At the same time, some of the industry's biggest names are behind efforts to create competing online exchanges for chemical buyers and sellers. All this is forcing chemical makers to rethink how they do business. Earlier this year, Lubrizol launched its Lubrizol Express extranet for North American customers to obtain product information and to place and track orders.
Plans are under way to expand the extranet to include international customers.
Beyond chemical companies' individual E-business efforts, several consortiums have emerged. It will connect buyers and sellers of chemicals, providing them with a single system for negotiating contracts, contract and order management, fulfillment, and payment. Neither Elemica nor Envera is in operation yet. But backers of Elemica and Envera maintain that the consortium-led exchanges have greater staying power because they pose less of a disintermediation threat to chemical manufacturers, Young says. Elemica will provide customers with an online catalog, or superstore, for purchasing chemical products, says David Kepler, Dow Chemical Co. CIO and VP of electronic business.