Analysis of disruptions in Advanced Materials

Submitted by Tedora Aibu on 02 July 2020

Summary of the European Alliance Against Coronavirus Daily Webinars on 29 June 2020 

The session on 29 June was dedicated to the analysis of disruptions in advanced materials with Dolors Pla from the Spanish cluster MAV, and the challenges and learnings from dealing with the crisis so far.

The analysis started with an overview of the global economy and in particular the industrial production in China, that has fallen by 13,5% in January and February 2020, compared with the previous year. This problem affected industrial sectors all over the world. During the meeting, the healthcare, automotive, SME and the plastics sectors and their supply chains were discussed, some of which already in depth during previous European Cluster Alliance sessions.

All sectors show disruptions in raw material procurement, facing logistics issues with bottlenecks that were generated in manufacturing and processing value chain. This created a knock-on effect in wholesaling, retailing and services, with different gaps in the market. It is important to develop new solutions and innovative creation to ensure the continuity of the value chains. Particular attention must be paid to recycling products to advance in sustainability and to reduce – possible contagious - waste.

Furthermore, Dolors presented a possible scenario for the COVID-19 vaccine management.  Europe depends on medicine import because there is a lack of active ingredients and a limited production capacity with high prices that create an unequal access for the population. It could be important to develop a strategy to promote several suitable vaccines, with the cooperation of different actors in a short time.

The main questions are how to retain the know-how and innovation created and how to rebuild European value chains, integrating the sustainability strategy for a faster digital and green transition.

A recording of the session is available here.

 

These are the complete minutes of the meeting:

20200629 ECA dailyminutes_v2.pdf

Find information on the previous meetings hereinformation on the upcoming agenda here 

Share this Article