CASF NEWS NEWS & INFORMATION ON SURFACE FINISHING BY SRDJAN KNEZEVIC The Canadian Association for Surface Finishing in the year ahead: Emerging Stronger Together T he surface finishing industry is entering the new year with similar challenges and uncertainties that we hoped to have left behind earlier in 2021. Our industry is not alone in facing the difficulties of demand outpacing supply for semiconductor microchips and key material inputs. Several factors dating back to the pandemic response that required global importing of PPE, natural events ranging from winter storm Uri hitting the US Gulf Coast (a vital region for refining of petrochemicals), a fire at a Japanese microchip plant in the middle of the microchip shortage, to rolling waves of the spread of the coronavirus globally that of course required areas where these critical goods are manufactured to (re)introduce measures to control the risks to public health and pressure on care systems brought on by Covid-19. While the reports showing dozens of container ships waiting days to unload important goods on North American shores seemed like international news hinting at common fragility in the supply chain the experience hit home with the catastrophic November downpours and flooding in British Columbia to end a year where natural disasters took lives and livelihoods. Canadian industry has been put through a test in extreme preparedness, adaptability and availability of resources, all while many members of the supply chain have had to idle some aspects of their operations while the microchip shortage cuts output of the final products demanded by customers. These challenges have revealed where our membership excels and the networks we rely on to position our companies for success. It is these ties that CASF wants to build on as we emerge from the global pandemic. Successfully emerging requires that we also reinforce aspects of our operations impacted in the two years since the pandemic began. We begin this year with goals to better understand our membership's needs and the challenges each member is facing so that CASF can adapt. A membership survey will be distributed to members in the early months of this Non-slip coatings are required in a number of industrial settings 20 www.cfcm.cahttp://www.cfcm.ca