INDUSTRY INSIGHT
The war led to the energy crisis in Europe, and the production costs of chemical enterprises increased significantly, making "fleeing Europe" an inevitable move. In the Asia Pacific region, China has relatively complete infrastructure and supply chains, more importantly, stable and preferential energy supply make China the preferred production base for major giants. Therefore, major chemical enterprises have increased their investment in China in 2022.
With the impact of multiple factors such as climate change and corporate responsibility, ESG has become a topic of increasing concern for major chemical companies. For example, the world's top chemical companies have increased their investment in lithium battery materials, new energy, and other related industries. At the same time, many enterprises have actively introduced consulting companies to launch green chemical strategies, and small and medium-sized enterprises have invested in green chemical lending projects.
Due to the favorable economic recovery in 2021, the capital flow of major chemical enterprises is in good condition. In the context of low-carbon and sustainable development, enterprises are actively selling plastic businesses and purchasing biological, new energy, and semiconductor businesses.
New energy is seen as a development trend in the chemical industry. Chemical and material enterprises have begun to increase their investment in R&D of new energy projects and are actively establishing various new material research institutes. All major giants hope to establish technological advantages and form competitive barriers in the early stage. For example, PPG is actively developing flame retardant coatings in Tianjin; Many adhesive companies are also promoting the specific application of glue in the integration of power batteries.
At the same time, chemical enterprises have begun to actively promote digital transformation, with large foreign multinational enterprises maintaining the fastest development, and bulk chemical manufacturing enterprises, mainly based on petrochemical energy, are in a relatively leading position. However, small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises in the field of special fine chemicals are still in the initial stage of digital platform construction.
As technical barriers are almost breached, power batteries, energy storage batteries, and semiconductor related chemicals will be the hot topics in 2023. Actively exploring the above businesses and increasing investment in R&D will be the main theme of domestic chemical enterprises in 2023.
TALENT TRENDS
In 2021, new positions related to carbon emissions increased by 753.87%. The salary level and job requirements for positions in this category reflect the scarcity of talents in the "green and dual carbon" direction. Specifically, the monthly salary of "carbon emission experts" can reach 30-40k; The monthly salary of the "carbon neutral research and development post" is between 50-60k. In addition, talents who have a deep understanding of carbon policies and its development trends have also become the focus of many manufacturing enterprises. For example, a well-known manufacturing enterprise emphasizes that they hope candidates have background of green and dual carbon projects and have a profound insight into and grasp the characteristics of two-way empowerment of green and dual carbon and intelligent digital technology.
In the context of digitalization, the demand for digital talent is still increasing. From the digital business director to the comprehensive digital positions such as digital product manager, digital business partner, and digital architect. Under the influence of rapid technological iterations, positions such as electronic and power engineers, hardware engineers, and firmware engineers are very scarce.
Enterprises attach the most importance to three types of characteristics: technical skill, educational background, and potential. Technology matching is a top priority for R&D positions; In an increasingly competitive environment, companies are more inclined to seek some high potential talents, so soft skills and educational background are increasingly valued.
It is expected that the popularity of marketing talents with industry technical background will continue to rise. Enterprises want to seize the market opportunity and strive to attract high-potential marketing talents, especially sales and BD positions. In addition, solution engineers play a very important role as a bridge between marketing and technical communication, so solution architects with industry attributes will become popular positions; For sectors such as new energy and digitalization, supply chain planners will conduct research from a local and even global perspective. On the premise of reducing costs and increasing efficiency, this position will also be hot; R&D personnel, such as machinery, products, electrical, and processes, are long-standing needs.