Experts encourage engineering companies not to suspend export and to seize post-COVID19 opportunities
Exporting companies are drawing attention to the effects of the COVID-19 crisis across all of Europe. Caused by pandemics and quarantine business problems are similar in each country – disrupted supply chains and late payments. As the Lithuanian manufacturing industry exports 75% of its production abroad, mostly to the European market, reviewing the supply chains of these countries opens up new opportunities for Lithuanian cluster companies.
At the end of May, Lithuanian Engineering Industry Association (LINPRA) launched a series of webinars “Exports: Current Situation, Trends, and Opportunities”. The event was open to members of the association and other exporting companies. Instead of suspending exports Lithuanian Commercial Attachés encourages to look for new contacts or to resume contacts suspended during the quarantine period.
Most of Lithuanian engineering companies export to Sweden, Germany, Norway, Poland, Finland, Russia, the United Kingdom, Denmark, the Netherlands, the USA, and France markets, so these webinar series are especially relevant for them. Over 150 LINPRA members and representatives of other companies in the sector have already participated in the first three seminars on the current situation and export opportunities to the Nordic countries, Western Europe and Russia, Ukraine, Belarus.
The pandemic has caused similar problems and challenges for business in all the countries, just the damage scale for regions varies. It aims to maintain the liquidity of manufacturing companies, to promote exports and to help them stay competitive in order to survive this difficult period. Therefore effective aid measures are needed to promote exports. According to LINPRA director Darius Lasionis, due to disrupted value supply chains many companies abroad closed or went bankrupt: “As a result, new networks of suppliers are created, therefore Lithuanian companies have excellent opportunities to enter new supply chains and sign new contracts. It is important to take advantage of this possibility“. Germany, Sweden, as well as Finland and France obviously remain the main export directions.
Lithuanian Plastics Cluster is one of active participants of webinar series. The members of the cluster are united through both: industrial sector and main export markets – Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Austria. Certified with the Bronze Label, which confirms maturity and excellence, cluster participates in Promotion and Development of Innovation Networking (Inolink) project implemented by the Agency for Science, Innovations and Technology.
“The maturity of Lithuanian Plastics Cluster and professionalism of its coordinator help the entire industrial sector in the post-COVID19 period to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the revised supply chains,” states the InoLink Project Manager Jolita Razumienė.
