COVID-19 Impact on Organic Dyes and Pigments in Chemical and Materials Industry

COVID-19 Impact on Organic Dyes and Pigments in Chemical and Materials Industry

A dye is a coloured compound that binds chemical to the substrate to which it is applied. This differentiates dyes from pigments that do not bind chemically to the substance they paint. The dye is normally applied in an aqueous solution to increase the strength of the dye on the fibre and may require a mordant. Both dyes and pigments are coloured, so they only absorb those visible light wavelengths. In water, dyes are typically soluble, whereas pigments are insoluble. With the addition of salt to create a lake pigment, certain dyes may be made insoluble or solid precipitate. Roots, berries, bark, leaves, wood, fungi and lichens are the majority of natural dyes extracted from plant sources. Most dyes are synthetic, means man-made from petrochemicals. The industrial dyes and pigments market is specifically categorized under the two headings namely commodity and specialty. A pigment is a material that changes the colour of reflected or transmitted light as the result of wavelength-selective absorption.

To colour, paint, ink, plastic, clothing, cosmetics, food and other products, pigments are used. The majority of pigments used in production and the visual arts are dry dyes, typically ground into a fine powder. This powder is applied to a binder (or vehicle) for use in paint, a relatively neutral or colourless substance that suspends the pigment and gives adhesion to the paint. There is generally a distinction between a pigment that is insoluble in its vehicle (resulting in a suspension) and a colourant that is either liquid in itself or soluble in its vehicle (resulting in a solution). Depending on the vehicle involved, a colourant may act as either a pigment or a dye.

By precipitating a soluble dye with a metallic salt, a pigment can be formed from a colourant. The pigment that results in the same is called a lake pigment. For all coloured compounds, regardless of their solubility, the term biological pigment is used. Permanence and stability are desirable properties for industrial applications, as well as in the arts. Fugitives are called pigments that are not permanent. Over time, or with exposure to light, fugitive pigments fade while some gradually blacken.

TABLE 1 MAJOR TYPES OF PROTEIN FIBERS AND COMMONLY USED DYES

IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON DYES AND PIGMENTS INDUSTRY

As the demand for organic chemicals is rising across the world due to the spread of the coronavirus, manufacturers are on the verge of rising the prices of organic chemicals products along with suppliers and online vendors. Globally, the dyes and pigments market is expected to see healthy growth in the coming years, led by growing construction and automotive industries. Market growth is expected to be influenced by the rising demand for organic pigments. In recent years, population growth, coupled with per capita income growth, has boosted the consumption of paints and coatings in the building & construction, automotive and consumer goods industries. This, in turn, created considerable demand in the paint & coatings segment for pigments. One of the main users of pigments is plastics. In the plastics industry, pigments form an important part. Pigments give plastic products a particular appearance and styling effect. In the wide variety of plastics, pigments are used as colourants, owing to their excellent compatibility with many types of plastics.

The dyes and pigments market is affected by decreased demand and productivity during the current COVID-19 scenario. The overall demand for chemicals used in other facilities has decreased due to the fact that only the processing of essential goods is currently allowed. The key challenges are a mixture of the consequences of the shutdown affecting the spread of fixed costs, labour shortages including contract workers, challenges with working capital and finally the decline in local and export demand. Pigment production is relatively people-intensive industry, especially in India, and if there is a shortage of labour, this could have a detrimental impact on the use of ability. Pigments are used in applications such as coatings, inks and paints and pigments are commonly used for the application of automotive paint. It is well known that in India and worldwide, the automotive segment is affected.

In many fields, the pigments used in inks are important such as printing on foil used by the pharmaceutical industry, food containers and other necessities, so it may be considered that pigments are essential goods. The problem is the domestic and international drop in demand that threatens to affect sales.

The COVID-19 outbreak has affected logistics and transport and has resulted in a pause in China's shipments. In different countries across the globe, the delay has caused an increase in raw material prices to adversely affect the dyes and pigments industry. Compared to 2019, the prices of main dye intermediates are going up more than 30 percent from the average price in the same time frame, which will have a cascading negative impact on the market, such as textiles, printing inks, papers, and other allied sectors, before COVID-19 is stored worldwide.

GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES FOR THE DYES AND PIGMENTS INDUSTRY

• To counter this issue, the chemical industry has responded by mass-producing cost-effective hygiene and cleanliness maintenance solutions for domestic and industrial applications in the form of soaps, detergents and sanitizers. It encourages the production of vaccines, medicines and drugs developed by the pharmaceutical industry, for instance, API. There is now an effort to become self-sufficient for drug intermediates and KSM by the government and industry together.
• The chemical MSME sector seeks emergency relief measures from the government. In terms of partially waivering fixed energy charges, encouraging workers' payment of salaries and interest subsidies, relaxing bad credit standards, halting repayments of MSME loans or extending tenures, carrying out SOPS to locally generated MSMEs (Promote Make In India Program).
• While refocusing on immediate needs, the government can cut or postpone less significant expenditures. Government may consider Direct Benefit Transfers (DBTs) especially to those MSMEs that have considerable human capital to see through the next few months. SIDBI can make the terms of its bank loan credit guarantee even more favourable to MSMEs. Of the government, perhaps it will absorb the initial loss of MSME loan instalments, giving their cash flows a breather. The government for each of its agencies and PSUs should be required to pay bills immediately, including at state level, to ensure liquidity for the private sector, in particular for MSMEs.

CONCLUSION

In the market for dyes and pigments, the effect varied from product to product. Permanence and stability are desirable properties for industrial applications, as well as in the arts. Fugitives are called pigments that are not permanent. Over time, or with exposure to light, fugitive pigments fade while some gradually blacken. For paint, ink, plastic, cloth, cosmetics, food and other products, pigments are used for colouring. The majority of pigments used in production and the visual arts are dry dyes, typically ground into a fine powder. This powder is applied to a binder (or vehicle) for use in paint, a relatively neutral or colourless substance that suspends the pigment and gives adhesion to the paint. There is generally a distinction between a pigment that is insoluble in its vehicle (resulting in a suspension) and a colourant that is either liquid in itself or soluble in its vehicle (resulting in a solution). Depending on the vehicle involved, a colourant may act as either a pigment or a dye. In certain cases, by precipitating a soluble dye with a metallic salt, a pigment may be formed from a colourant. The pigment that results is called a lake pigment. For all coloured compounds, the term biological pigment is used regardless of their solubility.