Water, sanitation and hygiene – one of the best defences against COVID-19
Just a few months ago the World was still normal, at least what we consider our World. Now, we have been blasted into a new normal with an unknown outcome. Lives are shaken up, markets collapsed and companies are struggling to find their place. But with every change there are opportunities. While searching to find our place within the mega trends centred around homeland, health and environment, in the midst of this crisis we at DrM are observing increased activities in a number of markets which we have been serving in the past. These new circumstances are now redefining our short term businesses to a certain extent which leaves us with new possibilities.
The increased worldwide demand for masks has created investments within the supply chain of many raw materials around this mass product. A prominent material is viscose. While early viscose production plants did not focus on quality, newer facilities see opportunities in better grade products. The FUNDABAC® Filter is a workhorse in this tough industry where exposure to high temperatures and aggressive chemicals complicates the life of equipment. Most masks are nowadays fabricated in Asia and hence our market for this application is in this region. Delivery time is a main driver and with our local production capacities in Asia we can leverage on this fact.
The need for cleanliness is another driver for increased supply of various sanitisation and disinfection products all around the World. Higher standards in drinking water supplies demands new capacities in chlorination products. In Europe where past plants used older mercury technologies to produce chlorine, there was a rush in investments into membrane electrolysis as new legislation was put into force. However, difficulties in transporting this dangerous good created further opportunities for smaller facilities to supply local markets centred around the drinking water industry. With both our FUNDABAC® and CONTIBAC® we are proud to have a predominant position in this industry. Our robust technology is responsible for a large part of the supply of this disinfectant with hundreds of our filters spread all around the globe.
However, sanitisation products based on alcohol and detergents have seen the highest growth. Surfactants play an important role in these product categories. Due to the need to increase capacity on a short term notice we decided to offer our large fleet of pilot units for this purpose. They are used to de-bottleneck production facilities for products such as surfactant additives and deodorisation of ethanol enabling our clients to satisfy local market demand.