By Faiza Tehseen ISLAMABAD, Feb. 28 (INP-WealthPK): Sulphuric acid production in Pakistan is controlled and the country only produces the quantities needed to meet its local industrial demand. The quantities exported are thus negligible. As such, the chemicals manufacturers body has urged the government to allow them to increase its production under strict official supervision so that the product could be exported in large quantities for earning the much-needed foreign exchange. Arslan Nadeem, the assistant manager of Pakistan Chemicals Manufacturers Association, told INP-WealthPK that it is important to increase the industry size of sulphuric acid in Pakistan strictly under the government’s supervision. He said that as sulphuric acid manufacturers strictly abide by rules and regulations, the government should allow more legal quotas to them to not only meet the local market demand, but also help the government earn foreign exchange through its exports. In Pakistan, at least 14 industrial units are producing sulphuric acid. The manufacturers are bound to produce the commodity in specific licensed quantity and sell it to the licensed buyers only as sulphuric acid is highly explosive chemical to handle and transport. That’s why the government issues its licences at limited scale to prevent any severe incident. Sulphuric acid is a sensitive and very reactive inorganic chemical which oxidises, dehydrates or sulfonates most of the organic compounds and often causes charring. Sulphuric acid is abundantly used in many industries like manufacturing of phosphate fertilisers, lead acid batteries, treating cotton seeds, pesticide production, a variety of organic chemicals like nitric acid, hydrochloric acid; dyes and pigments, tanneries, lacquers, plastics, explosives, oil refining and textiles. It is generally marketed with 98% concentration. Sulphuric acid is one of the first largest volume industrial chemicals to be produced in large amounts through industrial processes globally. Pakistan is almost self-sufficient in production of inorganic compounds such as sulphuric acid, which is called the king of chemicals. However, tough government regulations in terms of usage, manufacturing and fluctuating raw material prices are the hurdles to increasing its production. The raw material most generally used to produce sulphuric acid is sulphur, which is found in abundance in Pakistan. In 2021, global production of sulphuric acid was recorded at 259.62 million tonnes, which is expected to reach 294.67 million tonnes by 2026 at the compound growth rate of 4.4%. In the fiscal year 2020-21, Pakistan mined 14,920 million tonnes of Sulphur, showing a negative growth of -1.10% from the previous fiscal year (2019-20) when total of 20,715 million tonnes were mined. According to the United Nations COMTRADE data, Pakistan exported salt, sulphur, earth, stone, plaster, lime and cement worth $423.04 million in 2020. Pakistan’s sulphuric acid-oleum exports under HS code 2807 decreased to $22,388 million during the year 2020 from $30,147 million in 2019. During the fiscal year 2020-21, there could not be any notable change concerning the increase in trade volume of Sulphuric Acid; Oleum. In 2019, sulphuric acid-oleum was the most traded product globally ranking at 1,549th position. The major producers of sulphuric acid are Germany, Spain, France, Belgium and Italy. These countries account for 70% of the total European production. Key importers of sulphuric acid are the United States, Chile, Democratic Republic of Congo, Morocco and India.