MOSCOW (MRC) -- Half of Canada’s small firms have already seen a drop in sales due to the economic effects of COVID-19, with four in 10 also reporting a decrease greater than 25%, a new survey conducted by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) says, said Canplastics.
Conducted online beginning on March 13, the survey has received 8,730 responses. “The early economic impacts of coronavirus on Canada’s SMEs has been massive,” said Dan Kelly, CFIB president, in a statement. “Even more alarming is our finding that a full quarter of small firms would not be able to survive for more than a month with a drop in business income of more than 50%.”
Other key small business findings include:
The sectors most badly affected are hospitality, recreation, retail and personal services;
The average cost to those affected by the economic impacts of COVID-19 is about $66,000;
43% have reduced hours for staff and 20% have started temporary layoffs;
38% have experienced supply chain issues;
42% said they will have zero sales if face-to-face contact becomes impossible.
When asked what additional measures governments should put in place to help them, 91 per cent of respondents said that government should offer direct financial support for firms experiencing a significant drop in sales. In addition, small business owners suggest governments:
Provide temporary tax relief on income, payroll and sales taxes (69%)
Cancel planned tax increases such as CPP/QPP and carbon tax (66%)
Delay tax filing deadlines and eliminate penalties for late payments and remittance (65%)
Introduce wage subsidies for businesses to retain staff (58%)
Create incentives to boost consumer spending (46%).
As MRC informed earlier, operations at Italian petrochemical producer Versalis (part of Eni) have not affected by emergency quarantine measures in the country. Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte extended its emergency coronavirus measures Wednesday evening and announced the closure of "non-essential" commercial businesses. This follows the announcement of a nationwide lockdown on Monday, limiting movement for around 60 million people. Under these measures people will only be allowed to leave their homes for work or health reasons. Versalis has three steam crackers in Italy, capable of producing 1.675 million mt of ethylene, 750,000 of propylene and 285,000 mt of butadiene a year.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polyprolypele (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 215,390 tonnes in the first month of 2020, up by 23% year on year. Shipments of all grades of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) increased due to higher capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 127,240 tonnes in January 2020, up by 33% year on year. ZapSibNeftekhim's homopolymer PP accounted for the main increase in shipments.
MRC