Company News
September 11, 2021
Coatings Overview Post Ida
Sherwin-Williams, PPG profit warnings highlight raw material challenges, Ida impact on coatings
Author: Joseph Chang
2021/09/08
NEW YORK (ICIS)–Earnings warnings from US-based coatings companies Sherwin-Williams and PPG are shining a brighter spotlight on raw material cost inflation and supply chain challenges, especially following the impact of Hurricane Ida.
Any hope for a return to normal seasonality by Q4 2021 in many product chains has been dashed by the additional supply constraints as companies struggle to start up plants.
“All we’ve seen since winter storm Uri [in mid-February] was a scramble to rebuild inventories, and the consensus was that would be complete in the third or fourth quarter. Well, this is another hit, so it’s probably going to be into 2022 before things begin to return to normal,” said Kevin Swift, chief economist at the American Chemistry Council (ACC) on an ICIS podcast.
COATINGS AND SPECIALTIES TAKE HIT
This will hit coatings and other specialty chemicals companies harder, as they source many different raw materials for the products they formulate and sell versus commodity chemicals companies, which rely on a few select feedstocks.
“Although it has yet to be fully quantified, we think Hurricane Ida likely made a difficult supply situation worse – there appears little slack in the petrochemical supply chain,” said Laurence Alexander, analyst at Jefferies, after the PPG announcement.
“We think companies such as Avient, Axalta, BASF, DuPont, 3M, Quaker Chemical, Sherwin-Williams, Trinseo and Valvoline will also likely be constrained by similar supply chain issues,” he added.
On the coatings raw materials side, as of 8 September, 58% of methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI), 35% of isopropanol (IPA), 23% of n-butanol (NBA) and 23% of glycol ethers capacity in the US remained offline in the wake of Ida, according to the ICIS Live Disruptions Tracker.
Butanediol (BDO), which is used to make polyurethane surface coatings, among many other products, also has 57% of US capacity offline.
Less impacted is key coatings raw material acrylic acid with 9% of capacity offline, and titanium dioxide (TiO2) which was not directly impacted by Ida.
| US plant status relevant to coatings as of 8 Sep | ||||
| Company | Site | Products | Status | Force Majeure |
| BASF | Geismar, Louisiana | BDO, EO, isocyanates, polyols | Expected Restart | |
| BASF | Geismar, Louisiana | BDO | Expected Restart | Declares FM |
| BASF | Geismar, Louisiana | Isocyanates, polyols | Expected Restart | Declares FM |
| Dow | Plaquemine, Louisiana | Ethylene, propylene, benzene, toluene, EO, glycol ethers, PE, PG, PO | Expected Restart | |
| Dow | Taft, Louisiana | Ethylene, propylene, acetic acid, acrylic acid, acrylates, ethanolamines, EO, glycol ethers, LLDPE, oxo-alcohols | Shutdown | |
| ExxonMobil | Baton Rouge, Louisiana | Ethylene, propylene, BD, benzene, toluene, IPA, PA, plasticizers, PE, PP, base oils | Restart | |
| Rubicon | Geismar, Louisiana | MDI, polyether polyols, aniline, nitrobenzene | Shutdown | |
| Shell | Geismar, Louisiana | EO, EG, glycol ethers, linear alcohols, linear olefins | Shutdown |
While raw material supply constraints from Ida will limit coatings production, demand is unlikely to wane and may even accelerate in the short term on rebuilding efforts following the storm, which not only hit Louisiana, but caused damage all along its path to the northeast US.
Weather forecasting service AccuWeather estimates $95bn in damage and economic loss from Ida, just under the $105bn-115bn in damage from Hurricane Rita in 2005. It would be the seventh costliest hurricane in terms of economic impact.
SHERWIN-WILLIAMS WARNING
Sherwin-Williams, the world’s largest coatings company with over $18bn in 2020 sales, on 8 September lowered Q3 sales guidance to be up or down by a low-single digit percentage over the year-ago period, versus prior guidance of up by a mid-to-high single-digit percentage.
Sherwin-Williams CEO John Morikis cited “persistent and industry-wide raw material availability issues” not improving as anticipated, hindering the company’s ability to fully meet strong demand across professional architectural and industrial coatings.
The company expects raw material availability, including from the impact of Ida, to negatively impact Q3 sales in the high-single digit percentage range. This compares with prior guidance of less than the 3.5% negative impact experienced in Q2.
“At the same time, our total cost basket, including raw materials, transportation and labour, continues to move upward,” said Morikis.
In response, the company announced a surcharge of 4% in its Americas Group, effective 20 September through year end, on top of significant pricing actions already taken.
For those watching inflation gauges, the commodity chemicals price increases from Ida will clearly flow through all the way to specialties and end products.
PPG CITES WORSENING SUPPLY DISRUPTIONS
PPG on 7 September announced it expects Q3 sales will be $225m-275m lower versus expectations at the start of Q3, citing increasing disruptions in commodity supplies, reductions in customer production due to shortages of parts such as semiconductors (impacting auto, appliances) and continuing logistics challenges worldwide.
On top of that, raw material inflation is trending higher than previously expected on the order of $60m-70m. Ida could bring additional supply chain effects, it noted.
PPG is also implementing price increases to offset elevated raw material costs and is seeking further hikes. It sees overall price increases of around 5% in Q3. The company also withdrew earnings guidance for Q3 and Q4.
Jefferies analyst Alexander slashed his 2021 earnings per share (EPS) estimate on PPG from $8.50 to $6.70 but pointed out that “with underlying fundamental demand trends likely intact and price increases underway, we expect a sharp recovery in earnings power in 2022”.
Insight article by Joseph Chang
September 10, 2021
Explosion at Siltech Plant
Horrible news . . .
One dead, one injured in chemical plant explosion in Toronto’s east end
TORONTO — One person has died and another was in life-threatening condition after an explosion at a chemical plant, officials said Wednesday.
Toronto Fire Services said they were called to an industrial area shortly before 10 a.m. for reports of an explosion.
Acting fire Chief Jim Jessop said firefighters saw visible smoke coming from the building. Once inside, firefighters encountered heavy smoke as they did a quick search for people.
“We knew there were people in there,” he said.
Toronto Paramedic Services said one person was pronounced dead at the scene and a man in his 40s was rushed to a trauma centre.
Paramedic deputy commander Shawn Staff said three other people were assessed on scene, but not taken to hospital.
Toronto Fire District Chief Stephan Powell said the explosion occurred at Siltech, a company that makes silicone products.
The explosion triggered a small fire that officials said has now been extinguished.
“This is a sad day,” Powell said.
Jessop said firefighters pulled out of the building because of the potential dangers associated with the various chemicals at the plant.
“We have mitigated the situation, we have stabilized the situation, but until we know for certain what chemicals and compounds we’re dealing with, knowing that there is no further risk to human life, we’re going to pull back,” he told reporters at the scene.
Jessop said it’s too early to know what caused the fire.
“Without question our crews were met with a significant chemical fire that took us a while to extinguish,” he said.
These types of fires are much more challenging than the normal types the public is used to because you have to pick a specific extinguishing agent to safely extinguish it and not make the situation worse.”
Police said roads and railways in the area have been shut down as the investigation continues.
They said the fire has been classified as an industrial accident. The Ministry of Labour will be investigating, police said.
A woman who answered the phone at Siltech confirmed the fire occurred there, but declined further comment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 8, 2021.
September 10, 2021
Explosion at Siltech Plant
Horrible news . . .
One dead, one injured in chemical plant explosion in Toronto’s east end
TORONTO — One person has died and another was in life-threatening condition after an explosion at a chemical plant, officials said Wednesday.
Toronto Fire Services said they were called to an industrial area shortly before 10 a.m. for reports of an explosion.
Acting fire Chief Jim Jessop said firefighters saw visible smoke coming from the building. Once inside, firefighters encountered heavy smoke as they did a quick search for people.
“We knew there were people in there,” he said.
Toronto Paramedic Services said one person was pronounced dead at the scene and a man in his 40s was rushed to a trauma centre.
Paramedic deputy commander Shawn Staff said three other people were assessed on scene, but not taken to hospital.
Toronto Fire District Chief Stephan Powell said the explosion occurred at Siltech, a company that makes silicone products.
The explosion triggered a small fire that officials said has now been extinguished.
“This is a sad day,” Powell said.
Jessop said firefighters pulled out of the building because of the potential dangers associated with the various chemicals at the plant.
“We have mitigated the situation, we have stabilized the situation, but until we know for certain what chemicals and compounds we’re dealing with, knowing that there is no further risk to human life, we’re going to pull back,” he told reporters at the scene.
Jessop said it’s too early to know what caused the fire.
“Without question our crews were met with a significant chemical fire that took us a while to extinguish,” he said.
These types of fires are much more challenging than the normal types the public is used to because you have to pick a specific extinguishing agent to safely extinguish it and not make the situation worse.”
Police said roads and railways in the area have been shut down as the investigation continues.
They said the fire has been classified as an industrial accident. The Ministry of Labour will be investigating, police said.
A woman who answered the phone at Siltech confirmed the fire occurred there, but declined further comment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 8, 2021.
September 8, 2021
Huntsman IDA Update
Huntsman Announces Update on the Hurricane Ida Impact to its Operations
Download as PDF September 07, 2021 7:30pm EDT
THE WOODLANDS, Texas, Sept. 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Huntsman Corporation (NYSE: HUN) today disclosed that Hurricane Ida caused no significant damage to its Geismar, Louisiana manufacturing facility. The Geismar facility manufactures products for Huntsman’s Polyurethanes and Performance Products divisions and all units were shutdown orderly and safely before Hurricane Ida made landfall. Site personnel are currently preparing the production units for restart. The precise timing of the restart of each unit is dependent on the availability of utilities and the ability of other third-party suppliers to restart their respective operations. Currently, the Company’s best estimate is that production comes back online slowly this coming weekend with an increase in rates next week. Under this timeline, the Company currently anticipates that the estimated impact from Hurricane Ida to third quarter 2021 EBITDA will be offset by strength in the broader Performance Products division and the European and Asian MDI markets.
About Huntsman:
Huntsman Corporation is a publicly traded global manufacturer and marketer of differentiated and specialty chemicals with 2020 revenues of approximately $6 billion. Our chemical products number in the thousands and are sold worldwide to manufacturers serving a broad and diverse range of consumer and industrial end markets. We operate more than 70 manufacturing, R&D and operations facilities in approximately 30 countries and employ approximately 9,000 associates within our four distinct business divisions. For more information about Huntsman, please visit the company’s website at www.huntsman.com.
September 8, 2021
Huntsman IDA Update
Huntsman Announces Update on the Hurricane Ida Impact to its Operations
Download as PDF September 07, 2021 7:30pm EDT
THE WOODLANDS, Texas, Sept. 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Huntsman Corporation (NYSE: HUN) today disclosed that Hurricane Ida caused no significant damage to its Geismar, Louisiana manufacturing facility. The Geismar facility manufactures products for Huntsman’s Polyurethanes and Performance Products divisions and all units were shutdown orderly and safely before Hurricane Ida made landfall. Site personnel are currently preparing the production units for restart. The precise timing of the restart of each unit is dependent on the availability of utilities and the ability of other third-party suppliers to restart their respective operations. Currently, the Company’s best estimate is that production comes back online slowly this coming weekend with an increase in rates next week. Under this timeline, the Company currently anticipates that the estimated impact from Hurricane Ida to third quarter 2021 EBITDA will be offset by strength in the broader Performance Products division and the European and Asian MDI markets.
About Huntsman:
Huntsman Corporation is a publicly traded global manufacturer and marketer of differentiated and specialty chemicals with 2020 revenues of approximately $6 billion. Our chemical products number in the thousands and are sold worldwide to manufacturers serving a broad and diverse range of consumer and industrial end markets. We operate more than 70 manufacturing, R&D and operations facilities in approximately 30 countries and employ approximately 9,000 associates within our four distinct business divisions. For more information about Huntsman, please visit the company’s website at www.huntsman.com.
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