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WHAT CORONA TELLS US OPINION • DOROTHEE ARNS, FECC’S DIRECTOR GENERAL, TAKES A LOOK AT WHAT WE’VE LEARNED SO FAR AS A RESULT OF THE COVID-19 CRISIS AND HOW DISTRIBUTORS HAVE RESPONDED SPRING 2020 WAS a very challenging time for chemical distributors. Like all other players in the chemical value chain and beyond we were confronted with unprecedented political and supply chain dynamics, while in parallel coping with a simultaneous global supply and demand shock. Fortunately, the overwhelming majority of the member companies of the European
Association of Chemical Distributors (Fecc) all over Europe stayed fully operational over the past months and without infections. As we are all adapting to the ‘new normal’ now, lessons learned from the Corona crisis and mid-/long-term perspectives for the chemical value chain enter the picture again. Especially in our business sector, diverse
product portfolios, thorough market know-how, supply chain excellence and the agility to respond quickly to emerging challenges and dynamic situations are key to success. This has helped us greatly to weather the storm. Nevertheless, the Covid-19 crisis can be seen as a sort of magnifying glass, which brought several aspects to the forefront of attention, which actually had already emerged beforehand - just in a more subtle way. In particular, this applies to diversification, digitisation and free trade. DIVERSIFICATION IS STRENGTH The full impact of economic lockdown measures on our sector will become fully visible only in the course of the next months, and presumably the picture will be as diverse as the distribution sector itself is. Usually, distributors serve a broad portfolio of applications, which is now particularly beneficial when it comes to balancing out lacking demand in segments such as automotive, construction or textiles with an over-proportionally high demand for pharmaceutical substances and disinfectants. In the absence of a remedy against Covid-19 the latter trend is expected to hold for the foreseeable future, whereas activities in almost all other segments are starting to resume slowly. Moreover, diversification in supply sources, logistics channels and packaging material helped to mitigate the Covid-19 impact on companies, when global supply chains were disrupted and many – even intra-EU borders closed with almost no lead time. DIGITISATION IS AN ASSET The pandemic has also showcased the value of digital solutions. Not only does this apply to home offices and virtual team meetings, but also to integrated digital supply chain solutions, which enable the quick, always-upto-date, reliable, flexible and contactless
DOROTHEE ARNS (LEFT): COVID-19 HAS HIGHLIGHTED SOME IMPORTANT TRENDS IN DISTRIBUTION
HCB MONTHLY | JUNE 2020
