Amid these uncertain times, it’s easy for businesses to slam on the brakes on investment and focus on core operations in the hopes of riding out the economic storm. But companies rooted in strong foundations find ways to continue investing during such times, with a keen eye on growth now and accelerated growth post-crisis.
That is what ICIS has done with our announcement this week of the acquisition of Chemical Data, a holder of several price benchmarks in the North American polymer space and a respected stalwart in providing data and insight to that region’s broader chemical marketplace.
In particular, bringing Chemical Data’s expertise into the ICIS fold puts together a truly global one-stop shop for pricing benchmarks for the packaging supply chain. ICIS has long been known as the benchmark of choice in Europe for polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and has developed similar strength in Asia and South America.
With the addition of Chemical Data’s benchmark status in those materials in North America, packaging markets can confidently coalesce their indexing and insight needs under one ICIS roof, streamlining their procurement, sales and analysis processes during a time when many companies in the supply chain are re-examining modes of operation. No one else in this space can offer that, in my estimation, and it bolsters our ability to partner with industry and supply chains to optimise the transacting and use of precious goods to the betterment of all.
This is a hugely exciting time for us at ICIS and Chemical Data, even if our two US teams have not yet been able to interact with each other in a singular office environment due to the coronavirus pandemic. That will change at some point, but in the meantime we are focused on integration plans that have our customers and soon-to-be customers at the forefront. And amid that, there is a range of forward-looking products on the ICIS calendar in various stages of development, one of which was just launched last week (the ICIS commodity pages).
There’s a lot going on here at ICIS, and we’re not letting a pandemic get in the way of creating better ways to partner with the markets we serve.