As a diversified material, polyurethane is playing an important role in many fields of national economy. Especially in the post-epidemic era, people will put forward higher quality, healthier, more environmentally friendly and safer requirements for material products in all aspects of future urban life. In this process, polyurethane will further play a big role in providing more innovative solutions for human life. Dou Zheng, head of Covestro's Polyurethane Business Unit in China, recently explained the company's strategic thinking on the development of its polyurethane business.

to speed up the implementation of two core strategic

DouZheng said, "digital" and "sustainable development" is strong in addition to "innovation" of the two core strategy. For a long time, Covestro has firmly grasped the opportunities of digital change in China and around the world, and actively responded to the United Nations 2025 Sustainable development Goals and the Chinese government's initiative on sustainable industrial development. Through the comprehensive implementation of the two major strategies of digitalization and sustainable development, it has given polyurethane materials a series of new momentum to break the limit. It is fully reflected in the fields of recycling, realizing clean production by reducing carbon emissions, saving energy consumption, developing clean energy, and achieving cost reduction and efficiency increase in production and operation.

In the post-pandemic era, Covestro will further integrate digital technologies and processes into the research and development, production, logistics and innovative business model processes of polyurethane materials. Since 2019, Covestro has jointly built the "Hell-Covestro Digital Joint Laboratory" with Haier, which has conducted joint research and development in the fields of refrigerator production line data acquisition, online quality testing, data analysis and mining, and process optimization. This year, Covestro will also help the project progress steadily by connecting German experts with the Chinese project side. In addition, the company will also cooperate with a number of soft foam customers to promote digital technology services, improve their product quality and stability, and reduce material costs.

He said Covestro will better serve local customers by strengthening its digital research and development capabilities in the Asia-Pacific region. The company has set up a team of data scientists and computational chemistry experts to change the traditional practice of repeatedly adjusting formulations in the lab, predict chemical properties through computer simulation, accelerate the development of polyurethane formulations, and strengthen its local digital research and development capabilities.

Dou Zheng pointed out: "Sustainable polyurethane materials have played a positive role in balancing the relationship between industrial production and natural environmental protection in human society, which is also a topic that people will pay more attention to and ponder over in the post-COVID-19 era."

Focus on industrial chain re-layout

Covestro Polyurethane business unit has 18 production bases in Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region. As one of the first foreign-funded enterprises to enter the Chinese market, Covestro has always regarded the Chinese market as a top priority, and paid great attention to the impact of changes in the global industrial chain on the local market after the epidemic.

Dou said Covestro's confidence and commitment to the Chinese market remain unchanged. China is Covestro's second largest single market in the world, and Covestro has invested more than 3.6 billion euros in the country. As one of the first foreign companies to enter the Chinese market, Covestro moved the global headquarters of its polycarbonate business unit to Shanghai in 2011. On April 29 this year, Lei Huanli, president of Covestro China, participated in the signing of the intention project of 18 multinational companies' regional headquarters, which injected new vitality into the high-quality economic development of Pudong headquarters and provided impetus for the core bearing area of Shanghai's "Five centers" construction.

By virtue of its global production and research and development network, Covestro has successfully overcome the challenge of international trade friction to its sales in the Chinese market. When the United States imposed high anti-dumping duties on Chinese soft furniture enterprises such as mattresses, pillows and sofas, Covestro exported raw materials to its Chinese customers' factories in Southeast Asia through the Asia-Pacific logistics network, and provided technical support to help them realize local production as soon as possible, thus ensuring the company's sales of toluene diisocyanate in the Asia-Pacific region. "In the post-pandemic era, this experience has enabled Covestro to think further about the impact on downstream industries when global manufacturing supply chains are rearranged," said Dou.

In the near future, the United States will begin to impose anti-dumping duties on Southeast Asian soft furniture factories. In response to this new challenge, Covestro will continue to assist its customers in manufacturing in other parts of the world. All of this will be supported by the company's strong global network, which will always be able to provide the same quality products and efficient technical support to its customers in different regions of the world, no matter what the market challenges, he said.

Talent is a guarantee against risks. Dou said Covestro always regards its employees as the company's most valuable assets and the driving force of its continuous development. In 2019, Covestro China formulated a new talent strategy and successfully obtained the "China Outstanding Employer 2020" certification based on the" people-oriented "HR policy and practice, which is the second consecutive year that Covestro China has won this honor and is also an important recognition of the industry's achievements in talent training and development.

During the epidemic, the company's care for its employees has been particularly considerate. As early as January 22, the management of the company set up a crisis management team to effectively guarantee the safety of every employee and ensure the smooth resumption of work and production. In the post-epidemic period, Covestro will further help employees achieve a colorful career, stimulate their self-drive for growth, encourage the team to implement a reasonable and adequate empowerment culture, provide them with a development platform for independent innovation, and give employees the space to make independent decisions and create.

Dou Zheng believes: "Every market test provides an opportunity for enterprises to strengthen team building, enhance experience and sharpen their skills. Only a well-tempered team can be combative and resist greater market risks. Every time an enterprise turns the corner in the face of market difficulties, it is the embodiment of the courageous spirit of every Covestro person."