Fostering online business in Asia : Covestro launches flagship store on Alibaba

The digitalization strategy of Covestro opens up new possibilities for doing business. In order to make the world's chemicals easily accessible to business customers, Covestro has started a cooperation with Chinese internet giant Alibaba. As of 23 April, the company offers its high-tech polymer materials in a flagship store on 1688.com, an online platform of Alibaba. The platform is the biggest online business-to-business marketplace in China. The Chinese economy shows tremendous progress also in innovation and digitalization over the recent years to which Covestro is contributing. Under the link covestrochina.1688.com, the high-tech material polycarbonate as well as pre-products for polyurethane foams, coatings and adhesives will become available.

'Digitalization rapidly changes customer needs and preferences and offers new business opportunities, especially in the fast growing Chinese economy,' said Dr. Markus Steilemann, Chief Commercial Officer and future CEO of Covestro. 'For us, China plays a more and more important role not only in terms of market size but also with regard to innovation in relevant markets and technologies. With the launch of an online store on Alibaba we follow our strategy by innovating our business models in close cooperation with our customers.'

The main goal is to offer customers a reliable, official channel with a simple and efficient purchasing experience. With a maximum quantity order, the flagship store is more tailored to the needs of small and medium-sized customers. Therefore, transactions will be of relatively small volume. This will allow Covestro to listen, learn and continously improve its offering.

'We want to make the customer experience more convenient and efficient. Particularly in a market like China, which is at the forefront of digitalization, we need to be where the customers are and will be. 1688.com is that place,' added Xiaobin Zhong, Head of Commercial Operations for the Coatings, Adhesives and Specialties business of Covestro in the Asia Pacific region.

As a start, Covestro will offer around 50 products on 1688.com. The second wave of products to launch is already in planning. The company announced that new forms of online commerce will contribute up to EUR 1 billion Euro in accumulated sales until end of 2019.

About Covestro:
With 2017 sales of EUR 14.1 billion, Covestro is among the world's largest polymer companies. Business activities are focused on the manufacture of high-tech polymer materials and the development of innovative solutions for products used in many areas of daily life. The main segments served are the automotive, construction, wood processing and furniture, and electrical and electronics industries. Other sectors include sports and leisure, cosmetics, health and the chemical industry itself. Covestro has 30 production sites worldwide and employs approximately 16,200 people (calculated as full-time equivalents) at the end of 2017.

Find more information atwww.covestro.com.
You can visit the shop undercovestrochina.1688.com.

Forward-looking statements
This news release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Covestro AG. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Covestro's public reports which are available atwww.covestro.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.