Construction Chemicals International Seminar branded C3 was held in Bengaluru on 2nd and 3rd June 2016 at Grand Venue NIMHANS and was well attended by about 400 Delegates. C3 – an unique seminar covering effective use of construction chemicals for enduring structures in the field of construction chemicals was inaugurated by distinguished Chief Guest Prof. B.R. Srinivasa Murthy, Chairman, Taskforce, Quality Assurance in Public works, Govt of Karnataka and Raj Pillai, Executive Director of Sobha Group was the keynote speaker.
In a glittering inaugural session Mr. Samir Surlaker, President CCMA-Construction Chemicals Manufacturers Association, welcomed all and invited delegates to play an interactive role. Prof. B.R. Srinivasa Murthy, in his inaugural address, exposed the audience as well as CCMA members to tremendous growth of construction chemicals in India. He expressed the need for more interaction of construction chemicals manufacturers with other professionals to solve problem in civil engineering. Raj Pillai, explained the usage of Construction Chemicals in Precast Structures and invited CCMA to participate actively in the technological development. Nilotpol Kar, BASF introduced CCMA activities and ‘three decades journey of construction chemicals’ and convenors Jaswanth Sobhana of BASF and Soumendra Mishra of Sika, proposed vote of thanks.
C3 was addressed by many international speakers from Sika, BASF, MC-Bauchemie, CHRYSO, Elkem etc. Construction Chemicals experts from National companies like Cerachem, STP, Apple Chemie, McCoy Soudal, Ardex Endura, etc. made excellent presentations. Dr. Radhakrishna from IIT Chennai covered Corrosion Inhibitors. The sessions were chaired by industry experts like Dr. Manmohan Kalgal- Chairman, A.T. Samuel, Umesh B. Rao, Dr. Ramaprakash, Ramesh Kulkarni, and Chandramouleeswar. In all 26 papers were presented which really benefitted the participants.
M.L.Chandrashekar,  Associate Vice President,  McCoy Soudal Sealants Adhesives & Foams Pvt. Ltd. Spoke about the ‘Benefits of Foam Application in Construction’. Expanding foam insulation is infused into empty space to stop the air from leaking through the walls. This type of insulation has benefits over other traditional insulation. The main component of this expanding foam insulation is foam and because of their very low density, these foams are very good insulators.
Late K.P. Pradeep, Editor-in-chief, The Masterbuilder, Convenor with Jaswant from BASF and Soumendra from Sika were the cause of excellent management of seminar and technical contents. The seminar was in association with Indian Concrete Institute and Association of Consulting Civil Engineers (India). Four guests of Honour were felicitated for their support viz Dr. Manmohan Kalgal- President of ICI, Ajit Sabnis– President of ACCE, Jayasankar- VP (South) ICI and Mr. Umesh Rao – General Secretary of ACCE. Their unstinted support made the seminar a grand success.
CCMA is now over 60 members strong association representing 80 per cent of revenue in a very short time construction chemicals manufacturers collaborating jointly to promote cause of spreading awareness and to focus on right use of right chemicals. CCMA aims at standardizing and marking construction chemicals products to give confidence to end users and construction Industry. As per feed backs from end users, they will introduce training programmes to build up skills of applicators, which is a key to success of any waterproofing and protection systems. Five regional seminars C3R are planned next year.
Not resting on laurels. CCMA plans further seminars all over India. A Hand Book on Admixtures is in final stages on the right usage in collaboration with Indian concrete institute. Attempts are already on way to introduce the technical topics in the academic syllabi. Training programmes are in advance stages of design. With all this holistic approach, the industry is confident of growing from present revenue of about Rs. 5000 crores to Rs. 9000 crores in next Five years. This is absolutely possible considering the large gap in demand and supply. This growth is totally depended on Government accepting construction chemicals as recognized industry and backs us with incentives and rationalization of Government taxes, duties and levies. C3 was a grand success as per feedback from participants. Next C3 is scheduled in February 2017.