Interview with Mr Rajesh Kamath, CEO & MD, Member of the Board, thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions India

Published in German Machinery Industry, April - June 2022, Volume 13 Edition 2

Can you take us through your business activities in terms of product portfolios and the sectors to which you cater to India?

thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions India is a technology oriented project executing company for implementation of Chemical and Industrial Plants.  The company has been in the industry for more than 40 years and we have executed more than 800 projects globally based on our own technologies or on technologies from other world-class Licensors.  

In India, we execute projects in different sectors, viz. Petrochemical and Refinery, Phosphatic & Nitrogenous Fertilizers, Chlor-alkali (Caustic Soda) plants, Cryogenic storages, Coke ovens. We also offer the entire value chain for new upcoming Green technologies; our sister company thyssenkrupp nucera offers technology for Alkaline Water Electrolysis for production of Green Hydrogen whereas we are involved with the production of downstream applications such as green ammonia and green methanol.

We are flexible in terms of modality of project execution philosophy. We are capable of offering EPC / EPCm / PMC services as well as FEED Engineering, Open Book Estimates depending on the requirements of the client. Our clientele includes industry majors in the country both in the public and the private sectors.

What are you views on the Union Budget 2022-23 with focus on the industry?

The Indian government recognises chemical industry as a key growth element and forecast to increase share of the chemical sector to ~25% of the GDP in the manufacturing sector by 2025.

Few highlights of the Union Budget on the Indian Chemical Industry are as follows –

• There is an increased thrust by Government on infrastructure development thereby increasing demand for building materials and specialty chemicals.

• A sustained push for self-reliant India viz. by introducing reforms by redesigning the SEZ act with a new legislation may boost the manufacturing capacity in the country. This could imply more upcoming investments by private sector

• A 2034 vision for the chemicals and petrochemicals sector has been set up by the government to explore opportunities to improve domestic production, reduce imports and attract investments in the sector.

• The government plans to implement production-link incentive system to boost domestic manufacturing and exports, to create an end-to-end manufacturing ecosystem through the growth of clusters.

• To enhance domestic value addition, the government proposes to reduce the customs duty on certain critical chemicals namely, Methanol, Acetic Acid and heavy feed stocks for petroleum refining

• The government has given a push to R&D in the field of Green Energy among other areas. This is in addition to the efforts of collaboration among academia, industry and public institutions, government contribution.

Can you share some key trends that you have seen in the industry in the face of Pandemic?

Before the pandemic, that our industry could work remotely was a remote thought! Ours is a business model that is dependent on human interaction which relies a lot on engaged discussions between different disciplines during engineering design. But with the pandemic, I think the industry has more or less accepted the hybrid level of working culture. This has also consequently aided to improve the work-life balance where employees saved their commute time post work and could be with their families. It also optimized the usage of office spaces depending on the essentiality of the service to be present in the offices.

Business wise, post the pandemic, one can see a push of the government into the development of the chemical industry that will boost the revival of the economy. A positive trend in the government spending is clearly visible which has set the wheels in motion for many tender-based projects especially in the refinery and the petrochemical sector.

There was a slump in the investments by the private sector before and during the pandemic. But now, a lot of movement is seen in the private sector who are opening up their investments and are keen to diversify their portfolios based on the changing demands.

As a result, currently, the pipeline is flooded with projects from both the sectors, with a lot of investments planned in the near future. As a result of this, the commodity prices are on the rise and the availability of skilled resources to execute these projects is a challenge.   

How has thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions India contributed to the Indian economy over the years?

thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions India Private Ltd. has been a forerunner in the Indian Chemical industry. Being flexible with respect to executing projects based on our own technologies and on technologies of other reputed licensors, tkIS India has supported our clientele right from the concept to commissioning.

tkIS India engineered the various fertilizer plants in India as well as executed one its kind industrial plants for metallurgy and mining. This has helped the overall economy of India by making Indian plants on stream for production of critical chemicals / metals.

If you look at a product like Caustic Soda, tkIS India has about 75% market share in the country. Being a major base chemical, the chlor-alkali industry has contributed to the development of the downstream chemicals. So, in the right sense, tkIS India has been an indirect contributor to the Indian economy.

tkIS India has been supporting the parent organization with providing global support in large scale industrial projects. This provided us remarkable accolades for being an engineering export company in India. Since some of our project pipeline also includes global workshare projects, we export our engineering services for these projects.

How is innovation and R&D contributing to the company’s overall business strategy?

Keeping in tow with the sentiment towards adoption of sustainable processes, tkIS now offers a green chemical portfolio. This also is one of our primary focus areas.

thyssenkrupp’s ability to offer Green Chemical technologies plays a major role in providing an alternative to fossil fuels as it will help the transition to low emissions and work towards a clean, healthy environment.

The refineries in the country are looking at blending of hydrogen feed along with 10% Green Hydrogen to start with. This creates a lot of potential for usage of Green Hydrogen with refineries setting up facilities for its production. The projections are that India is looking to have 5 MMTPA of consumption of green hydrogen across various sectors viz. refinery, steel, fertilizers by 2030. 

Green Ammonia is gaining importance worldwide as a safe energy carrier for green hydrogen and CO₂ free feedstock for the chemical industry. Large green ammonia plants as transporter of Green hydrogen are also in the planning stage. With this large scale additions of Green Ammonia, fertilizer companies would be able to tap this as an economical feedstock for their plants as compared to the import of Ammonia. There is also an opportunity of investments of increase in the storage facilities for Green Ammonia.

Various projects are under developmental phase and few of them are under implementation using our green technologies. thyssenkrupp’s first reference of green hydrogen is in operation since April 2018 at the test facility “Carbon2Chem” in Duisburg, Germany.

We are making progress with collaborating with industry and universities to develop new innovative solutions for new chemicals / new materials and for achieving efficiency in case of specific areas.

How do you foresee the year 2022 for your business?

The year so far looks promising.

The order intake has been good with a mix of EPC and EPCM projects that is clearly surpassing the forecast and with strong pipeline in future, we strive for keeping the sustained growth in terms of the order volume.

Additionally, there are a number of projects in the pipeline which are diverse projects covering different sectors. This also shows the positive sentiment of the chemical industry and that it is in the revival mode post the pandemic.