Business Model
Covestro is one of the leading global suppliers of high-tech polymer materials and application solutions developed for these materials. In its core business, Covestro produces precursors for polyurethane foams and the high-performance plastic polycarbonate as well as precursors for coatings, adhesives, sealants, and specialty products, including films. Other noncore precursors in Covestro’s product portfolio include chlorine and by-products like styrene.
The company’s materials are used in many areas of modern life. Covestro offers its clientele innovative and sustainable solutions that enable improved performance on the one hand and help reduce carbon footprints on the other. The array of products ranges from insulation for refrigerators and entire buildings, laptop and smartphone cases, and medical technology to scratch-resistant and fast-drying vehicle coatings and film coverings for personal identification cards. In addition, materials by Covestro are used to manufacture medical equipment, safety barriers, and sneeze and splash guards. Covestro therefore serves a wide variety of sectors: The company’s main customers are from the automotive and transportation; construction; furniture and wood processing; and electrical, electronics, and household appliances industries. The products are also used in sectors such as sports and leisure, health, as well as in the chemical industry itself.
Global megatrends play a considerable role in this process: Advancing climate change, rising environmental pollution, the growing global population, increasing urbanization, and new forms of mobility, or the transition to renewable energies are changing the lives of billions of people. Consequently, the polymer industry will also have to develop continuously. The materials produced by companies such as Covestro contribute to finding innovative solutions to these global challenges. With its goal of becoming fully circular, Covestro also contributes to developing a climate-neutral, resource-conserving economy. The focus of Covestro’s long-term strategy is on alternative raw materials, renewable energy, innovative recycling, and joint solutions. Covestro’s aim is to pave the way and support these trends with its materials. By replacing traditional materials, such as glass, steel and aluminum, with durable, light, environmentally compatible and cost-effective materials, Covestro makes significant contributions in areas such as lightweight construction in the automotive industry, increasing the energy efficiency of living spaces through the use of new insulating materials, promoting sustainable energy with specialty materials, and improving the shelf-life of food through better insulation along the entire refrigeration chain.
- See “Circular Economy.”
- Additional information is available at: solutions.covestro.com/en/industries
Covestro monitors developments in its sales and consumer markets and orients its activities to support customers’ growth. Together with customers as well as with business and scientific partners, the company works continuously to further advance products, technologies, and application solutions. Covestro’s main competitors are BASF, Dow Chemical, Huntsman, Mitsubishi, Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), and Wanhua Chemical.