2020 was a defining start to a new decade for our organization.

Despite the unprecedented challenges of 2020, SOCMA remained steadfast supporting the industry and members in navigating uncharted waters, sustaining operations and promoting business growth amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

As we celebrate our 100th Anniversary and a Century of Solutions in 2021, we remain committed to delivering the right programs for our members and the industry. Here’s a look back at our activities in 2020.

SOCMA launched our first efforts in early March and lobbied to secure the chemical sector’s federal status as essential critical infrastructure, ensuring our members could operate and supply vital products during the pandemic.

Using weekly bulletins, members were apprised of state-level orders and restrictions and worked to secure enforcement discretion from key federal regulatory agencies.

We hosted 18 educational forums between March 1-July 1 on pandemic response plans, health and safety compliance, federal emergency aid packages, workplace reopening plans and other critical information for navigating the pandemic to more than 1500 people.

After a two year partnership, SOCMA secured the acquisition of the Specialty & Custom Chemicals Show, reinforcing our strategic focus of offering commercial growth opportunities for our members and the industry.

With great optimism surrounding two recent vaccines for COVID-19, there is renewed hope for the return of in-person networking events in 2021, particularly starting in the second quarter of the year. We have scheduled the 3rd Annual Specialty & Custom Chemicals Show for April 14-16 at the Omni in Fort Worth, TX.

This 24/7 platform highlights the manufacturing capabilities of our members in the specialty and fine chemicals value chain.

The platform digitally showcases unit operations, chemistry expertise, and available equipment of SOCMA member companies and facilitates new business connections for prospective chemical projects.

Traction for our Lead Sheet Service doubled in 2020! The project referral program has helped fill nearly 80 project requests and facilitated more than 200 direct B2B connections between contract manufacturers and customers.

With in-person events and customer meetings disrupted, our lead sheets continue to provide a critically useful channel for new toll and contract manufacturing projects.

Since its launch in early 2020, our Chemical Operations Training Tool has been adopted by more than 17 specialty chemical companies to train and refresh their teams on standard operations.

The tool consists of on-demand micro-learning modules, vivid 3D animations that convey appearance, major components and principles of operation, and interactive exercises and self-assessments to confirm learning comprehension.

SOCMA played a crucial role in securing a three-year extension of the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program (S.4148).

The reauthorization provides members with the certainty needed to make long-term facility security investments and ensures the program will continue to run transparently and efficiently.

SOCMA lobbied EPA to reduce the costs and burdens of its fees rule, expressing concerns about our members ability to innovate new chemistries and operate profitably under the current rule.

With revisions to the TSCA fees pending, SOCMA supports reduced fees for Section Five new chemical notices and new de minimis exemptions from the extremely costly Section Six risk evaluation fees.

SOCMA has strongly supported passage of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), petitioning Congress and USTR since negotiations began in 2017.

The new agreement delivers a substantial win for SOCMA members by modernizing chemical rules of origin, promoting regulatory cooperation, and better protecting confidential business information.

SOCMA petitioned EPA on the miscellaneous organic chemical (MON) manufacturing air toxics rule, citing the practical difficulties of new monitoring and operational requirements on batch manufacturing and the use of ethylene oxide. SOCMA successfully persuaded EPA to revise the rule to minimize the burdens for batch processes.

SOCMA also petitioned EPA on the TSCA methylene chloride risk evaluation, successfully persuading EPA to exclude this condition of use since TSCA explicitly excludes drug products and their associated intermediates from consideration under the statute.

As more SOCMA members implement operational technology into daily processes, we have shifted gears from general liability to cyber security liability. Experts estimate a business will fall victim to a cyber security attack every 11 seconds by 2021 and the average cost of a single cyber security breach is $3.92 million per company, which is why SOCMA has partnered with McGriff to broker Corvus Smart Cyber Insurance® as part of our relaunched affinity partnership program. Protect your company and take advantage of your own cyber security analysis, detailed IT security reports and ongoing monitoring for proactive risk management and resilience.