Chemical supply chain simplified for the stakeholders
Many conferences are organised to discuss challenges in the fields of supply chain and logistics in general. However, this conference was arranged keeping in mind a unique strategy to delve into the hard core challenges of the Indian chemical & petrochemi
In order to maintain growth of high potential Indian chemical industry, huge amount of improvement is essential in the chemical supply chain segment. CHEMLOG India 2017, the 3rd international conference on Logistics & Supply Chain of Chemicals & Petrochemicals, organised by Indus Exposium Pvt Ltd, with its Knowledge Partner – the Tata Strategic Management Group, was strategically designed to present an integral view of the status quo of the chemical logistics segment in India and steps necessary to raise it to the global standard. The knowledge sharing platform, which consisted of several presentations and panel discussions, not only successfully enlightened the enthusiastic attendees – but also created a benchmark with its in-depth and penetrative discussions on all aspects of the chemical logistics segment.
Indian chemical industry and logistics
At the outset of the conference, Tata Strategic Management Group’s senior practice head – Chemical Energy & SCM, Manish Panchal delivered the welcome address. Panchal presented the current scenario of the Indian chemical sector which is directly responsible for the growth of the Indian chemical logistics segment. He revealed, “As per our research, seven key drivers will shape the future of the Indian chemical industry, which are India will remain short in several key raw materials; demand for major chemicals is expected to grow in double digit; the country will have surplus of naptha but challenges in other feedstocks’ availability will be there; lower manufacturing cost in comparison with the developed peers will continue; new manufacturing policy and plans by the Government of India (targeting 25 percent of GDP share of manufacturing by 2025) will boost the chemical production in the country; in terms of technology and manpower – India will have the third largest science &technology manpower in the world; and followed by the GST implementation – the government is now planning for boosting multimodal logistics.”
While explaining the growth potential of the chemical logistics segment in the country, he stated that Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu
will be the three prominent states for chemical production. In India, there are four pillars of chemical transportation, namely roads, railways, pipelines and waterways. The cheapest mode of supplying liquid and gaseous substances is through pipelines and India already has around 15,000 kms of pipeline, which is being used by the petroleum and the mining industry. Handling chemical and petrochemical products is quite challenging due to their hazardous nature. Nearly 20 percent of the chemical related accidents happen during transportation.
Drawing attention to the recent implementation of GST, he opined, “It has eliminated the taxes at state borders leading to a single market inside the country and reduced the delivery time.”
Why did many supply chains fail?
Focusing on the reasons behind failure in building an efficient supply chain, Rupark Sarswat, MD, Croda India Company, said, “Supply chain has never been seen as the area of core value addition. However, better supply chain management can enhance value and differentiate a company from others in the field.”
According to him, under Indian condition earlier – enough visibility was absent in the supply chain. He also pointed out that most of the companies failed to innovate or invent as long as they were in the comfort zone. Failure to see the transformations occurring in this field led to a great damage in many companies and their businesses.
Need for attitudinal change
Amit Uplenchwar, president, Adani Group, opined, “Our standards are still set at a very low level, which is an attitudinal problem. Chemical industry runs on credibility and confidence. Hence its logistics also has to follow the same path. We have to come out of the ‘Chalta Hay’ (it goes…) attitude, and innovate to be at par with the global standard. It’s necessary to move chemicals from one point to the other in a guaranteed safe manner.”
Lack of visibility in supply chain
To explain why supply chain was not given priority earlier, Alok Gautam, country logistics leader, Dow Chemical International, said, “Earlier enough visibility was not available on what was happening in the supply chain. Sales and commercial people in the company used to think that once the order is placed in the company, the job is done, however, it is not so. The job is complete when the materials safely reach the customer’s place with all necessary invoices. Unless and until you align this strategy of visibility and function, you are going to lose money. Also, if safety and compliance are taken care of seriously, the cost of supply chain will increase. Since there were no severe competitions and the customers too were not so demanding earlier, the supply chain’s efficiency was hardly questioned. However, now the scenario is changing. Everyone wants to maintain lean inventory in his/her factory, which is building pressure on the supply chain. It is forcing the supply chain leaders to look at their Matrix, KPI, cost etc., and also to share the responsibility to report to their management. Because of all these pressures that are coming in, the industry has started giving due importance to supply chain.”
Some other renowned speakers
Other prominent speakers in the event included:
Rajkiran Kangala, VP, TCIL; Siddharth Paradkar, GM, Stolt-Nielsen India; Mahendra Shelke, Head – Logistics &SC (Advanced Industrial Intermediates), Lanxess; Ramratan Singhi, Cordstrap/ SURE Group; V Raju, VP, Chemical, Pharma & Food Sector, Avvashya CCI Logistics; Vijay Shetty, Head –Distribution Logistics, BASF; Aniruddha Lele, Head – India Operations & Cargo Flow, CMA CGM India; Sashi Kallada, CEO, www.sashikallada.com;
Vikas Singhal, Head Logistics (Asia, Europe & Middle East), Gulbrandsen Chemicals; Satish Lakkaraju, CCO, Agility Logistics; Prasad V Joglekar, Sr VP – Supply Chain, Jubilant; R G Panicker , MD, DGM India; Pavithran M Kallada, MD, BDP UGL Global Logistics (India); Purnendu Shekhar, Founder, CEO, Cogoport; Saurabh Gupta, Head – Logistics & SC, Akzo Noble and Hemang Chowdhary, Head - IOT Enterprise Sales, Map My India.
THERE is a growing need for more focus on chemical supply chain management...