The second session of the first edition of “ChemConnect 2022”, Logistics and Supply Chain Event, organized by Indian Chemical News (ICN) on September 21, 2022 at The Lalit, Mumbai, will witness prominent industry experts discussing current challenges and scope for improvement of transportation involving hazardous chemicals.

The discussion at the session titled "Transportation of Hazardous Chemicals" will seek to unravel the complexities as well as emerging opportunities in logistics of hazardous chemicals and understand the future pathways that the sector needs to take in order to remain relevant and act as one of the pillars of growth for the chemical industry. One can register as a delegate by clicking on the link (https://www.indianchemicalnews.com/chem-connect/register ).

Topics to be covered at the session include: Understanding the current ecosystem; Emerging opportunities in logistics of hazardous chemicals; Identifying the challenges; Learning from global best practices; and Opportunities in the area.

Among the prominent industry leaders who shall speak at the event are Vineet Kumar, Head – Supply Chain Excellence, DFPCL; Mitesh Gangar, General Manager - Business & Supply Chain Management, Aarti Industries; Ravindra Gadre, Chief Procurement Officer, & Supply Chain Management, Apcotex Industries; Rajkiran Kanagala, Senior Vice President & Group Head – BD, Strategy & EBUs, TCI; Captain Ram Iyer, India Representative, Haropa Port; and Shivkumar Balasubramanian, Director - India Sales, Netradyne Technology India. The session will be moderated by Shanker K. Kuppuswamy, CEO, Nicer Globe - A vertical of Indian Chemical Council.

The conference themed as ‘Creating a Robust Ecosystem’ has lined up the country's top industry captains for the most comprehensive dialogue on the various key topics. Cutting across a number of business sessions, the conference will help develop the most meaningful and business-enabling idea exchange that will seek to further government and industry's growth aspirations. The discussions will help curate a comprehensive review of the chemical logistics sector, understanding the challenges as well as the opportunity that the segment offers.

Safe transportation of hazardous chemicals across the country is one of the biggest challenges. Unlike other goods, Logistics of Chemicals is a complex issue. Chemicals products form an essential part of business for almost all industries, be it automobile and electronics manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, food production, agriculture, construction, plastic processing, or others. At the same time, chemical products can range from solid, liquid, gaseous and inert to hazardous and highly inflammable.

Therefore, transportation of chemicals not only needs to be seamless but also requires special care in its handling, carriage as well as storage in order to prevent any safety hazards such as contamination and spoilage or chemical accidents, a major area of concern and motivation for the chemical companies as to who they chose to work with.

Untrained staff to handle packaging and transportation of hazardous chemicals and lack of awareness about the new and emerging trends and technologies are issues that challenge the transportation of hazardous chemicals in India.

Furthermore, with the western coast of India being the key hub of the chemical industry (Gujarat and Maharashtra together produce almost two-third of chemicals in India), the chemical products requires safe and efficient logistics that takes into account the complexities of supplying chemical products all across the country covering long distance, especially through road and rail. These two modes of transportation carry over 90 per cent of Indian chemicals.

Lack of special wagons and freight trains, specialized containers and vehicles for roadways transport along with similar lags in ports, multi-mode transportation and inland waterways, among others, are some of the other challenges in the logistics of hazardous chemicals which require additional protection. 

Then there are regulatory compliance and changing laws that chemical logistics service providers need to adhere to in order to minimize any possible hazards to the environments, employees or the general public. 

The event is supported by platinum partner Netradyne, gold partners - Carbanio, Moglix, and drivebuddy AI, regulatory knowledge partner - GPC, tech partner Ezbiz Technologies, and media partner Indian Pharma Post.