A Year of Challenges, Important Milestones, and Gratitude.
Johan Stureson - CEO AXEL Group
The world is suffering from geo-political instability. The war in Ukraine carried over to 2023 and will be a part of 2024 too. In early October, we experienced another significant conflict in the Middle East, with the war in and around the Gaza Strip. Both occasions represent huge costs in terms of loss of human lives and endless suffering.
On top of this, we experienced a weakening economy in large parts of the world, and in some countries, it even qualified as a recession. On the climate change front, there remains so much more to do, and the evidence of the urgency is glaring, and challenging socio-political conditions persist across the globe.
On the business front, these circumstances influence us all in terms of overall demand for our products and the cost of raw materials, transportation, etc. Customer demand has decreased as past cautious purchases amid raw material uncertainties resulted in high inventory levels that are now adjusting downwards to normal levels. The consequence is that our customer demand is even lower than the actual consumption by end-users.
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