PETpla.net Insider 04 / 2021

TOP TALK PETplanet Insider Vol. 22 No. 04/21 www.petpla.net 12 refreshment. Representative products such as Dali Group’s peanut milk and Panpan Group’s raw coconut juice are typical products bottled using aseptic technologies. In 1999, we became the first sup- plier in China to engage in aseptic technology. Building on our experi- ences and continuous improvement through six generations of aseptic technology, we initiated, developed and launched our 7 th generation aseptic equipment, which features integrated combiblocs and high speed lines. Newamstar offers a complete range of sterilisation, including wet, dry and e-beam technologies. PETplanet: What do you see as the general PET trends, today and in future? Tony Ho: PET is still the most widely used beverage package format. Its recyclability is way better than paper, glass and metal. Demand for PET is growing in non-food sector, such as cleaning chemicals and homecare, an area where we devel- oped good relationships with manu- facturers. PETplanet: The Covid-19 pan- demic caused the whole world to stop. Whilst China was able to control the virus in a short time, other countries and regions globally haven’t. What does that mean for you as a Chinese supplier with a global customer base? Tony Ho: We expect that the world economy will emerge from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic gradually. After the pandemic was controlled in China, Newamstar recov- ered production and operation quickly and was soon able to resume good standards of service for our customers in China and around the world. PETplanet: Did you encoun- ter issues affecting supply for your products or difficulties in logistics, for example? Tony Ho: Logistics and transpor- tation were somewhat affected but control of the situation has seen the impact essentially eliminated. PETplanet: How did the pandemic affect your daily work in your HQ? What arrangements did you imple- ment to ensure safety? Tony Ho: Our company recovered production and operation quickly and was able to maintain on-time delivery. Our intelligent remote service and online service systems, introduced in 2016, provide customers with remote technical support and assistance. The system helps reduce support wait- ing time and has improved customer service responsiveness and efficiency. Our technical support centre is acces- sible online, 24/7, for customers in China and abroad. PETplanet: How do you deliver after-sales and service on-site, at cus- tomers facilities? Tony Ho: New technologies, such as 5G, big data, industrial internet of things (IIoT), Cloud computing, AI and so on, are deeply integrated with the real economy and facilitate digitalisa- tion, networking and intelligent factories. We have already developed an intelligent service system for custom- ers, which provides remote technical support and assistance. During the pandemic, installation, commissioning and maintenance of several projects outside of China were carried out smoothly through that system. PETplanet: In many cases cus- tomers also need service support in person, on site, in their factories. Do you still face that sort of demand from your customers as well, is it just a small portion or is it not even really necessary anymore, because of your remote and online services? Tony Ho: Currently, the propor- tions of on-site and remote service support vary in different regions. In the future, with the upgrading of the service system and improvement of the technical level of the opera- tors, more and more on-site service support will be replaced with remote services. We are already finding that our intelligent remote service system is being relied upon by a growing number of customers. PETplanet: What do you, as an industry leader, think the situation could develop, now that there are vac- cines available? Tony Ho: It is believed that the pandemic will be further controlled as the availability of vaccines increases. The international business communi- cation environment will be safer and more stable, which will lay the founda- tion for global economic recovery. PETplanet: When do you think the world will be ‘back to normal’? Tony Ho: According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the global roll-out of vaccines are lead- ing to the pandemic being controlled more and more effectively. However, we cannot predict when it will come to an end. We still need to do a good job in pandemic prevention and control, maintaining production, operation and customer service. PETplanet: What major changes, on both the industry and customer sides, do you expect to see when the pandemic is over? Tony Ho: Digital transformation and AI are already happening. We expect the food and beverage industry to speed up its deployment of intel- ligent manufacturing technology and Juice ultra-clean blowing-filling-capping production line