Semco is an Essential Business
Semco would like to share an important status update with our clients: through the current crisis, our graphite production operation will remain open. With the COVID pandemic pushing federal and local governments to institute various closures and social distancing measures, we wanted to reassure our customers that Semco will continue producing graphite products that they rely on. With close to 50 years of graphite production experience, Semco machines many parts and components that are used in essential products and processes across various industries. To get our clients the graphite components they need to run their important businesses, our company has implemented social distancing measures for all personnel on the shop floor so that every Semco employee can operate in a safe environment. Semco has also organized our office so that personnel take advantage of the technological advancements in internet connectivity, cloud storage, and sharing to work from home. Our office staff, while working remotely, have virtually all the tools they would have in the office. Despite the technological tools available for remote office work, the difficulties of operating our business during this pandemic have proven, as they have for many businesses, challenging. As we’ve heard from our customers over the past month, we’ve been reminded of the critical role our graphite products play, particularly in the healthcare field. This realization has motivated Semco to work even harder to ensure we do our part to maintain a healthy supply chain by delivering graphite product to the companies that rely on it.
The graphite products we manufacture at Semco are never seen on retail shop shelves, but are instead almost always found in industrial settings. Therefore, a typical American consumer may not recognize what Semco does as an essential industry. However, this crisis has brought to light the amount of product we are producing for essential industries and how disruptions of such products can have ramifications for the consumer. To get a clearer picture of the importance of our work to industries on the front lines of fighting COVID-19, we asked our customers to provide reasons their business operations are considered “essential” to our country and to the fight against the coronavirus. The responses we’ve received demonstrate how critical our graphite products are to maintaining our country’s supply stream in many industries such as laboratory supply, cleaning solutions and products, medical supplies, pharmaceuticals, chemical production, construction and repair of hospitals, and energy.
We would like to feature a couple of customer responses that highlight the essential work we at Semco are doing to ensure the health and safety of our country during this crisis. The first customer response we will share is from an essential business supporting the production of medical supply chains, transportation, energy, communications, food and agriculture, chemical manufacturing, nuclear facilities, the operation of dams, water and wastewater treatment, and emergency services. This customer communicated that they cannot operate without our graphite products. They went on to say the following:
“Without the supply of our critical path parts, we will face delays in production and delivery that will impact Philips Healthcare and Procter and Gamble’s ability to supply their life sustaining products. We request your urgent assistance to approve and maintain the continued operations of the following critical supplier.”
Another customer wrote to tell us bluntly that we have to remain open:
“Manufacturing companies such as yours are required to continue to manufacture and distribute product to support our production needs for transportation, mining, construction, energy, national defense, etc. Our product has application in many forms but is readily used for hospital maintenance, emergency utility repair, emergency & general highway maintenance, dam maintenance, and military base maintenance. We will continue to produce product to meet these key areas of responsibility.”
Here’s another customer discussing their essential role:
“As the country builds field hospitals in the hardest hit areas around large cities, we provide the critical materials to power and build these structures. Our core wire and cable products are used to power these new structures as our healthcare system prepares for a sharp increase in demand. Our products are also used to build medical equipment such as ventilators.”
In these unprecedented times, Semco supports our country’s critical and essential industries. We will continue to operate in a safe, professional manner and will ensure that we follow all federal, state, and local government guidelines for social distancing and safe practices.The coronavirus crisis will one day end, but graphite production at Semco will not.