ContiTech's growth plans are centered around India'

Philip Nelles, Member of the Continental Executive Board and Head of Group Sector ContiTech speaks to Brian de Souza about the company's vision, trends in electrification, new materials, sustainability and working from home.

- Brian de Souza

A war is raging in the Ukraine, affecting the global supply chain and supply of precious materials. What is your perspective as head of your division?

The war in Ukraine is a very serious topic. It has become a humanitarian catastrophe for a lot of people. From a supply perspective, we face a challenge as Russia is a base for oil-related secondary products such as carbon black and polymers. So we do face a shortage and then there is the energy supply coming from Russia and high energy prices which hits Europe mainly. We have a big footprint in Europe in terms of sales share and operations, so it is a key challenge.

At a personal level, I can only hope that the parties come to negotiations and end the war which is in Europe. At Continental, we are trying our best to alleviate the situation, supporting via donations for those who have to flee from their homes and are facing much suffering.

What does this mean for the ongoing transformation at ContiTech?

The change and transformation is happening as we speak. We are going to see a lot of different industries and businesses changing rapidly. At ContiTech, our vision beyond rubber into new growth fields has a rationale. Our home turf is rubber materials but we are now positioning ourselves as material specialists working on a variety of areas and applications with thermoplastics materials.