Delovaya Rossiya: Chemists create industry development conditions

A round discussion “Creating Conditions for Low- and –Medium Tonnage Chemistry: Chemistry Revival Era” was held at the 7^th International Special Exhibition of professional and household chemicals, hygiene products, raw materials and ingredients. The event was organized by AO GC Titan, Chemical Industry Committee of “Delovaya Rossiya” and the Russian Union of Chemists.

Creating infrastructure for the development of production facilities of LMTC (low- and –medium tonnage chemistry), promoting goods and manufacturers, reducing the customer path in industrial construction; is it better to build new plants or modernize existing ones? These and other questions were discussed at the event. The participants of the discussion were representatives of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia, the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia, the Russian Union of Chemists, financial institutions, as well as the industry community, industrialists and journalists who specialize in the topic of the chemical industry. The moderator was Ekaterina Gracheva, presenter of the federal channel "Russia 24".

While opening the discussion Mikhail Sutyaginsky (chairman of the Chemical Industry Committee of “Delovaya Rossiya” and head of the LMTC Commission of the Russian Union of Chemists) remarked that the current period of global changes was an era of opportunities for new projects and it opens new development prospects in the chemical industry.

“Today the state understands the importance of development of LMTC. In summer of 2022 under the leadership of Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin a series of strategic meetings were held to identify critical areas that should be primarily freed from import dependence. As a result, portfolio of priority projects for import substitution in the industry of about 5.2 trillion rubles was created. It also included LMTC projects,” Mikhail Sutyaginsky said.

“We've done an analysis. In 2022, petrochemical enterprises were provided with supporting measures in the amount of 30 bln rubles.

Among others, the Industrial Development Fund has provided soft loans in 2022 for 44 projects in the chemistry industry for a total of 19.5 billion rubles. This emphasizes that it is, in many respects, a fundamental sector of our economy. The package of support measures is unprecedented," said Mikhail Yurin, Director of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering Technology of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade, "In our opinion, a set of measures has now been created, which makes it possible to implement projects that only last year looked unattractive to investors. We really hope for active participation of business in creation of new chemical productions".

Irina Vendilo, General Director of ROSKHIMREAKTIV Association, shared her vision of the voiced topics: "Today the enterprises of LMTC mostly work to fulfill current orders. There is a huge demand for the products of the sector. Customers are literally asking for something that is still literally on the shelf. That is, it is in development. Including now we are forced to respond to external challenges, we do not have the time and human resources to explore all the available measures of state support.

As Mikhail Sutyaginsky emphasized, construction of production facilities in the field of low- and medium-tonnage chemistry requires a new approach. For example, the use of flow-through and microfluidic technologies, which makes it possible to produce several types of products on one and the same equipment. This leads to an increase in the profitability of production. Many countries, such as China, use such technologies. In addition, it is important to reduce the time cost of the project. We are talking about reducing the so-called "customer path" - the time to prepare documents and connect the business to the infrastructure.

Olga Torbich, Deputy Head of the "Spatial Development" Department of the Center for Strategic Research Foundation, speaking about the client path, said: "In order to implement a project, an investor has to do some serious preparatory work. To choose a land plot, obtain a construction permit, answer the questions of how to organize logistics and where to get the raw materials from. And, of course, one of the first and most important is to build or modernize. If we talk about LMTC production facilities, the opportunities of industrial parks and SEZs are important for them. But not all regions have them”.

Maria Ivanova, First Vice President of the Russian Union of Chemists, made several important accents on the development of low-tonnage chemistry. Firstly, an extremely comprehensive approach is required to support LMTC projects, taking into account the interests and potential of each analyzed production, its inclusion in the general production chains. Secondly, the issue of human resources should get a fundamentally new meaning: the industry needs high-class specialists - engineering personnel, representatives of working professions. "The time has come for new formats of creative development of the domestic industry, with the involvement of large holdings, science, engineering centers, chemical equipment manufacturers. The emphasis should be made on the formation of real chemical clusters with a full production cycle and small businesses," she concluded. Besides, Maria Ivanova told about large scale informational work, conducted by the Russian Union of Chemists. Among the relevant projects is a joint case with NIITEKHIM - interactive guide "Chemistry", which has already included more than 3700 companies of the chemical industry. Currently the Russian Union of Chemists is creating a base of reliable contacts of engineering companies and producers of domestic equipment, which is planned to be opened for the companies of the industry.

The participants of the event and the interviewed industry participants noted that among the problems hindering the development of the chemical industry are difficulties with logistics caused by sanctions and congestion of logistics centers in the East of the country, lack of a single body where measures of state support from all state authorities will be consolidated. It was sounded that the development of LMTC is promoted by contract production on the basis of raw materials, as well as electronic platforms and business social networks for professionals of the industry.

The group of experts also shared their experience and vision of the promotion of chemical industry projects. Representatives of the media said that it was necessary to have competent speakers who can communicate with the audience in an understandable language, eliminate chemophobia and generate positive news and projects, including joint projects between the participants of the industry.

We would like to add that the subject of LMTC, as well as the integration of science and business, will also be discussed at the inter-regional scientific and practical conference in Omsk on March 28. The organizers are the Government of the Omsk region, GC "Titan", the Russian Union of Chemists and the all-Russian public organization "Delovaya Rossiya".

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