Besides the huge human impact of Covid-19, there is also a lot of discussion about its impact on the global economy. From bottlenecks in logistics and plant shutdowns to downturns in business investments and consumer spending.
With today’s blog article we are trying to evaluate the effect of Covid-19 on the chemical industry in these difficult times.
Not only the epicenters of the epidemic are economically affected.
China, EU and the US, the three regions affected most by Covid-19, are also the biggest chemical manufacturing regions. They account for more than 66% of the world’s chemical sales.[1]
The current crisis forces many factories to drastically reduce or even stop their production lines. And this is happening due to very different reasons: production may be reduced or closed due to a lack of workforce, employees are sick or in quarantine. It may be a company decision to protect the workforce, thus a protective measure. Or, it can happen because production capacities of suppliers have also been reduced and raw materials for production are becoming increasingly scarce in the market.
The reduced rates or stoppages in many facilities will continue to impact the global supply market, also in those countries which might (still) be less affected by the virus. Looking at the past experiences made in China, restrictions linked to the Covid-19 outbreak have caused China’s chemical industry to suffer a 15-25% slump in demand during February.[2]
Most probably, not only chemical production itself will be affected, but restrictions in transportation may aggravate the issue by hindering imports/exports and by limiting the servicing of domestic customers.
In response to this, the German Chemical Industry Association VCI (Verband der Chemischen Industrie) cutted the production forecast for 2020 on early March and stated that they are not expecting the situation to improve in the first half of 2020. [3]
How is the chemical industry coping with the crisis?
The chemical sector is of critical infrastructure, and currently also in the center of all efforts to combat Covid-19. Chemicals are used in countless products that will be needed to support good hygiene and treat those who are infected with Covid-19 in the upcoming weeks and months.
The global chemical industry is stepping up to battle Covid-19 outbreak with a massive focus on the production of key raw materials for hand sanitizers and other disinfectants, as well as for the Covid-19 Test kits.
This leads to the split effect that while in some industry segments the demand has dropped, others even had a boom in requests and sales, such as disinfectants and raw materials, materials to produce packaging, medical supplies, protective equipment, lab supplies and raw materials for the pharmaceutical companies.
How we evaluate the situation
In the graphic below we simplified our expectations for the development of chemical sectors that might be affected, based on a precise research. On the Y-Axis you find the profitability impact, clustered by low, medium and high impact.[4]
We are expecting low impact in essential industries like food, cleaning products (disinfectants), water treatment.
For the plastics and rubber industries we are expecting a mediate impact, since the demand due to masks and gloves and other protection materials increased, but this is unlikely to match the previous industrial demand.
In the category of high impact, you can find industries that have lower priority so they are most likely to stop the manufacturing processes.
On the rise: the demand for polymers, disinfectants, reagents and medical gases will increase
We expect the demand for Polymers, Disinfectants, Reagants and Medical Gases to increase throughout the crisis. The answer to ”why?” you will find in the following paragraphs.
Polymers
Polypropylene (PP) are used to produce for key personal protective equipment such as face masks, surgical gowns and antibacterial wipes
Polyethylene (PE) is extensively used for food and equipment packaging
Polycarbonate (PC) and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) for clear protective screens
Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), used in the medical sector to produce medical tubing, blood and intravenous bags, pipes and vinyl siding and sometimes also for medical glove production.
Latex/Nitrile Rubber for medical glove production
Disinfectants
Alcohol for disinfectants: IPA, Ethanol, n-propanol
Hydrogen peroxide disinfection of medical instruments
Hypochlorite solutions for disinfectants and surfactants for soaps and other cleaning products
Others
Raw materials, such as glycerin, gelling agents such as carbomer, preservatives, biocides and plasticizers
Reagents and chemicals used for COVID-19 testing
Chemicals for RNA extraction: such as Tris, EDTA, chloride salts, TRIzol and raw materials for PBS solution, TE Buffer, and Lysis Buffer and other
Chemicals virus transportation media, such as: chloride salts, D-Glucose, Gentamicin sulfate, magnesium sulfate and other
Medical gases
As Covid-19 can affect the respiratory system, the demand for oxygen gas and medicinal gas mixture has increased with the number of patients being treated with supplemental oxygen via masks
Which solutions are the industry proposing?
In times where supply and demand tend to get out of balance, the right matchmaking is an essential success factor for the industry to be able to operate. On CheMondis we have established separate areas on the marketplace that service particularly the need for disinfectants and testing materials (RNA extraction and virus transportation media).
The large need for disinfectants has also affected chemical regulations. To increase the manufacturing and supply of disinfectants on the European market, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) is supporting EU/EEA authorities to apply derogations from the normal authorization requirement for biocidal products.
Companies looking to quickly access the market with their disinfectants that contain an already approved active substance can apply for time-limited derogations from the standard product authorization requirements in situations where there is a threat to public health. [5]
In a nutshell
The chemical industry is affected in various ways by Covid-19. Some segments will be severely affected, while others will almost boom. In order to ensure the health of humanity, the entire chemical industry is working at full speed to combat supply bottlenecks and difficulties in the value chain.
Now it is up to you
What are your first experiences with the current crises? Do you have the same experience on the future like we have? Leave a comment below and let us know.
Thanks for taking the time to read the CheMondis Blog.
[1] The European Chemical Industry. (2020). Facts & Figures of the European chemical industry. [2] Independent Commodity Intelligence Services. (2020). Petrochemicals to recover slowly after the coronavirus outbreak. [3] Reuters. (2020): Germany’s chemical association cuts production forecast due to coronavirus. [4] Roland Berger. (2020): Latest update of our corona economic impact series. [5] ECHA. (2020). Speeding up the supply of disinfectants.
We care about the well-being and health of our team, all their loved ones and society as a whole. The current corona crisis is demanding all of us to go new ways. Already last week Monday, we closed our office and started working from home. We are deciding week by week on how to progress in this unusual times.
Luckily, our technical set-up and working culture have always allowed us to work from home. So from the moment that the decision was taken, the “how” was very clear to us. With today’s blog article we want to give you some insights in how we practice remote working (+ what it actually is) and hope that you might find one or two ideas which will help you in carrying on business as usual, as much as possible in these times, as well. Enjoy the read!
Of course, for our customers, nothing changes. You can contact us anytime by phone, e-mail, our chat or via our social media channels if you have any questions or need support.
“Remote work” – A new buzzword in society?
We’d like to kick off with clarifying briefly the differences between “remote work” and “home office” as these two are currently on everyone’s lips. Remote work is a working model that allows employees to work from wherever they like. This means, they are not tied to a specific work location (the company’s office), but can decide from where they want to do their work. In this case, it does not matter whether it is someone’s home, their favorite café, or even an exotic island. This shows that home-office is one possible alternative for a place of remote working.
Advantages of an alternative working model are a higher flexibility, with a better balance between family and career and those who like to travel can work from every time zone.
As many of us will be staying in our home offices for the next couple of weeks and traveling can currently not be recommended, we will talk about working from home rather than working remotely in any other location in the course of this article.
One of the biggest misunderstandings in context of remote work is that we all just sit around in our pyjamas, searching for a new series on Netflix and doing our laundry. But how did this image get into the minds of so many people? Maybe it comes from the idea that if you can’t see someone physically working, how can you be sure that they’re working?
Fortunately, faith in humanity is not yet lost. Studies after studies have shown that employees, working in home-office are more productive than the employees who come to the office. For example, a Harvard Business School study measured employee productivity of employees at the US Patent Office who were allowed to work from anywhere. The results were very clear: employees allowed to work from anywhere were 4.4% more productive than their “in-office” counterparts. The increase of 4.4% of employee productivity represents up to $1.3 billion of annual value added to the U.S. economy.[1] This, of course, is a general observation, which largely depends on the function and job description the individual is fulfilling.
We will be able to see the effect on the European market soon. By end of this year more studies, maybe jobs where you thought it would be impossible to work remotely will experience the breakthrough. It seems like a chance to reinvent the world of work all around the globe.
Remote working at CheMondis: how we structure our working days
CheMondis is a young and technically advanced company. This means that everyone is equipped with all the technical necessities to be able to work from home. In theory.
A well-structured and functional home office is an obvious choice for people working primarily individually. Many essential things can be done within your own four walls, the strict local ties are actually eliminated.
As we are organizing our work by the SCRUM methodology, frequent discussions are the crucial basis of our daily work. And this is the point where working from home becomes more tricky. It is essential for us to have the right tools at hand to structure and plan our work accordingly. In order to be effective, we depend on perfectly functioning communication tools.
For different purposes of alignment, we are using different tools, which you can read below. A crucial success factor is that anyone needs to have access to all of these tools at any point in time.
Our working routines
But for many of us, it is not the organizational part or digital infrastructure, which are tough. It’s more to get used to a new kind of routine. For example, spending a large part of your day alone at home instead of around your co-workers in the company’s office. Or trying to focus during a call with your kids running around bored, asking you to play with them. We asked some of our team members, who have spent already some experience in practicing remote working for some practical tips.
1.) Find a proper place to work
The choice of a proper working place is essential for your productivity. It would be ideal to find a place in the house or apartment that feels at least like a separate space – like “heading to work”. This will help you at the end of the day to mentally disconnect from your work. Make sure that the light conditions are good for your eyes and the seating is good for your back. And, ideally, that you can close a door when you have an important call.
2.) More is more when it comes to communication
A major obstacle in exclusively virtual communication via e-mail and chat programs is that the body language is completely missing. According to studies, 93% of communication takes place non-verbally, which includes eye contact, gestures, facial expressions, and accentuation.[1] For successful virtual communication, this 93% must be compensated somehow to prevent any miscommunication.
A couple of tips which might help: Inform your colleagues when you’re really busy with something and can’t respond right away. When it comes to meetings and the need to have a discussion with someone it always helps to set up a brief video chat. We really recommend you to keep the video running during the conversation. Why? Because it prevents you and all other participants from doing something else at the same time.
Checking your Whatsapp, checking another e-mail, making a coffee. You would never even think about doing that when you’re in a face2face conversion. So don’t do it in video calls either. When chatting, use emojis and reactions to underline your emotions. Within the last week, we already noticed a huge increase of slack messages that we sent. The rule is: Over-communication is better than giving room for assumptions.
3.) Create space for social interactions
To forester the communication and to really know how your co-workers are doing, it helped us to create some space for social interactions – anytime and without any business-relevancy. We set up a “CheMondis-kitchen” channel in whereby to meet for a coke or a coffee and to have some non-work-related conversations. Exactly like you have it in the office when meeting your favorite coworkers in the company’s kitchen, just virtual.
On Fridays, we usually celebrate our renowned beer time at 5pm. We relocated this ritual into a virtual room as well. And in case you’re missing the lunch dates with your coworkers, we can recommend you “social cooking”. Just agree on a meal you all like to cook, move your laptop to the kitchen and turn on the camera. You’ll see it’s definitely more fun than preparing lunch and eating on your own.
4.) Initiate daily routines
The missing local separation of work and home can lead to becoming lazy. We’ve all been there. Nevertheless, in terms of productivity and well-being, we recommend to not neglect your daily care rituals. Get dressed, put on your make up, and read the daily news. Keep your daily routines to feel fresh and energetic to start into the day. Also, try to stay hydrated even though you’re not going to meet your coworkers in the kitchen.
Just prepare your lemon water and coffee mug on your desk as usual. When it comes to the lunch break – take the time! It’s important to switch off your mind and being surrounded by other topics for a few minutes. Additionally, physical activities shouldn’t be neglected. Take a short walk after lunch or start your day with a morning workout.
In a nutshell
In times like these, home office has become a critical component to all of us keeping up “business as usual”. Many essential things can be done at home. But we know that in many other industries this is not common and the current situation comes unexpected.
We hope that our tips will help you make the best out of the current situation and let you work from home happily and effectively. And keep in mind that the argument of decreasing productivity is rejected – you’ll see. Stay safe and healthy!
[1] Choudhury, P. , Larson, B., and Foroughi, C. (2019). Harvard Business Review., [2] Mehrabian, A., Ferris, S. (1967). Journal of Counselling Psychology (31), pp. 248-252.
Thanks for taking the time to read the CheMondis Blog.
Our business model is as unique as each of our team members and combines customer-centricity with tech and chem know-how. Since our founding, back in mid-2018, we have grown into a team of 35 talented people who are experts in their individual fields.
“It is extremely rewarding to work with an increasingly diverse team and so much passion.” – Alina Knoop, Office Manager
At CheMondis, each of our colleagues performs a meaningful role, while enjoying unlimited access to learning, growth, and development opportunities. In addition to being able to take advantage of outstanding benefits, we want everyone to be healthy, to have enough time to vacate and have the financial resources and support they need, in and out of the office.
We have created a workplace that is unique, challenging, smart, and innovative. A workplace that is inclusive and reflects diversity. Where everyone can be their authentic self, and where this authenticity is celebrated as a strength.
We cultivate a working environment that inspires new ideas, promotes ownership and experimentation and supports highly motivated individuals to be truly creative and to serve our customers in the best possible way.
“One of the most rewarding aspects of my work is that I get to work together with great people from various cultures, with different expertise” – Irene Prinz, Head of HR
People who work at CheMondis come from many different backgrounds, both professionally and culturally. Besides this diversity, we are also united by our corporate values and our culture. They guide us in every single decision we make, and we truly live by them.
Our core values are multi-perspectivity, responsibility, vision-driven orientation, collaboration, and personal development. To gain deeper insight into CheMondis, look at our previous blog article, about our corporate values, mission statements, and vision statements here.
Our mindset
Our teams are constantly working on exciting new ways to further develop our culture and way of working. We’re set up in an agile environment with flat hierarchies and small interdisciplinary teams.
How do we live agility at CheMondis? One example is, that we use Scrum as a framework to develop our product. It enables us to release software increments in two-week iterations. In other words, new functionalities, features, and components are deployed to the marketplace at least twice a month.
To get as much as possible released in these sprint-cycles or to provide the best possible customer experience, many teams hold daily stand-ups to align their activities. To help visualize our progress we make use of physical Scrum boards.
Furthermore, we apply Objectives & Key Results (OKR) in order to set and harmonize our company, team, and individual goals on a quarterly basis.
Office environment
Applying agile approaches does not only require rethinking traditional team constellations but also redesigning the working environment we need. For that reason, the CheMondis office was designed to our individual needs and tailored to our networking culture in the format of an open workspace. We work in an environment that makes us feel comfortable and that awakens the urge to participate and collaborate.
“The ergonomics of our surroundings are amazing.” – Jesse, Working Student
Shaped in a semicircle, the office promotes both concentration and relaxation. While offering us multiple areas for creative collaboration, it also gives us the opportunity to speak confidently in secluded rooms. In various living room setups around the office, everyone can take a break and relax or have an informal conversation.
Right in the center of our office is an open space that can easily be – and often is – adapted to different kinds of events such as tech meetups, hackathons, or other business-related events. This is also the place where we come together for our monthly team stand-up, where every team briefly updates all colleagues on current activities, learnings, and highlights.
Our perks
We believe rest and a fulfilled life outside of the office makes a happier, healthier team, which is vital to productivity. For us, trust is one of the most important pillars for being able to work autonomously. This is why everyone at CheMondis profits from flexible working hours and the option to work from home.
When you look at our everyday office life, lunch is the time to socialize at CheMondis. We embrace a healthy lifestyle and always provide fresh fruit in the kitchen as well as snacks, drinks, and coffee.
In our spacious kitchen, lunch can be cooked fresh or bought from nearby restaurant options. Colleagues meet here to enjoy the food – and each other’s company. A great perk is that CheMondis offers a subsidy for our daily lunches.
For us, a healthy lifestyle is not only linked to nutrition, but also to physical activities. Bi-weekly, our yoga teacher Nico gives a yoga class in the office, and on Wednesdays, we have the opportunity to take part in a soccer match.
We regularly promote team events, activities, and everything that brings our team members even closer together – and we also like celebrating our achievements! Whether it be team lunches, concerts, excursions, workshops, or team building activities – there’s always lots of fun.
Team rituals
To promote cooperation across teams and encourage networking, we additionally use so-called “donut dates”. The goal is to pair two people across the teams to get to know each other better and to gain insights into each other’s work fields and challenges by meeting for donuts and coffee.
Furthermore, we cultivate another weekly ritual at CheMondis – “beer time”. To ring in the weekend, on Fridays, every one can meet up in the office kitchen, to socialize, enjoy a drink and to look back at the past week’s achievements.
Today we will give insights on what drives the CheMondis team day by day. In order to grasp what CheMondis stands for, it is essential to first understand our vision statement, our mission statement, our company values, and what they mean to us.
Although both vision and mission statements have two different purposes, they often get mixed up. Generally speaking, a vision statement describes where and what a company wants to be in the future – it is the north star to give guidance and to determine the overall route.
Our vision statement is our North Star and orientation. In contrast, our mission statement is a lot more precise and shows what we want to do and achieve.
While the vision is the dreaming, the mission is the doing. Both are crucial. Read our vision statement below.
Our vision statement
The CheMondis vision seems very broad but defines the direction we are aiming at with every decision we make. It reflects our passion for technology and innovation and defines that we want to use our expertise to create change for the better. All stakeholders, be it, users, employees, or investors, should benefit from their collaboration with CheMondis.
Our mission statement
Our mission statement is clear and concise. It defines WHAT we want to do in order to contribute to our vision. Our mission statement puts our customers at the center of all our activities. We want our users to profit from using CheMondis by creating a solution that is more than a mere marketplace.
We want CheMondis to become THE platform and THE professional network for the chemical industry. Helping all participants to prosper through making information and new business opportunities easily accessible.
Our values
Our values define who we are, what we believe in, and how we work. They are at the core of our organization and sustainably shape our culture. They guide us in every single decision we make and we truly live by them. Each one reminds us to stay true to ourselves, cultivate our company culture, while driving the best solutions for our customers. These five values form a solid foundation for our mission and vision.
Read more about our five core values below.
Our core values are:
multi-perspectivity,
responsibility,
vision-driven orientation,
collaboration and
personal development.
At CheMondis, we live up to our values at all operational levels and in every action we take.
Multi-perspectivity
We are curious, open-minded, and never satisfied with the status quo. We appreciate new perspectives and ideas. Through empathy, different ideas, and technologies we put ourselves in the shoes of our customers, our team, the market, and the industry.
Responsibility
We think of responsibility as a privilege and an opportunity. At CheMondis every team member is responsible for our success. We encourage each other to bring forward our best ideas and to take ownership.
Vision-driven orientation
We hold our vision at the heart of every decision we make and everything that we do at CheMondis.
Collaboration
We learn from each other, align, share knowledge, and give and receive objective feedback. Collaboration helps us grow as a team and sets the base for working constructively and respectfully together towards achieving innovative solutions and our company’s goals.
Personal development
We believe personal development is a lifelong process that drives people to assess their skills and competencies, whilst considering their career and life goals. We enable everyone to unfold their full potential.
Visual connection of our Brand and our Values
Our color palette consists of neutral and dynamic colors that complement our mission statement, vision statement, and our core values. The combination of our colors (green, orange, and dark grey) allows us to create design material that is visually appealing while expressing our personality at the same time.
Psychology of grey
Grey confirms – it is conventional, dependable, and practical. It is the color of maturity and responsibility. Grey is solid and stable, creating a sense of calm and composure, relief from a chaotic world. Grey is controlled. It has a steadying effect on other colors with which it comes into contact, toning down the stronger and brighter colors, and illuminating the softer colors.
Psychology of orange
Orange radiates optimism, warmth, and happiness, combining the physical energy and stimulation of red with the cheerfulness of yellow. Orange relates to openness and two-way conversations. Orange is often used to draw attention, such as in traffic signs and advertising.
Psychology of green
Green evokes a feeling of abundance and is associated with refreshment and peace, rest and security. Green encourages a balance in your brain that leads to decisiveness. Darker greens are more closely associated with stability and growth: think of the more mature green leaves of summer.
In a nutshell
We are driven by our vision as our north star and by our mission as our day-to-day guidance. Our values build the base of how we approach any task, which comes our way. Our color palette consists of neutral and dynamic colors that complement our mission- and vision statement as well as our core values.
Thank you for taking the time to read the CheMondis Blog.
CheMondis was first launched in November 2018. Now, one year later we have grown. And we are excited to announce that as of December 2019 we will be adapting our branding accordingly to reflect this.
As part of our rebranding strategy, our company logo, brand colors, and static pages will be optimized. These changes are part of our communication strategy targeted to further position, establish and grow our brand in the chemical industry. This will affect our looks, but not who we are inside. This means, our rebranding strategy will not impact any of the services offered to you by us. We will continue to work with the same agility, speed, and efficiency you have come to experience.
Before we get into the re-branding itself, let’s have a look at the core of our CheMondis brand.
Our Brand – What We Stand For.
We connect experts from the worlds of chemistry and technology. It is that combination and approach that makes us unique. Extensive chemical know-how, deep customer insights, and trust as a proven core value on one hand and technology, new business ideas, and an agile mindset on the other. We combine more than a century of expertise in chemicals with state-of-the-art technology.
Our Touchpoints – The Experience We Want to Create.
At CheMondis, we are aware that each touch-point is an opportunity to create a great customer experience and to, thus, build customer loyalty. Our customers want any touch-point to be simple, easy to use, navigable, and understandable. They do not want complexity, information overload, and frustration.
Our customer also wants trustworthy, relevant information about brands, products, and guidance on how to compare and choose them. Therefore, our efforts to improve the customer experience strive to achieve simplicity and trustworthiness in the long term.
Our Offer – The Benefits We Are Bringing.
CheMondis is designed in a way to tackle the offline pain points by both Buyers and Suppliers in the chemical industry. Buyers often have to invest a huge amount of time into screening new products and suppliers. They struggle with delivery commitment, a good price overview, and documentation.
As CheMondis, we offer real-time access to product data, datasheets, and Supplier certificates that make the life of chemical buyers easier. A comprehensive product catalog, along with different purchasing options, helps buyers improve their business efficiency tremendously. Registered buyers can either buy instantly with guaranteed availability and fixed prices, negotiate a one-time deal or long-term contractual agreements.
Suppliers of raw materials for the chemical industry can broaden their market reach with CheMondis and boost their business with a little extra effort. They can offer an unlimited number of products across borders and find new validated buyers.
They can sell via spot-deals or long-term agreements to either new or existing customers and use add-on services like creditworthiness checks and document management to improve efficiency and reduce their order-to-cash costs.
Our Logo – Our Solid Promise.
The new, as well as the old, CheMondis logo uses a solid “night rider black”. The honeycomb, linked to the structure of Graphene, forms the foundation of our visual identity. We incorporate the characteristics and properties of the material into our company DNA: its unbreakable and reliable nature is a metaphor for trust. Small changes but big impacts. Can you spot the difference?
What’s new? The most significant change, we made is that we removed the color grade from the logo. Now, the CheMondis logo is even more solid, without any brand mark. Making it appear more solid, modern, and sophisticated. Just the way CheMondis perceives itself. The new logo is supposed to make the logo easier to read and to print.
New Website – What We Show to the World
Ever since we launched CheMondis we have continuously upgraded our websites, mostly with updated content, such as newly implemented features. Today we are proud to present our brand-new website.
We are convinced that the new website will help our existing users and interested parties to better understand the nature of our business and the services we offer to customers.
Our fresh new design compliments our company colors, whilst combining a modern, visual-tech-look with our traditional honeycomb-graphene structure. We invite you to check our new pages and to leave us some feedback here.
In a nutshell
The CheMondis brand connects experts from the worlds of chemistry and technology. Our efforts to improve the customer experience strive to achieve simplicity and trustworthiness. As part of our re-branding strategy, our company logo, brand colors, and static page have been optimized. This will not affect any of the services offered to you by us.
Thank you for taking the time to read the CheMondis Blog.
This week we released our first study about the current state of digitalization in the chemical industry, with an outlook on where the industry expects it to go over the next years. The survey was prepared in close cooperation with the German statistics institute of Statista, which also helped in collecting responses.
In the survey the respondents, who work for chemical companies, were asked ten questions referring to the following topics:
The overall impact of digitalization on day-to-day working routines
Critical challenges for the chemical industry in the future
How prepared is the chemical industry for digitalization
The ratio of digitally made business transactions in the chemical industry
Digital sales or procurement channels and reasons for using them
The Impact of Digitalization on Day-To-Day Sales and Procurement Routines
The survey asked respondents if they believe that digitalization will influence their personal work in the future. The large majority, accounting for 84%, believe that their personal work will be influenced by digitalization in the future.
When asked, how strongly digitalization is impacting the respondents’ personal day-to-day working routines in sales or procurement already today, also more than half see their working routines, strongly or very strongly, influenced by digitalization.
Looking at the results, our respondents are prepared for this share to grow over the next years.
How Prepared is the Chemical Industry for Digitalization?
When we asked respondents from the industry about how prepared the industry is today for the age of digitalization, less than half of those surveyed believe that the chemical industry is well prepared today. Surprisingly, when being asked about the company which they personally work for, 57% consider their own company well prepared.
This is an interesting gap which will need to be watched in the future. It shows how companies are starting to get ready and advance in all different fields of digitalization and seem to feel a small step ahead of the competition with that.
CheMondis and Other Marketplaces and Platforms in the Chemical Industry
As the biggest and fastest growing chemical marketplace in Europe, we asked respondents about their awareness of digital sales channels in general and brands in particular.
We asked which sales and procurement channels the respondents’ companies are using today or are planning to use in the future. And we are excited about their answers. More than half (56%) are either using or planning to use B2B platforms or marketplaces, just like CheMondis. In the survey, this even beats the usage of both general and industry-specific search engines and shows how the business-oriented approach of platforms will become even more important in the future.
Next, we asked respondents about which platforms or marketplaces they have used in the past already. Almost half of the respondents have either regularly used or tried out CheMondis. This is a result, which makes us proud! Molbase.com was tried by 16% of the respondents. About a fourth has already made experiences with chembid.com, an industry-specific search engine from Germany.
The Reasons Behind Using Digital Channels in Sales and Procurement
Chemical companies do not use digital channels just for the sake of being digital, but have concrete, often financial, incentives to do so. When being asked about the reasons to move towards digital channels three answers stood out. Companies are looking to increase sales, at lower operational cost and want to use digital channels to deepen their knowledge and understanding of their existing and potential new customers.
A personal note
We as CheMondis are excited. The results show how the industry is on the move towards finding and using digital sales and procurement channels. Their major objective is generating new sales (on the supply side), while improving operational efficiency. Also, the usage of digital channels can help to better understand the individual customers’ and well as the market’s needs.
We share the believe that digital platforms for the industry such as CheMondis can help tremendously in creating deeper understanding of the market and even opening up new markets. As CheMondis we cover the entire value chain, from matchmaking to transactional services.
Buyers can find new suppliers, suppliers can broaden their market reach and both have absolute transparency over all quotes, orders and contracts (including the current status of call-offs). This helps companies to increase efficiency even when in their own company not all processes are digital yet.
If you are curious about B2B platforms and CheMondis now, we invite you to take a look atwww.chemondis.com. If you come check us out, come again next week as we are launching our new website!
Now it is up to you
Are you interested in the full study results? Get them for free here. Do you have the same view as our respondents? What do you think about the status of digitalization in your industry? Leave us a comment below.
Thank you for taking the time to read the CheMondis Blog.
On the 5th of November, our CheMondis marketplace turned one year old – this is why we are celebrating all month long. Get ready for a series of exciting content, including blog posts, animations, and further company announcements. Whether you are a CheMondis user from day one, a newcomer, or just interested in our marketplace, we are glad you are here with us. Join us on our blog and on all our social media channels to find out all about our birthday month.
What happened so far?
The Europe-based marketplace was founded about 1.5 years ago by the chemical specialty producer LANXESS. Set up as an own legal entity, CheMondis is tackling the challenge of digitalization in the chemical industry. Back in November 2018, the marketplace successfully launched its open beta version.
Since then, over one thousand verified chemical companies have registered with a total of 2350 active users, trading more than 13,000 active products on the platform. Within the last 12 months, trading volumes have been steadily increasing with an increasing customer base.
Last November, we kicked off the beta version with a custom interface and a broad range of elementary marketplace features. These included among others an advanced search function, the possibility to chat between buyer and supplier, Instant Deal purchasing or selling, or individual negotiations.
Over the course of the last year we have expanded our features and functionalities a lot further: an automated product upload, an integrated credit rating service, and most recently the possibility to depict and apply long-term contractual agreements on the marketplace.
Especially, our purchasing options have evolved. Traditionally, there are two different ways of selling products on CheMondis. Suppliers can either choose to sell products directly as Instant Deals at fixed list prices or they can individually issue quotes based on Quote Requests from prospective customers.
A couple of months ago CheMondis introduced the “special offer” feature, allowing suppliers to make custom deals for selected buyers, as both an Instant Deal or a Quote Request. Only a couple of weeks ago, CheMondis has introduced a new option to help buy and sell chemicals on the marketplace – the Agreement.
It allows the buying and selling parties to agree on specific terms for recurring orders for a certain time period and to the buyer to gradually call-off the pre-defined volumes.
Our customers
At this point, we want to thank all CheMondis users. Our success is linked to our users and their continuous feedback. Since last year, we have single-handily verified and personally onboarded around one thousand chemical companies to the platform.
We are especially grateful for all the early movers of the industry and the trust and support the chemical industry in total has given us. We are excited to continue this way.
SynHet – Synthetic Heterocycles
Livchem Logistics GmbH
INNOVOX GMBH
LANXESS Deutschland GmbH
ViVoChem B.V.
Mosselman SA
BÜFA Chemikalien GmbH & Co. KG
Life Chemicals Europe GmbH
Since our launch, CheMondis held over 1700 support chats via our inbuilt business messenger. We support registerd users with difficulties, missunderstandings and other erros, while we inform interested individuals about the CheMondis marketplace.
Team growth
The CheMondis team is an agile and entrepreneurial group of experts from the chemical industry and the world of technology. Our diverse team consists of a variety of personalities, from twelve different nationalities and cultural backgrounds – grouped into three departments. Team Commercial, Team Product, and Team Engineering.
In the course of the last year, the entire CheMondis team has grown to a total size of 30 employees. We are ready, to continue tackling the challenge of digitalizing the chemical industry. We are very happy to have every single team member on board and hope to further recruit talented colleagues. Interested in joining us at CheMondis? See all our current job offers here.
What is next?
The new year is almost there, 2020. Time flies and technology evolves. Technological advancements can lead to the change of a complete industry – as we have seen in the telecommunication industry, during the late 2000s. The internet changed the game.
And now comes CheMondis to help digitalize marketing, sales, and procurement within the chemical industry. In order to make the marketplace even better for users, our developers and designers are constantly working on new features and functionalities. What’s planned next, you might ask yourself.
There are a few components that can already be revealed. We are looking forward to launching an optimized search function, an inbuilt sample demand, and further a brand-new static page. And this is not even a fraction of what will be implemented in the course of 2020. Stay tuned.
In a nutshell
CheMondis has successfully launched the open beta version of the marketplace exactly one year ago. Since then, over one thousand verified chemical companies have registered, trading more then 13,000 active products on the platform.
Within the last 12 months, trading volumes have been steadily increasing with an increasing customer base. New functionalities and features have been and are to be implemented. We are going for more!
Thanks for taking the time to read the CheMondis Blog.
Have you noticed our new “Agreements” tab on the marketplace yet?
Traditionally, there were two different ways of selling products on CheMondis. Suppliers can either choose to sell products directly as instant deals at fixed list prices or they can individually issue quotes based on quote requests from prospective customers. A couple of months ago CheMondis introduced the “special offer” feature, which allows suppliers to make custom deals for selected buyers, as both an instant deal or a quote request.
For a couple of weeks, CheMondis now offers another option to help buy and sell chemicals on the marketplace – the Agreement. This new tool allows Buyers and Suppliers to agree on terms for recurring orders, such as longer-term contracts and agreements.
What is a Recurring Order?
A recurring order refers to a repetitive purchase of the same product from the same supplier. For example: Buyer A requests a specific product offer on CheMondis from seller B. They negotiate on the marketplace and ultimately the deal is made.
Here’s the catch: Buyer A needs the specific product every week. Instead of repeating this process over and over, the new Agreement Management simplifies the process and lets both parties agree on a specific price for a particular quantity over a specified period of time. Meaning: Agreement management allows suppliers to make longer term arrangements with buyers.
Now Buyer A and seller B can make an agreement on CheMondis, allowing them to repeat a purchase every week, until either the agreement or the volume has expired.
How does it Work for Buyers?
Step 1: Make a quote request on the product you are interested in
Step 2: Head to “Agreements” inside of the Quote Request tab
Step 3: Fill in the mandatory fields (including start and end date of the agreement; price; min. order value and max order value, total value, quote/unit; incoterms; delivery address etc.) and select “request”.
Step 4: See all information in the Agreement detail screen. Within this tab you are can chat with the seller directly via our inbuilt chat feature.
Step 5: Wait and receive an offer from the seller. See all offer information in the current offer field. Select accept. (Of course, you may also reject the offer and renegotiate the agreement).
Step 6: Head to the Agreement list and check the current status. On-Going: Agreements that are taking place in the present. Confirmed: Agreements that will take place in the future. Expired: Agreements that have already taken place in the past.
Step 7: Select “Add to cart” in the Agreement list and the “orders” screen will appear.
Step 8: Determine the quantities and delivery dates for each order of the agreement.
Step 9: Select “Add to Cart” within the order screen.
Step 10: Head to the “Shopping Cart” and select “Proceed to Checkout”.
Step 11: Select “Confirm Order” in the “Summary” field.
How does it Work for Suppliers?
Step 1: Receive a Quote / Agreement Request from a buyer.
Step 2: Head to the Quote /Agreement detail screen and create an offer.
Step 3: Select Agreement (As a seller you can also decide to give a quote instead of an agreement.) The information in the Agreement field is pre-filled, but can be changed by the seller.
Step 4: (When your Buyer is requesting the first call-off from your agreement) Head to the main dashboard and select ”orders”.
Step 5: View the details of each order of the Agreement.
Step 6: “Accept”, “reject” or “renegotiate” each order of the Agreement individually. *Keep in mind that you can renegotiate at any time.
In a nutshell
Buyers and Suppliers on CheMondis need a convenient way of addressing recurring orders. To facilitate this CheMondis has developed the Agreements Management Tool, which allows both Buyers and Suppliers to save time on repetitive orders and longer term contracts.
You can also use the Agreements Tool to manage your contracts with your existing Buyers or Suppliers. Just enter the Agreement as described above and profit from full transparency about all details and call-offs.
Thanks for taking the time to read the CheMondis Blog.
Only a few more days to go and once again, the plastics and rubber industry will meet in Düsseldorf at the K trade fair. Of course, CheMondis will be there. Are you heading to the K 2019? If so, meet us at booth C28 in hall 7 to find out what we are all about.
Make sure to schedule an appointment with one of our Business Development Managers. To do so, please click here.
What is the K show?
The K show is the largest trade fair for plastics and rubber. It will take place in Düsseldorf for eight full days. This year the K is scheduled from the 16th to the 23rd of October. More than 3.000 exhibitors and around 200.000 visitors are expected to come. Find out which other exhibitors will be at the K here.
Next to the exhibition, the K offers a supporting programme that includes a row of special shows addressing industry capabilities and trends. For instance, there will be a discussion around the topic: “Plastics for sustainable development”, which features representatives from the Austrian Federal agency for the environment and the European Environment Agency (EEA). Further there will be a series of lectures by European sustainable initiatives including:
Ceflex
Polyolefin Circular Economy Platform (PCEP)
Petcore Europe
PlastiCircle Europe
Styrenics Circular Solutions (SCS)
VinylPlus
Also, the World Plastics Council will hold a keynote on global marine litter. And the CEO of Covestro, Dr. Markus Steilemann will deliver a “Keynote by the Alliance to End Plastic Waste”. Between CEO’s promoting a global initiative to end plastic waste and NGOs raising awareness around environmental issues, exhibitors will have the chance to promote their companies in a total of 17 Halls.
Why should you visit our booth?
Do you buy or sell plastics and/or rubber in europe? If so, you just might be interested in us. Let us help you digitize your sales and procurement channels.
Plastics and rubber are part of our core product segment and are traded on CheMondis on a daily basis. Find out about your business opportunities and get in contact with our Business Development Managers during the K. Make sure to visit our booth C28 in hall 7 to find out what it is all about. In case you want to schedule an appointment with one of our Business Development Managers please click here.
In any case, you should visit the CheMondis booth to take part in our competition. Each trade fair visitor can take part. The participant is tasked to find and buy a predefined product as fast as possible within the marketplace. The first price wins an iPhone 11.
Second and third place will be the second and third fastest purchaser, which both will receive an annual subscription for the renowned German manager-magazin. You think you’re up to do it? Then try us out and win the iPhone 11. Also don’t miss out on our special goodie bags – find out what’s inside at our booth.
Now it is up to you
Will you be at the K? Have you shedulde a appointment with us? Interested in our goodie bags? Let us know and leave a comment in the section below!
Thank´s for taking the time to read the CheMondis Blog.
