Insight

A review and preview of the global fastener market

Named after the Roman god who is often depicted as having two faces – due to its ability to look to the future and to the past – the Janus Perspective is a unique feature that includes a wide cross section of global fastener business leaders, who have all contributed their retrospective of 2021 and thoughts on prospects and challenges for 2022.

Dr Michael Schneider, CEO

2021 was shaped by unprecedented interruptions to global supply chains – interruptions that also affected NORMA Group’s automotive business. Despite such setbacks, our business remains resilient on the back of a diversified portfolio; a number of product innovations catering to global megatrends; and, most importantly, the consistent delivery of our mid-term transformation programme.

This year, NORMA Group celebrated its 15th anniversary – one and a half decades in which we succeeded in becoming an international market and technology leader for joining and fluid handling technology. Under normal circumstances, this would be a reason for us to celebrate, but the Covid-19 pandemic began rearing its ugly head again at the end of 2021 and we had to change our plans. Throughout the year, protecting our employees on-site has been our top priority. In all regions, we have implemented protective measures and supported regional vaccination campaigns – including providing Covid-19 shots at workplaces in Germany, Malaysia, the USA and Mexico.

During a brief period in the summer, we were able to go back to physical meetings and we participated in trade fairs in China. There, we saw unwavering interest in our products and, in particular, in improvements such as customised multilayer cables or connectors with additional digital functions.

Using a broad portfolio to mitigate global supply chain interruptions

We have been busy adapting to the ‘new normal’ in our daily operations – our automotive business was and still is affected by global supply chain challenges. After a strong first half of 2021, we saw a change in order behaviour among many customers, requiring much higher flexibility and short-term planning from us than usual.

On the input side, we noticed an increase in raw material costs due to faltering supply. We felt the impact of sharply increased prices for engineering plastics, stainless steel and alloy surcharges in the past quarter. In addition, earnings and margins were impacted by special freight rates, higher overall costs for logistics services and increased costs for temporary workers and contract labour in Europe and America.

We were able to mitigate the impact of these developments for the most part through our diversified positioning in the marketplace and our consistent focus on customer demand in NORMA Group’s three growth markets: Water management, industry applications and mobility/new energies. In 2021 we also received initial contracts for hydrogen applications in vehicles and industrial power storage systems. On the water management side, we brought the Raindrip RootWise™ to market: A 360 degree precision irrigation pad that, compared to other irrigation methods, can save up to 80% water. In the years ahead, we will continue to bring forward innovative products and solutions to tackle the global megatrends climate change and resource scarcity – and leverage these for our business growth.

Success towards NORMA Group’s ambitious sustainability targets

NORMA Group also used 2021 to press ahead with our sustainability initiatives. We continued along the path set out in our 2018 environmental strategy, which also included ambitious quantitative goals. Since July 2021, our production facility in Serbia has been running exclusively on climate neutral green electricity, drastically reducing our carbon footprint.

Apart from our environmental stewardship, we are also stepping up in terms of our social responsibility with the NORMA Clean Water project. These efforts have been underway for more than seven years, together with Plan International, with the goal of providing access to water for children in India and Brazil. We are proud that the Clean Water project was awarded the German Award for Sustainability Projects 2021 in the ‘equal opportunities’ category by an independent jury from business, science and media.

Toward 2022: Group strategy focusing on growth

The first half of 2022 will most likely remain burdened by global supply chain interruptions and we expect higher raw material costs and unsteady order behaviour from the OEM side in our automotive business. We have, however, set in motion several mitigation measures to reduce operating costs and be more flexible in our production capabilities. We are confident that we will emerge from this situation stronger. We plan to take further steps to leverage the advantages of digitalisation – in sales, our own production and to an increasing extent in our products.

Although we faced many unforeseen challenges in 2021, we have continued to drive forward our mid-term transformation programme and will continue to do so in 2022. On top of that, we plan to grow our business continuously – both organically and through acquisitions along the megatrends climate change and resource scarcity.