EuroWire November 2018

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In the laboratory, mild steel was immersed for six hours in a corrosion-inducing solution of hydrochloric acid containing concentrations of chitosan/PEG ranging from 50 to 200 mg/l. According to M A Quraishi, author of the paper first published in ChemistrySelect , “[We] studied the precise chemical mechanisms and found that the inhibitor is adsorbed as a thin film on the steel surface. The inhibitor blocks the active sites on steel available for corrosion, thereby mitigating corrosion.” Weight loss studies and electron microscopy imaging showed that, when the concentration of the treated solution was 200 mg/l, a maximum inhibition of 93.9 per cent was achieved. Professor Quraishi pointed out that usually, when steel is treated with anti-corrosive agents, there is a roughening of its surface. But it was discovered that the chitosan-based inhibitor produced no alteration in the surface; in fact, there was significant improvement in surface smoothness. † It might seem fanciful to project an important commercial application for shrimp and crab shells, normally discarded as waste. But, in an increasingly ecology-minded age, the chitosan-based corrosion inhibitor would appear to hold considerable promise. The Ford Focus Active – a crossover-inspired variant featuring a higher ride height, a novel bumper design, and plastic protective strips – was set to arrive in the USA from China in the second half of 2019. But, as reported by Michael Martinez of Automotive News , Ford Motor Co announced it is cancelling plans to import a wagon version of the car from China because tariffs enacted by the Trump administration would cut too heavily into profits. (“Ford Scraps Plan to Import Focus Active Amid US-China Trade War,” 31 st August) Kumar Galhotra, Ford’s president for North America, told reporters on a conference call: “Our viewpoint is that, given the tariffs, our costs would be substantially higher. Our resources could be better deployed at this stage.” The Trump administration had so far slapped 25 per cent tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese goods. Bloomberg reported in late August that the administration was considering a plan to impose further duties ranging from 10 to 25 per cent on $200 billion in Chinese imports as soon as a public-comment period ran out. Ford said it would not reconsider its decision even if the tariffs should eventually be dropped, according to a company spokesman. Mr Martinez noted that the decision will mean the end of the venerable Focus nameplate in the USA. Mr Galhotra said that the impact on the company is expected to be marginal, given its projection of sales of fewer than 50,000 Focus Active units a year in the USA. Automotive The US-China trade war claims an early victim: a Chinese-built Ford will not be coming to America

And higher prices for their materials are not the sole worry for the company’s customer base: it is also being hurt by higher borrowing costs. Many of the small fabricators Priefert sells to are having “issues with paying the higher prices of steel and paying their bills,” said Mr Shipp. Meanwhile, larger producers flourish According to a second executive at the SMU conference, elevated steel prices in the USA compared with the rest of the world are going to compel manufacturers – including some of that company’s larger original equipment manufacturer (OEM) customers – to look overseas in order to stay competitive. John Axelberg, president of General Stamping and Metalworks (South Bend, Indiana), said that, as long as the tariffs remain in place, the elevated spread of US steel prices will stay. Still, the fact that the tariffs have negatively impacted business in the steel industry seemed to take Nucor CEO John Ferriola by surprise. While speaking at the same event, Mr Ferriola observed that, while Nucor is seeing record profits, companies manufacturing steel-intensive products (ie Caterpillar, John Deere, Martin Marietta, Praxair, Fiat Chrysler) also reported record second-quarter 2018 earnings. † “Yes, Nucor is doing well, the steel industry is doing well, but everybody is doing well,” said Mr Ferriola. This rather overstated the case. While speaking, Mr Ferriola was presented with the results of a poll taken among 400 conference attendees, including those associated with steel mills, distributors, manufacturers and traders. It reportedly disclosed a nearly even split between respondents experiencing negative and positive fallout from the tariffs.

† But Mr Ferriola returned his attention quickly to Nucor.

“Our customers are operating at a phenomenal level,” he declared. “We’re selling more steel. They are producing more products. And they are seeing [higher] earnings.”

Gift from the sea: seafood waste is shown by Indian researchers to be a potent inhibitor of steel corrosion

Mild steel in industrial use readily develops rust and the resulting corrosion is a cause of huge economic loss. Chemical corrosion inhibitors are detrimental to the environment, prompting an urgent quest to develop “green” inhibitors. Now, as reported by Aswathi Pacha in The Hindu , the Chennai-based Indian daily, researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), in Varanasi, have successfully produced a chitosan-based corrosion inhibitor that reportedly demonstrates over 90 per cent efficiency. (“Seafood Waste Prevents Steel Corrosion,” 1 st September) Prof Vandana Srivastava from the Department of Chemistry of the institute explained that chitosan is a natural polysaccharide found in the shell of crabs and shrimp, and also in the cell walls of fungi. She said that, as the solubility of chitosan in water is poor, the researchers incorporated it with polyethylene glycol (PEG) to produce a novel PEG-crosslinked chitosan. (She noted that PEG is non-toxic and has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) even for human consumption.)

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November 2018