Polyether Polyols Supply Shortage Hasn’t Hit Chinese Market, BASF Insider Says
Qian Tongxin
DATE:  May 11 2022
/ SOURCE:  Yicai
Polyether Polyols Supply Shortage Hasn’t Hit Chinese Market, BASF Insider Says Polyether Polyols Supply Shortage Hasn’t Hit Chinese Market, BASF Insider Says

(Yicai Global) May 11 -- BASF’s supply disruption due to a technical failure at a Belgian joint venture mainly affects the European market and does not impact China, an insider at the German chemicals giant told Yicai Global.

Output of polyether polyol and polyether polyols-based polyurethane in the European, Middle Eastern and African markets has been interrupted due to a raw materials supplier experiencing technical difficulties, BASF’s polyurethane plant in Lemförde said on May 5.

The supplier is a Belgian-based joint venture between Ludwigshafen-headquartered BASF and the US’ Dow Chemical that makes propylene oxide, a key ingredient for polyether polyol, Yicai Global has learned. The stoppage has affected BASF, Dow and other chemicals giants in Europe.

"There are no irregularities in supply to China at present, and we will inform customers immediately in writing should there be any," a person connected to US chemicals producer DuPont told Yicai Global.

The recent surge in chemical materials prices may have to do with the high cost of transport, impacting demand, a person close to US specialty chemicals maker Huntsman said.

"Increased oil and natural gas prices will definitely result in more expensive chemical materials, as these are the base materials," said Ma Dawei, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a researcher at the CAS's Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry.

Many foreign companies’ plants in Shanghai are getting back to work amid the Covid-19 lockdown, now in its second month, to help mitigate global supply chain pressures. "Our workers are staying at the plant in so-called closed-loop management and the factory is operating. The return to the head office's lab is being arranged," an insider at Swiss special chemical products maker Clariant said.

US adhesives giant 3M's four plants in Shanghai started closed-bubble operations on May 7 and are gradually increasing capacity. “Although the delivery of raw materials and finished goods has improved, we are still having problems with logistics as transport firms are returning to work quite slowly,” the Minnesota-based company said.

"We have been granted permits for cross-provincial transport, but this only partially resolves our logistical dilemma as the volume we need to transport is much higher than that that the permits allow,” it added.

Editors: Liao Shumin, Kim Taylor

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Keywords:   BASF,3M,Huntsman,DuPont China,Clariant