On behalf of DERA, PricewaterhouseCoopers GmbH examined instruments and strategies that foreign companies use to secure their supply of raw materials and thus increase planning security. The findings of this study are intended to encourage German companies to pay greater attention to the issue of securing raw materials and to examine their supply chains for possible weak points.

The study focuses on the activities of companies in countries that operate in a market economy environment similar to Germany. A total of eleven safeguarding strategies from a large number of identified individual measures are examined and analyzed on the basis of their application by foreign companies in seven countries.