Sitech and the coronavirus situation
It's business as usual for us in this vital sector and we are playing a crucial role in ensuring that the factories on the Chemelot site continue to operate safely. Our maintenance, fire service, security and other services are running as normal. If a large number of our employees fall ill, then we will take appropriate measures in good time to ensure we remain able to carry out our most important tasks. Thankfully, we believe this is eminently possible and we consult on a daily basis with the authorities, our customers and the Chemelot organization.
Marc Dassen, CEO of Sitech Services:
"Just like many other people across the country and in the process industry, we are operating in extraordinary times; constantly looking to maintain a balance between minimizing the spread of the virus and our responsibility to keep the Chemelot site running. To do this, we need to have absolute trust in our government, follow the advice we are given and identify solutions to carry out our work. Safety is paramount, including during this coronavirus crisis."
Health and safety are paramount, along with minimizing the impact
We are closely monitoring developments relating to the coronavirus situation. We take the health and safety of our employees, suppliers and partners extremely seriously and are doing our utmost to stop any further spread of the coronavirus. At the same time, we continue to strive every day to carry out our work; from maintaining the factories and safeguarding the infrastructure on the Chemelot site to delivering our water purification, fire service and security services. We will do everything possible to minimize the impact of the coronavirus on current and future projects.
Factory maintenance
Anyone who can work from home is doing so, but plenty of Sitech employees are still doing their jobs on the Chemelot site. We are implementing measures – such as having people work in shifts or physically separate from one another to carry out important tasks – to ensure that our operations can continue. We are also practicing social distancing, of course, and where the nature of the work makes that impossible, we are taking protective measures. For everybody’s safety, including their own, our employees are observing the RIVM hygiene measures.
Coronavirus measures are having a huge impact on the scheduling of large-scale maintenance work, or turn arounds, that involve the expertise and manpower of many partners and suppliers in addition to our own. We are consulting with our customers on a case-by-case basis to investigate the options for postponing these turn arounds. As part of this process, we are providing advice and support and monitoring the integrity of the factories.
Fire service, security and wastewater treatment (IAZI)
The Alert and Care Center (ACC) on the Chemelot site, which houses our control room, fire service and security services, has the situation under control. Daily operations to safeguard site safety are ongoing, while large-scale exercises and exams have been postponed. We are shielding our fire service, security and IAZI employees as much as possible, because their presence on the site is important for everyone's safety. We have created a pool of reserve staff in case a large number of employees fall ill and we also have several options for cutting back on staff numbers while safeguarding our service provision. As a crisis organization, we are well prepared for situations like the current one.
Our wastewater treatment plant (IAZI) is also one of the Netherlands' vital processes and is continuing to operate as normal. Wastewater from Chemelot is being checked daily for substances, but not currently for the presence of coronavirus. This is because the specialists we have consulted advise that the risk of this is very low, because we purify wastewater from the chemical plants and there is little to no sanitary wastewater. To ensure continuity, we have taken steps to reduce the size of our teams and our people are wearing protective equipment where necessary — as is standard in our industrial sector.
Other services
Many of our around 1,000 employees are working from home and that is running smoothly. We are heartened by the flexibility and commitment of our staff, supported by our high-quality IT infrastructure and the increasing levels of digitalization of our operations.
If you have any questions about this report, please don't hesitate to contact us via your personal contact at Sitech or using the customary channels. Our front office is provisionally open on working days from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM and you can contact us by phone during those times on +31 46 476 6066. You can send questions by email to info@sitech.nl
Stay safe.
Marc Dassen
CEO of Sitech Services
