The country has been losing around Rs 1.52 lakh crore every year owing to corrosion in various sectors, including infrastructure, utility services, production & manufacturing, and defence & nuclear waste.

According to National Metallurgical Laboratory (NML) director SP Mehrotra, the figure of Rs 1.07 lakh crore given out by NACE International recently excluded corrosion losses being incurred by the country’s small & medium enterprises (SMEs)engaged both in manufacturing and utility services sectors. Conservatively estimated corrosion losses for this sector was another Rs 40,000-45,000 crore per annum.

“Corrosion is playing a very major role and is unfortunately going unnoticed,” said the NML director. He said the country, like some advanced ones, needed to take urgent steps to reduce corrosion losses.

He said it is necessary to have a reasonable understanding of corrosion and find ways to detect, reduce or delay it. Corrosion takes place under varied conditions (high-pressure, high temperature-high pressure, normal atmospheric pressure).

NACE International is a professional technical society dedicated to protecting the environment and reducing the economic impact of corrosion through engineering and science. According to the body, sector-wise losses incurred by Indian industry annually owing to corrosion are infrastructure Rs 22,600 crore; utility services Rs 47,000 crore; production & manufacturing Rs 17,650 crore; and defence & nuclear waste Rs 20,000 crore.

Mehrotra, at the inauguration here on Wednesday of a three-day training programme on industrial corrosion organised by NML, said the total loss owing to corrosion was Rs 1.52 lakh crore.

“Though the figures appear to be large, they are very reasonable. In countries such as Japan and the US, corrosion losses are estimated to be about 3% of their respective GDPs”, said the NML director. He said around half of India’s corrosion losses, amounting to between Rs 75,000 crore and Rs 80,000 crore, could be saved annually by proper monitoring, timely evaluation and mitigation provisions.

The problem of corrosion is likely to worsen in the country, with almost exponential growth being experienced by most sectors, especially in sectors like power, petrochemicals, railways, automobiles, etc.

IOC general manager, Haldia Refinery, M Vijay Wargiya, said corrosion had “a vital impact on the bottom line of industry” as damage owing to corrosion often resulted in an increase in maintenance cost, lower reliability of equipment, loss of production and poor product quality.

According to Wargiya, the impact of corrosion could be significantly reduced by good design, proper selection of material, use of correct production methods and stringent quality assurance both during construction of a plant and after.

Around 45 delegates from various organisations, such as Gujarat Refineries, Nagarjuna Fertilizers, IIFCO, NPCIL, Sandvik Asia, BARC, IOC, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd, NTPC, ONGC, HPCL, Tata Power, BOC, Mecon, Tata Steel, etc are participating at NML’s training programme.