Borouge and Falco promotes sustainable PE piping solution for Sri Lankan water industry

From left: Farida Lukmanjee – Director, Falco International Trading; Eng. R.H. Ruvinis - General Manager, National Water Supply and Drainage Board; Shakir Lukmanjee - Managing Director, Falco International Trading; Gyanendra Shukla - Regional Market Development Manager (Infrastructure), Borouge;  Prashant Nikhade - Application Development Engineer (Infrastructure), Borouge; and Chanchal Dasgupta - Application Marketing Manager (Infrastructure), Borouge

From left: Prashant Nikhade, Application Development Engineer (Infrastructure) Borouge; Shakir Lukmanjee - Managing Director, Falco International Trading; Eng. R.H. Ruvinis - General Manager, National Water Supply and Drainage Board; Gyanendra Shukla - Regional Market Development Manager (Infrastructure), Borouge; and Chanchal Dasgupta - Application Marketing Manager (Infrastructure), Borouge

Borouge, a leading petrochemicals company and joint venture between the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and Austria-based Borealis, jointly organised a seminar with its exclusive agent and associate in Sri Lanka, Falco International Trading Ltd. for water industry stakeholders. 

The seminar was held at the Horizon Room of the Moult Lavinia Hotel on Tuesday. The event was well represented by all leading value chain members of the Sri Lanka pipe industry.

Borouge provides innovative, sustainable and value creating plastics solutions for infrastructure (pipe systems and power and communication cables), automotive and advanced packaging applications that address global challenges such as climate change, food protection, access to fresh water, energy conservation, healthcare and waste management. With its base in the United Arab Emirates and marketing and sales head office in Singapore, Borouge employs more than 3,000 people representing over 40 nationalities and serves customers in 50 countries across the Middle East, Asia and Africa. 

Falco International Trading Ltd, established in 1995, is an import and export trading company and acts as an agent and manufacturer’s representative for industrial raw materials for the plastics, rubber, tyre and flexible packaging film industries. Falco also does consultancy work for a number of industries including the water sector. Falco has developed a strong reputation within the Sri Lankan market as a reliable supplier of raw materials to key local industries.

Falco international Trading Ltd. Managing Director Shakir Lukmanjee welcomed the gathering and stated that Borouge had been nurturing the Sri Lankan polymer market since 2001. In the infrastructure sector, it regularly interacts with not only pipe customers but also the Sri Lanka Standards Institution and the National Water Supply and Drainage Board to upgrade the standard and established best practices of piping raw material, pipe manufacturing, welding and installation for a long and trouble-free life for water infrastructure. The value chain seminar is one more effort in that direction.

Borouge Regional Market Development Manager (Infrastructure) Gyanendra Shukla has been visiting Sri Lanka for over 10 years and propagating the use of Black HDPE pipes manufactured using genuine HDPE PE100 resin. Shukla said that Borouge had made a continuous effort to introduce best practices within the piping industry so that water infrastructure provides a 50-100-year maintenance-free lifetime. He complimented the Sri Lanka Standards Institution and the National Water Supply and Drainage Board for introducing a PE pipe benchmark in line with international standards but also cautioned that this needed to be implemented in letter and spirit by all stakeholders.

National Water Supply and Drainage Board General Manager Eng. R. H. Ruvinis graced the occasion and expressed his appreciation for Borouge’s efforts. Ruvinis spoke to the audience about the efforts of the National Water Supply and Drainage Board to improve specification and introduce modern practices to the Sri Lankan water network. He stressed the need to make fittings and accessories locally available and for regular training sessions to update the knowledge of all stakeholders.

Borouge Application Marketing Manager (Infrastructure) Chanchal Dasgupta deliberated on the nuances of the Sri Lanka HDPE pipe standard, which despite specifying readymade PE compounds has not been fully implemented. As a result, for many projects, natural PE with blue masterbatch is used, which regularly impacts the service life of the pipe. 

Dasgupta also highlighted the advantages of Black PE100 pipes over Blue PE100 pipes, which are specified by the National Water Supply and Drainage Board. He suggested that the National Water Supply and Drainage Board adopt Black PE100 in line with most developed countries. Borouge Application Development Engineer/Technical Service Manager (Infr-astructure) Prashant Nikhade underscored the importance of having an integrated specification on raw materials, pipe, jointing, welding and installation as a lapse in any of the stages may jeopardise the piping system. He discussed the various design guidelines of PE pipes, which are completely different from metal pipes. He stressed the need for welder certification for the PE pipe industry’s growth and development.

Borouge, with its capacity expansion to 4.5 million tonnes of polyethylene and polypropylene, is focused on its company mission - value creation through innovation and people - and ensures that its customers and end users throughout the value chain, around the world, can rely on differentiated products and supply.

Borouge is committed to the principles of sustainability and is a signatory to the chemical industry’s Responsible Care® Global Charter. Together with Borealis, Borouge is proactively addressing the world’s water and sanitation challenges through the Water for the World™ initiative.

Pix by Shehan Gunasekara