SMU Comminuty News
June 4, 2020
SMU Community News: Helping Customers, Helping Communities
Written by Sandy Williams
The COVID-19 crisis has prompted creative ways for businesses in the steel industry to work around the challenges caused by shutdowns, social distancing and economic disruption. SMU Community News highlights positive actions by companies and their associates to persevere in business and to help the communities where they live and work.
XOM Materials, an online platform for trading steel, metals and plastics, with offices in Berlin, Duisburg, and Atlanta, is one company that has found a silver lining in the pandemic. XOM adopted a company-wide social distancing policy at the start of the pandemic and transitioned to fully digital communication with its customers. The transition was challenging for some, but U.S. Sales Manager Jeff Marzendorfer believes this unprecedented crisis will give many organizations the boost they need to build their digital infrastructure. Marzendorfer said he is optimistic about the future of the American materials market and stresses that digitization opens new revenue chains that many companies will rely on in a post-COVID world. “With an upswinging market, I think things are nothing but positive at this point,” he said.
