ECRN has just published its newest position paper on the reshoring of basic chemical production in Europe which is also the contribution to the public consultation on the Critical Raw Materials Act.

The COVID-19 pandemic crisis and the conflict in Ukraine strongly highlighted how vulnerable can be the European industry and how it strongly depends on external energy sources and critical raw materials. We need to learn from these lessons and realize that the European industry and the chemical one especially is facing an extraordinary number of challenges now. Many companies experienced dramatic exposure to supply chain disruptions during the pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns due to their reliance on offshore supplies.

Undertaken actions should lead us to the resilience of the European chemical sector and increase its competitiveness globally. Without necessary actions, the chemical sector will have a tremendous problem with reshoring basic production in Europe.
Better resilience of supply chains can be achieved through a combination of approaches, ranging from intensive interregional cooperation, finding substitutes, encouraging diversification, forging strategic relationships with suppliers, stockpiling, or encouraging domestic production.

The whole document is available here: