Clusters opportunities and issues in downstream chemicals

Transcription

1 Prof. Luk N Van Wassenhove Dr. Baptiste Lebreton HLG meeting, Brussels / Feb 29 th 2008 Clusters opportunities and issues in downstream chemicals

2 Topics Trends in the European chemical industry Insights of the EPCA study on chemical clusters Current hurdles in downstream chemicals Outlook

3 Trends in the European chem. industry INSEAD / Management Engineers Executive Study, Fall executives from 35 majors (EU sales > 0.5 B$) interviewed Results presented at the CEFIC general assembly, Fall 07

4 Trends in the European chem. industry Short-term payback as a prerequisite Difficult for execs to defend long-term investments not related to manufacturing Dedicate financial resources to Asia, esp. China / M.E. Only debottlenecking invests in Europe, new invests follow demand or cheap supply Will the classic shareholder value approach prevail? Will investment activities focus on Europe or Asia?

5 Trends in the European chem. industry Focus rather than diversification Further business units will be spun off but potential acquisition of standalone bus. Growth in Europe mostly through acquisitions The ownership within chemical clusters will be spread to more partners with different agendas Is focusing on core competencies still relevant? Which growth strategies will be pursued?

6 Trends in the European chem. industry REACH is still considered as a threat by chem. execs Only one of 47 executives could mention tangible benefits though REACH that might hurt their competitiveness AD Little and Mercer studies still in mind of chemical executives Is REACH an opportunity or a threat to the chemical industry? What will happen when REACH is implemented?

7 Trends in the European chem. industry Consequences on the development of European chemical clusters 1. No willingness of manufacturers to invest in logistics infrastructure 2. Invest focus in China & Middle East 3. Further disaggregation of cluster ownership 4. Ongoing concerns about the future competitiveness But great willingness to reduce costs total costs in the European asset base Impact of clusters on costs

8 Topics Trends in the European chemical industry Insights of the EPCA study on chemical clusters Current hurdles in downstream chemicals Outlook

9 EPCA study on chem. clusters: insights Winter / Spring 2007 Objective: find out to what extent clusters are exploited to reduce costs Scope: ARRR and Tarragona 53 supply chain experts interviewed 22 producers 25 LSPs 6 public authorities Results presented at the EPCA yearly assembly in Berlin, Fall 2007

10 EPCA study on chem. clusters: insights Traffic congestion is a major preoccupation in ARRR as a result of lacking collaboration between actors Traffic congestion Lack of collaboration between - LSPs & producers - LSPs producers LSPs

11 EPCA study on chem. clusters: insights Pooling of logistics resources as cluster opportunity Horizontal relationships Information exchange as cluster opportunity Vertical relationships Development & pooling of logistics resources Improved information exchange (strategic & tactical) producers LSPs

12 Topics Trends in the European chemical industry Insights of the EPCA study on chemical clusters Current hurdles in downstream chemicals Outlook

13 Current hurdles in downstream chemicals Issue 1: lack of willingness to share information 1. Competition law concerns 2. Strategic concerns 3. LSPs are executants thinking Consequences 1. Higher logistics costs since cluster synergies cannot be fully exploited (e.g. for supplying hinterland regions) 2. LSPs do not have the information required to develop a sound business case to solve traffic congestion

14 Current hurdles in downstream chemicals Issue 2: Information flow between shippers and carriers is not seamless and causes significant transaction costs 1. Although all chem players run advanced ERP systems, only the order part of freight execution is automated via EDI. Freight monitoring and delivery confirmations still done manually. 2. Customs paperwork for internal EU transfers remains significant Potential role of the EC 1. Support the application of ChemXML and CIDX standards via pilot projects to reduce coordination and control costs and allow full transparency 2. Progress in the standardization of custom forms within Europe to allow process automation

15 Topics Trends in the European chemical industry Insights of the EPCA study on chemical clusters Current hurdles in downstream chemicals Outlook

16 Outlook Sharing information on flows and capacities is a critical but necessary step to identify and discuss cluster opportunities Need for a platform, support from authorities and a clear target Pilot cases would be very useful to promote cluster initiatives

17