Year-end Summary
2020: trouble in paradise for major industry sectors Companies are rewriting their growth stories – with new perspectives of connecting directly to their customers, as well as collaborating with industry peers, and quickly responding to changes, says Angelica Buan in this report.
SML says it was able to repurpose its production, at a record time, for the production of face shields
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Pandemic blues – economies tumble The struggle is real for economies that succumbed to the hydra of Covid-19. The global economy is projected to potentially incur a US$1 trillion-loss due to the pandemic, aggravated by supply chain disruptions from China and a drastic drop in oil prices, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Though China, the world’s factory, has been forecast to witness a 0.1% drop in GDP in 2020, with further reduction of 0.4% in annual growth due to its trade tiff with the US, its economy has gradually recovered to be the world’s largest, overtaking the US, according to the IMF’s World Economic Output 2020 report. Over and above, the pandemic has marked an unprecedented disruption across industries globally. It has been a tough year: with industries hit by low to zero sales and demand, streamlined workforce, lockdowns and mobility restrictions. The airline industry, for example, has seen massive layoffs as fleets had been grounded for months on end; the automotive sector, which had already been in a slump, saw declining demand for light vehicles and passenger vehicles from China, Europe, the ASEAN and the US. Medical and packaging sectors fly high Contrariwise, the medical and packaging sectors have grown this year, which provided a positive outlook for machine manufacturers catering to the mentioned sectors. The medical sector witnessed a windfall with demand shooting up for personal protective equipment (PPE) and telemedicine technologies. The rising Covid-19 cases and risks of infections accelerated the demand for PPEs. The World Health Organisation (WHO), as well as several governments, distributed PPEs to countries that indicated rising counts of infected patients. At the onset, an estimated 89 million medical masks/ month; 76 million gloves and 1.6 million/month of goggles were required for the Covid-19 response, according to WHO. WHO also urged industries and governments to increase their production of PPEs by 40% to meet rising global demand. But even then, PPE manufacturers, going beyond their maximum capacities already, are still short of fulfilling the continuous demand that is increasing day by day. Machine makers rise up to the challenge of meeting PPE shortages Some machine makers took the bull by the horns to meet the demand for PPEs by repurposing their production lines. One such machinery firm SML started industrial production of PET sheet, the main component in plastic face shields, at its headquarters in Redlham, Austria. Production is taking place on a line for calendered sheets, with the extrusion line producing enough material for up to 10,000 face shields/ hour. The sheets are processed into face shields by compatriot extrusion machine supplier Kiefel in Freilassing, Bavaria. Two types of face shields are produced - based on 0.3 mm and 0.15 mm thin PET sheet, respectively. The PET sheet can be recycled 100%, for example, along with PET bottles and other PET products.
NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020