BODGAN COMANITA

Marketchemica, Canada

Welcome to a new chapter in Chemistry Today!

As we transition from the era of “The Customer Bond” column (1), which served as a beacon for marketing and sales professionals in the fine and specialty chemicals industry, we now embark on a fresh journey with “The M&A Catalyst.” We believe the rapid restructuring of the global economic and political landscape will be supported in the evolving fine and specialty chemicals sector by the pivotal role played by mergers and acquisitions.

The previous decades witnessed a unipolar world order, with the USA at the forefront, leading to significant global outsourcing of manufacturing, particularly to China. This globalization wave transformed production and supply chains by hollowing out the manufacturing base of the West and replacing it with a glitzy and profitable service economy whose fragility was ultimately exposed by the COVID health crisis and the hard knock of the hot conflict in Ukraine. As we stand on the precipice of a multipolar world, a new paradigm is emerging. Manufacturing is returning to the Western world, and the once-mercantilist trade between the West and the Glo ...