Newsletters/ March 12, 2021
Between the 16th – 18th of February, our team attended the 25th Anniversary ICIS World Base Oils & Lubricants Live Conference.
With live content, presentations, Q&As, and networking features, the event had as main topics: Recovering from COVID-19, Sustainability & Innovation, split during the 3 days.
To quickly summarize the content of some of the presentations:
- Recovering from the COVID-19 from a refinery perspective is a long road, and the demand for some refined products, such as fuels, must increase significantly for the refineries to buy more feedstock and increase the utilization rate. 2020 meant low fuel margins and low fuel demand, as well as postponed maintenances. These factors make the situation quite complicated. As you know, base oils feedstock is VGO, also a feedstock for fuels. If fuel demand levels are low, then refineries are working at low utilization rates. 2021 brings more hope in terms of a gradual reopening process and faster recovery of economic activities and trade.
- Sustainability is the need of the hour. For many years topics related to sustainability were included in international conferences, and no doubt the Lubricants Industry has an impact on helping to preserve the planet therefore, we had several presentations related to it. It is important to highlight that during these days of uncertainty that pandemic caused, we are no longer speaking about the 3P’s of sustainability, but we are focusing on the 5P’s. The well-known 3 P’s of Sustainability such us Economics, Ecological and Social Sustainability (or from the business prospect the profit, the planet, and the people) now are completed by the focus on Pressure and Purpose of the business too. Where for Pressure we refer to regulations and new measurements that companies are forced to take, and this will have an impact on future business activity. And where for purpose, we refer to the purpose of the company, which goes beyond the profit. Employees care more and more about sustainability nowadays, and they are ready to contribute to achieving the goals of the company or organization.
Together with you, our team is lined up to work towards the same goals.
- Finally, it is worth mentioning another topic discussed, which is the Importance of the Supply Chain nowadays.
During the last year, businesses in the Chemical and Lubricants Industry were under great Pressure, and Supply Chain played and continues to play a key role due to all the complexities associated.
The market changed a lot during the pandemic, and organizations needed to act fast needed to analyze data and predict possible challenges and opportunities. According to the presentations, Management and Marketing teams asked Supply Chain teams to give them a picture of the market change during the pandemic.
In Shamrock, we manage supply chains distributing products from leading refineries in more than 25 countries and supply customers in more than 45 countries. With our expertise, we have a thorough understanding of local markets and customer requirements. This enables us to react and adapt quickly to industry changes.
If you want to discuss more topics of importance for our industry, you can network with our experts which attended this week, between 9th -12th of March, the F+L Week Virtual Event.
