Valentina Serra-Holm will be welcomed by ACI for the 12th Edition of their European Base Oils and Lubricants Online Series.
Valentina’s presentation will discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the lubricants industry and how best to approach the way forwards.
“The global COVID-19 pandemic has caused a major shock to the European economy and posed an unprecedented challenge to all economic sectors. As the lubricant industry is intimately intertwined with all manufacturing sectors, it too suffered a major setback.
Global disruption in supply chain and shortage in key raw materials, shrinking industrial activity, dampened consumer demand, and a major slowdown in transportation have put our industry under considerable stress.
The sectors that were hit hardest by the pandemics were the sectors that drive – directly or indirectly – the largest portion of lubricant demand, namely the automotive and the aerospace industry which, due to the decrease in mobility and tourism activities, experienced substantial hits.
Overall, the European lubricant market shrank by 11% in 2020. Even if not all countries and product segments were affected to the same extent, the high-level geographic footprint did not significantly change. The five largest European markets, Germany, UK, France, Spain and Italy accounted for more than 75% of the total market. While all segments were impacted, metalworking fluids was the segment contracting most, due to the combined effect of the plunging demand in the automotive and aerospace industries, which were the most severely affected sectors by the pandemic, and lower demand from the primary metal sector, which impacted rolling oils.
The COVID-19 pandemic has also offered the opportunity to accelerate existing trends in relation to the twin transition. The twin transition can provide growth opportunities to the European lubricant industry, with large sectors such as manufacturing, renewable energy, and agriculture most likely to be impacted.”
Registration is available here : https://lnkd.in/ecixV2j