Water. Desalination + reuse
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/1085636
DuPont Water Solutions is preparing to be separated out from the mega-firm Dow DuPont as part of the new DuPont company in June 2019. Global vice president and general manager HP Nanda explains why expectations are favourable H ara Prasad Nanda - or HP as he is known - is as bullish as you'd expect of a vice president about his business's outlook. The mechanical engineer-turned-business leader was appointed global vice president and general manager of DuPont Water Solutions in January 2018. The business forms part of the Safety & Construction segment within DowDuPont's Spe - cialty Products division (see graphic p10). The mega-size DowDuPont was created through the merger of Dow Chem- ical and DuPont on 31 August 2017. The group reported $86 billion of annual revenue in 2018. Nanda will this year steer the water business through the group's upcoming separation into three companies. The Materials Science division will be spun out to form new company Dow on 1 April 2019. On 1 June, new firm Corteva Agriscience will be created by separating out the Agriculture division. And the remaining business named Specialty Products - which includes Water Solutions - will become DuPont. GDP-plus growth Nanda has worked for DuPont for 21 years. He joined the company is his home country of India in 1998, and moved with the business to Taipei, Taiwan. Then came senior roles at DuPont's then $600 million Asia Pacific business in Shanghai, China, in 2008, before a move to the US in 2015. Nanda's knowledge of company culture will undoubt - edly be useful in guiding the business through the change that lies ahead. The challenge, as in any business transformation, will be to maintain performance amidst the structural over - haul. The figures for 2018 tell a good story, Nanda says. Business is growing at 1.5 to 2 per cent above annual increases in gross domestic product (GDP) in each of Water Solutions' regional markets. The GDP growth works out roughly as follows, according to World Bank data China 6.5 per cent, South East Asia approximately 6.3 per cent, India 7.3 per cent, and Middle East and Africa approximately 2 to 3 per cent. The water businesses' implied growth is there - fore 1.5 to 2 per cent above these levels in each market. Nanda says that these healthy regional growth rates result from "the global mega-trends that are supporting the demand for our solutions". These mega-trends are "growing popula- tions, lessening quality of water, constraints on wastewater and the growth of the semi-conductors industry," he adds. Jubail factory DuPont Water Solutions has built a new, large-scale mem- brane manufacturing facility in Jubail, Saudi Arabia, to help keep up with the rising demand. "This is our second big industrial reverse osmosis (RO) membrane manufac- turing plant and the only one outside of the US, where we have our mother plant in Minnesota. The new facility has the same capabilities and quality standards as in the US. We have fabricated RO elements there for two years. We introduced end-to-end membrane production there in December 2018," says Nanda. The Water Solutions portfolio combines parts of the DuPont and Dow product lines. It includes the Dow Filmtec Fortilife reverse osmosis elements and Fortilife XCN ion- separation membranes, Dow ultrafiltration membranes, particle filters and electro-deionisation products. The facility will begin full commercial production of membrane products from late Q1 or Q2 2019. They will be distributed from the Saudi site to markets across the Mid - dle East, Africa, South East Asia including Singapore and Indonesia, India and China. The new plant is intended to reduce lead-times on membrane products which have sometimes "been longer-than-expected," says Nanda. "We want to go where the growth is. We want to be closer to our March 2019 Water. desalination + reuse Interview 9 HP Nanda started out as a mechanical engineer in the oil and gas industry, then studied for an MBA, before joining DuPont India in 1998 World regions' GDP growth DuPont Water Solutions' business is growing at 1.5 to 2 per cent above annual rises in gross domestic product (GDP) in the five sub-regions China, South East Asia, India, Middle East and Africa. Source: World Bank global economic prospects January 2019. Estimated GDP growth 2018. 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 -1 -2 GDP growth in 2018 (per cent) TOTAL TOTAL EAST ASIA AND PACIFIC MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA SOUTH ASIA SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA China Indonesia Thailand Saudi Arabia Iran Egypt TOTAL India Pakistan Bangladesh TOTAL Nigeria South Africa Angola