Pigment is a Russian manufacturer of chemical products, known under the KRATA® trademark. The company has been providing the industry with chemical products for 75 years and is one of the key players in the national chemical industry. Deputy General Director of UK KRATA LLC Oleg Podobryansky in an interview with UpackUnion spoke about the history of the company, its development and new projects.
UpackUnion: Oleg Semenovich, what does your company offer to the industry? What main chemical technologies have you managed to replace for pulp and paper industry? – First of all, I would like to tell you a little about the activities of our company. Tambov "Pigment" is a unique and diversified enterprise, the only one in Russia and the CIS that produces organic pigments , optical brighteners and sulfamic acid . The company's product range includes acrylic dispersions and PVA , additives for concrete , formaldehyde resins and formaldehyde , semi-finished varnishes and finished paints and varnishes , dyes and textile auxiliaries , additives for gasoline - a total of about 400 items of high-quality products. This year Pigment has a big anniversary: 75 years since the start of production. If we talk about the pulp and paper industry, our company began producing optical brighteners back in Soviet times. In recent years, due to sanctions and the withdrawal of large foreign companies from the Russian market, the need for completely different chemicals has arisen. The company's specialists have done a lot of work: a new set of products for paper coating has been created (AKRATAM AS.01.4, dispersant Kratadisp A 45, acrylic thickener HASE 01.1 ), and the product line has been supplemented with new brands of dyes. We continue to expand our range, taking into account the needs of our consumers. In addition to the main products, a number of chemicals are in development. This is a replacement of foreign analogues with domestic products, which include: moisture-resistant resin “KRATARES” , rosin dispersion “KRATAFOL” , AKD glue.
UpackUnion: Which areas of chemical products remain most in demand for the pulp and paper market and require an integrated approach to their development? – Now the company is introducing cationic dispersions to the market under the AKRATAM brand. In addition, we traditionally work in the production of bleaches and are expanding our range. Each plant has its own unique technology, and this requires adapting the product according to additional technical characteristics. When working with consumers, we adhere to an individual approach.
UpackUnion: What are the difficulties? -There are quite a lot of difficulties. We have to develop technologies from scratch, since in Russia, unfortunately, there is no industrial science. In this direction, we involve both Russian experts and consumers to some extent. The bulk of knowledge now comes from abroad, so we also take into account the trend toward Indian and Chinese companies. UpackUnion: What brighteners do you produce for paper? In what volumes? To what extent does this production meet the needs of domestic paper producing enterprises? -We have been producing bleaches for 45 years; we started working in 1984. Of course, since that time our product range has changed significantly; we had to adapt it to new technological lines and new customer needs. Today, Pigment works with all bleach manufacturers, increases competitiveness and increases its presence in the market. Thus, in 2023 the company took a share of 95% of the Russian market. If we continue to talk about numbers, then our production capacity is 10 thousand tons per year. The demand of the Russian market last year was 6.5 thousand tons, we fully provided it. Our plans are to actively develop exports within this product area. We already have first contacts with foreign consumers. Not long ago we sent a trial batch of products for export. UpackUnion: Tell us about cooperation with other companies in the industry. What projects are you implementing together? – I would like to note that until 2022, Russian manufacturers were treated with distrust, believing that Western production was better. This is due to the fact that large companies often have foreign owners, which is why there was an intention to work only with Western partners. Our company already began to use the best industry practices, including providing technical support, supplying equipment, and offering comprehensive solutions. And as a result, all the work that we carried out until 2022 subsequently turned out to be in demand. As you know, all the main supplies came from Europe, and when foreign companies left, pulp and paper manufacturers turned their faces to us, and we tried to use this to the maximum. If we talk about the projects in more detail, then, for example, we supplied equipment and serviced the dosing stations of SLPK and APPM, as well as other large enterprises. UpackUnion: What chemical products does your company plan to develop for pulp and paper enterprises in 2024 and 2025? What are your plans to improve your products in this area?
– The name of the Pigment company is well known in the market. Everything we produce is used not only in large industrial enterprises, but also in small and medium-sized businesses. In addition to the localization of chemical production, other industries have begun to localize production to which we can potentially supply. We are talking, first of all, about flexographic inks, which were traditionally imported to Russia. These are mainly pigments and dispersions, which we also produce. Thus, in 2024-2025, we plan to replace products in these areas for current and potential consumers. Last year we developed pigments for introductory paints, this year we plan to complete the launch of pigments for solvent-based paints on the market, and we also have a new project on dispersions coming up.
UpackUnion: Industrial enterprises are actively mastering new technologies and competencies in the development of import-substituting chemical products. What training and research centers does the company interact with to develop these competencies? – We actively work with institutions not only in terms of technology, but also in terms of personnel. We closely cooperate with Tambov Technical State University, Tambov State University named after. G.R. Derzhavin, as well as with Ivanovo State University. If we take the pulp and paper industry, we cooperate with the KRONA Institute in terms of training our employees. Before the sanctions restrictions, we actively attracted experts from European countries. Now the trend has shifted, and we have begun to actively focus on specialists from India and China, both in terms of product development, technology, equipment, and implementation. Today this work is actively underway. UpackUnion: How do you solve the problem of personnel shortage? How do you attract employees to work? -This problem began to be solved much earlier. Since 2010, the company has been actively working to overcome personnel shortages. We understand that specialists need to not only be “attracted,” but also trained and adapted into the team. For this purpose, we have developed a 5-step personnel development program. The created system involves a continuous process of building individual development vectors for employees, starting from adaptation measures and an individual plan for taking up a position, a set of educational programs, the formation of corporate competencies, and professional skills. Pigment works closely with educational institutions. The company takes part in job fairs, conducts excursions at the enterprise, organizes a scholarship program, and also implements a network form of education together with universities. In short, we are ready to hire young specialists and help them become professionals. I would like to note that this practice of working with personnel was noted as one of the best among industrial enterprises based on the results of 2023. UpackUnion: Tell us about the company’s participation in international exhibitions and conferences.
– Considering that our activities are very diverse, we have to take part in many exhibitions. We carry out this work monthly: from January to December. Among the founded ones we can note: “Ruplastika”, “Interlakokraska”, “Interfabric”, “Rosupak”, “Chemistry”, “Palp-for”. We also take part in foreign exhibitions. As part of this issue, I would like to announce one of the key events of this year. This year we are working on organizing a scientific and practical conference “Chemistry for Pulp and Paper Industry-2024”, which will be held on April 17-18, 2024 at our enterprise. The main goal of the event is to increase the efficiency of interaction with our partners. The main tasks are familiarization with the company’s production site, approach to quality in product release, presentation of the production range, solutions from Pigment JSC for import substitution in 2023-2024. in the paper direction. Participants: technical specialists, heads of laboratories, chief technologists of paper production.
UpackUnion: How does the state support industrial business today? What is missing for active growth? – With the transition to the paradigm of technological sovereignty, the state’s approaches to business support have changed. The company actively enjoys government support and implements large investment projects. In 2022, more than 1 billion rubles were allocated for the development of Pigment. In 2023, the volume will double. On our anniversary, we plan to invest more than 3 billion rubles in the company. I would like to note that we took part of the loans with the support of the state, through the industrial development fund, as well as a preferential loan. The state supports export and import operations. This consists of preferential loans for the purchase of imports and subsidies for transport, but, unfortunately, as we understand, transport will no longer be supported from this year. This will be a negative signal for exports. The state supports R&D, which we also actively use. What's missing in terms of support? Firstly, changes in tariff and customs policy. Unfortunately, there is a paradoxical situation when there are duties on raw materials that are not and will not be made in Russia (for example, the same pigments), but there are no duties on the pigments themselves. It turns out that we are in non-competitive conditions with foreign companies. Secondly, I would like to note that there is not enough support from the state in terms of exports.
(Source: https://upackunion.ru/novosti/pigment-75-let-vysokogo-kachestva-i-ustojchivogo-razvitiya/ )