VINACHEM

Europe’s chemicals industry needs to be quicker in pivoting towards new ways of operating if it is to survive.

Brenntag Specialties vice president for EMEA Sanja Magdeburg said this following the panel she chaired at this year’s European Petrochemicals Association (EPCA) conference in Berlin this year.

A key theme discussed by panellists was one of trust, and how to establish this between regulators and businesses.

“Europe’s strengths are innovation, knowledge and quality. We need to find new ways of producing, new higher-value products and need to go for new value-streams like circular-economy,” said Magdeburg.

“But this all needs political support as well as support from consumers. I hope that this is something Europe would jump on, but we will need to be quick, as we know how quick other countries can jump on business opportunities.”

While Magdeburg said sentiment at the conference was not optimistic, there also was no sign of panic either.

“We have been in this situation for a few years now. We have survived some crises recently and there’s possibly more to come,” she said.

“There’s not panic, but there is a fear that the crises is longer than expected and we do not know when it will turn.”

Although some specialty applications, like nutritional or pharmaceutical products were experiencing some more resilience, Magdeburg said ultimately the industry is in the same boat.

Looking ahead, Magdeburg said that there would be a trend towards a higher volume of imports, especially on commodities, due to the widespread closures upstream and the pressures on infrastructure as it is today.

It is because of this pressure that European producers need to look at a different way of doing business, with support from regulators and an emphasis on speed, he added.

While the Action Plan for the Chemicals Industry was rolled out earlier this year, this in itself was not enough to stop further closures in the recent months.

Again, one of the strengths of the continent – particularly for distributors – was the need to think of Europe as one region.

The need for cross border supply chain planning is essential for harnessing the interconnectivity unlocked by membership in the EU, Magdeburg explained.

“The benefit in the EU is that we have all these open borders, so we should all stand in for making this the future.”

While there are benefits to being in the EU, this can be a double-edged sword for distributors, due to the discrepancies between individual member states, her said.

“It is our function as distributors, but there is a high workload behind it, and so having easier and more aligned systems would really help.”