UPDATE 21/07/2021: RHINE RIVER WATER LEVELS NORMALIZING AGAIN

Heavy rainfall in the last week over the western part of Germany, Belgium and Netherlands led to massive flooding. Our thoughts are with the victims and the families who lost their homes and belongings. Employees living in the area need to take care of their families and homes. In some areas, the whole infrastructure has been destroyed. Truck and train traffic have been severely impacted in several areas, but are currently recovering. The flood wave had reached critical levels on the Rhine river and its tributary rivers resulting in the closure of the waterways for several days. The threat to the raw material supply and outbound shipments for our monomer plants in Germany has been reduced since the Rhine water levels have been falling since the beginning of the week. However, several logistic constraints in the affected areas remain in place causing lack of available equipment and delays.

After several incidents of high and low water levels in last years, our supply chain team has diligently worked on mitigation measures to reduce potential negative impact of Rhine river shipping limitations on our supply chain. However, in such severe circumstance supply constraints and delays might not be avoidable. In such cases of disruption, our sales and customer service colleagues are trained to minimize the impact for our customers. We are prepared and determined to maintain our high service levels also during these challenging times.