“Home Office” and “Team Work”

by Petrex GmbH | Apr 2, 2020 | Recent news

Currently there are barely any physical meetings being held in companies around the globe due to the corona virus. But how can you still work on projects in a team if you are forced to do home office?

The answer is modern software like Webex, Microsoft Teams or others. Nowadays you cannot just hold conference calls but even see your colleague or business partner on the screen. However, it still remains challenging to communicate effectively with people who work in another location.

The key to a successful video conference is having a host who leads through the call in a structured way. Before starting the conference, he should send out an agenda and announce the goal of the call. When starting the conference, like in a physical meeting everyone should introduce themselves in case they are not familiar. If technology allows, the host might share his screen to all participants and lead through the agenda or show important slides or figures during the conference. He should always keep the goal in mind and as when nearing the end of a call summarize what the group has accomplished, relate it to the goal and propose next steps.

You might receive an invitation for a video conference in the next weeks. And if it’s perfectly structured, everyone can join immediately, webcam and voice works without problems, we would call that “unusual”.

The effect of measures against Covid-19 on the supply chain

by Petrex GmbH | Mar 24, 2020 | Recent news

The governments of most countries around the world implemented lockdown policies to slowdown the spread of Covid-19. While some European countries like Italy and Spain are already struggling to keep their health system running, developing countries like India or many African countries are aware of their rather weak healthcare system and therefore start implementing protective measures at an early stage.

India, with just 500 confirmed cases so far, implemented travel, work and movement restrictions in all big cities across the country. Most of the factories, shops and even public transportation have been shut down until March 31 at least. If those policies are being continued in April, we expect huge supply shortages all around the world.

Although many European countries are already impacted heavily by the virus, the supply situation of feedstock is still okay for most industries. All main European ports are operating. With most Chinese suppliers working as usual again, the lead time of goods from Asia is currently up to 40 days (usually 30) due to delays at European ports of discharge. Onward trucking across European countries is possible but often subject to heavy delays at borders.

Petrex will keep monitoring and analysing the consequences for our suppliers and customers. Please keep in mind, public health is the basis for success and satisfaction!

Business travel in times of Covid-19

by Petrex GmbH | Mar 11, 2020 | Recent news

Global players like Amazon, Nestle, L’Oreal and many other companies are trying to keep their employees healthy by banning business trips. While some companies still allow essential trips or domestic travels, other companies like Twitter go even further and ask their employees to work from home. With the increasing number of infections in Europe, our clients as well as our own team cancelled meetings and hesitate to plan future business trips.

While companies from different industries suffer from restrictions to fight the virus, the travel industry is especially affected. According to the Global Business Travel Association, business travelers account for around 26% of total travel spending (1.5 trillion USD). Ford Motor Co.’s CEO Jim Hackett asked their nearly 200.000 employees last week to meet with business partners only by phone or virtually.

Usually we feel that personal contact is the best way to do business. However, we see a chance in the current circumstances to arrange more video conferences instead of business trips in general. In case you are interested in arranging virtual meetings please contact our team directly.

Financial markets reacting to Covid19

by Petrex GmbH | Jan 29, 2020 | Recent news

While the Corona crisis in Europe starts to get worse, we still see positive developments in China. Every day it is getting easier to move products between provinces. Our local logistics partners expect further improvements in March. However, the whole Hubei province is still locked and cities like Wenzhou, Ningbo, Taizhou suffer tough restrictions.

The high number of new cases in Italy lead to lock downs of several cities. The European and US stock market reacted immediately. Although experts corrected the mortality rate of Covid19 from ~2% to ~0.5% we still feel that Europe is very much concerned about further outbreaks. There is also negative development in other Asian countries such as Korea where the number of new cases went up a lot recently, especially in Seoul.

We suggest that international companies increase their safety stock now to reduce supply chain risks. However, we also see sales of customers going down due to purchasing power loss at consumer side which relates to higher risks of keeping more feedstock for production. That makes the whole situation very complex. It is important to communicate in all directions of the supply chain to make reasonable decisions.

We promise

by Petrex GmbH | Jan 3, 2020 | Recent news

Petrex is a colourful mix of German, Dutch and Chinese people. Working in different locations and time zones, speaking different languages but following one mission:

Increasing our Performance.

2019 has been a very successful year for the Petrex Group. With new members in our team, we offer a more sophisticated service and will strengthen our position in the market.

We put our customers at the heart of everything we do. We promise …