Refractory Mortar Market Procurement Intelligence Report

A changing ecosystem within the Non-Medical Chemicals Minerals and Gases market also affects the procurement process, cost dynamics and supplier attractiveness for the buyers of Refractory Mortar. Markets across the globe are reeling under shortage of professionals and workforce that have relevant skills and training. Minimum wages and stringent regulations are compelling suppliers to increase their employee expenses which are expected to have an inflationary impact on buyers' procurement cost.

Suppliers of Refractory Mortar are moving up the value chain - both organically as well as through M&As. Their portfolios are increasingly being diversified with the objective of offering integrated solutions that go beyond just Refractory Mortar. Even buyers are engaging vendors who can act as a one-stop solution provider across their geographic footprint. Such strategic engagements can help buyers with savings associated with economies of scale and management of a much smaller supplier base.

Regulatory guidance on data protection and increasing concern over cybersecurity have increased the costs for suppliers as they incur additional spend on compliance and security. These additional costs have a potential to drive marginal increase in prices across the key geographies.

Sometimes, procurement functions are unable to timely alter their practices while responding to market conditions. Industry experts acknowledge that periodically reviewing procurement best practices and adopting learnings from across procurement categories can help procurement teams respond to market needs in a more agile way. This report combines our experience of other categories with Refractory Mortar procurement insights and hand picks best practices that can work for category managers delving in this market.

For example, Buyers should engage with suppliers that repurchase used products at fair market value. This assists buyers to dispose of used products in a convenient manner. Also, during such repurchases, suppliers provide credits to buyers for future purchases. This reduces overall procurement costs for buyers.

Buyers should assess the level of adoption of the latest technologies by suppliers to assess cost-saving opportunities and quality that can be provided by the latter. For instance, the adoption of technologies such as cloud computing will enable suppliers to reduce their internal computing hardware requirements for operations such as CAD and CAM. This can, in turn, enable them to reduce their operating costs, thereby suppliers can offer products at lower rates to buyers.

Buyers should engage with suppliers that have adopted a global delivery model as it reduces buyers' risk. In this model, any disaster/emergency at any operating facility of supplier will result in the work being transferred to a different facility, thereby ensuring continuity of the project and reduced risk for buyers. This model also provides buyers access to skilled labor from across the globe, thereby improving the quality of engineering products provided by the supplier.

Refractory Mortar procurement managers also need to proactively identify and mitigate potential risks that can arise in the supply chain or contracts for Refractory Mortar procurement. Some examples include: