“ We ’ re also looking to drive a lot of automation and to improve our range of data sources , including satellite analytics ”
— Will Blake , Director of Technology & Analytics , CRU Group
Will explains that primary research in these areas covers supply , demand , price and costs analysis ; the content is also used to build proprietary models that inform CRU ’ s forecasting under the strapline of ‘ where commodities meet economics ’.
Information provided by CRU helps organisations navigate challenging market conditions . This has been evidenced most recently in the company ’ s work during the global COVID-19 pandemic . Like all companies , CRU faced the challenge of shifting to a remote working business model . “ It ’ s been very challenging ,” Will highlights , “ but as we have offices in Beijing and Shanghai , which both enforced home working in January , we were better placed to plan for any potential disruption . On 23 March we moved the whole global business – around 300 people – to home working and it ’ s worked remarkably well . Our cloud strategy proved to be very resilient and was a key enabler in allowing business to carry on effectively .”
The company has also been engaged in dedicated COVID-19 analysis to better understand how the virus is impacting commodities . “ Disruption to supply chains has been significant ,” Will states , “ as well as short-term demand reduction . Alongside this , we ’ ve been tracking operational status of mines , smelters and refineries with our dedicated disruption tracker service , which has been embedded in our
DID YOU KNOW ?
• CRU sets and publishes over 500 commodity prices each week
• CRU has 300 employees spread over 8 offices on 5 continents
• CRU analyses over 40 different commodities
117 constructionglobal . com