oxide of titanium, used in inks, fibers, food, paints, plastics, coatings, paper and cosmetics. It has good ultraviolet light resistance properties, also has an increasing demand for its use in photocatalysts.

FIGURE1: SEGMENTATION OF INORGANIC CHEMICALS MARKET

Major Industries Using Inorganic Chemicals are-

• Environmental Science-
• Fibers and Plastics
• Mining, Ore, and Metals
• Paint, Pigment, and Coating

IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON INORGANIC CHEMICALS

At beginning of January 2020, the world faced a Coronavirus outbreak build-up, the pandemic leads to unparalleled human, economic and social disruption, scarcely leaving any life unaffected. The COVID-19 epidemic in the future will be listed as the most economically affecting crisis so far. The world economy is facing unmatched loss due to the pandemic hitting tough across the world. The situation is getting from bad to worse on a day-to-day basis since more restrictive, impulsive and efficient actions are taken by several Governments worldwide, from travel bans to complete lockdown. Such actions have only limited the growth of the economy but also have brought complete stoppage to inter-regional activities.

Detergents and disinfectants sub-sector that was considered highly-essential during the COVID-19 pandemic, this sector was operating during lock-down, in order to increase its production capacity, as the usage of detergents and disinfectants were the only prevention that could be taken, this resulted in high revenues in the past few months than it had gained in the last few years. The drastic increase in production and demand has resulted in limited raw materials supply, as manufacturing units were facing a shortage of “alcoholic materials” at the beginning of the crisis, a large shipment was imported to compensate for the supply of raw material. The majority of manufacturing factories operate within this sub-sector mainly produced sanitizers and disinfectants for use in homes and offices. During the crisis, these products have reached personal-use category products.

The paints sub-sector is directly linked to the construction sector, which has completely suspended its operations for almost three months. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for construction materials and products has been relatively low.

The major industries such as surfactants, paints and coatings, minerals and ore industries, etc. operating basically on inorganic chemicals such as Ammonia, Calcium carbonates, Phosphorous, Sulphur compounds, and various other chemicals, these majority industries work with help of major human help, such as there are so many sub-operations that are handled manually. The COVID-19 impacted the whole human race to stay indoors, therefore these industries faced a large reduction in the manufacturing of the chemicals.

Government all over the world had laid rules for lockdown in order to prevent the human race from suffering to a larger extent, but the worldwide trade faced huge loss as not only manufacturing of inorganic chemicals became low but also the demand for these chemicals is still less than it was in past years.

COMPANIES STRATERGIC INITIATIVES DURING COVID-19

Various companies state that structural reforms are inevitable. Higher spending in food security, nutrition and livelihoods, public health, technology and innovation, strengthening international trade and capital flow, smart and green logistics, fighting poverty, enhancing the quality of human capital and education standards, strengthening institutions and governance, among others, are the basic steps that should be taken in order to overcome from this current situation. Read more…