Current Affairs
June 6, 2023
Polyurethane Foam Association Spring Meeting
Polyurethane Foam Association Spring Meeting Focuses On Industry Challenges, New Opportunities For Flexible Foam
ST. PETERSBURG, FL (June 5, 2023)— At the Polyurethane Foam Association’s (PFA) recent Spring meeting in St. Petersburg, the association covered a spectrum of issues impacting the flexible polyurethane foam industry, along with looking at innovations that promise improvements in foam production, quality, and sustainability.
Record attendance saw more than 165 sales and marketing professionals, EHS specialists, technologists, entrepreneurs and C-suite executives join together for meetings, networking sessions, and presentations covering everything from the newest antioxidants to ways in which artificial intelligence may affect the industry.
PFA’s Industry Issues Session covered trends in key market segments, including commercial furniture, automotive, carpet cushion, and more. Other presentations addressed legal and regulatory issues, isocyanates, technical trends, sustainability and supply chain solutions such as nearshoring.
In the Technical Program on the following day, technical papers covered achievements in microbial control, alternative antioxidants, standards for measuring VOCs, and producing polyols from CO2.
Chip Holton of NCFI Polyurethanes, PFA’s President, recognized new PFA members including Ashley Furniture, Sinomax USA, and Hansa-Mixer. He noted that since the lifting of pandemic restrictions, 20 new companies have joined PFA.
“I think this is an indication of our value to the industry,” said Russ Batson, PFA Executive Director. “Since its creation more than 40 years ago, PFA has given the flexible polyurethane foam industry a more authoritative, more effective voice to represent itself to regulators, NGOs, consumers, and other key audiences. Members have proven that by working together, they can accomplish more than trying to confronting industry challenges on their own.”
Keynote speaker Dr. Balaji Padmanabhan of the University of South Florida provided an overview of Artificial Intelligence and how A.I. is likely to impact the business world in the next several years. Dr. Padmanabhan’s recounted the progress of his field from machine learning, to “traditional” A.I. to the “generative” A.I. currently receiving attention from the media and among investors. He explained that generative A.I. allows computers to produce texts, images and even musical compositions based on user-given prompts, templates or dialogue.
Liz Manning of Econic Technologies won the Dr. Herman Stone Technical Excellence Award. Her presentation, “Redeeming Carbon: CO2-Based Polyols for Polyurethane Applications,” was voted best by those attending the Technical Program.
The award is named for Dr. Herman T. Stone, a legendary figure in the flexible polyurethane foam industry who passed away earlier this year at the age of 98. He served as PFA’s first Technical Director. Dr. Stone left his mark on almost every aspect of the FPF industry, from lab research, process development, applications research and technological forecasting through regulatory compliance, patents and trademarks, and waste minimization and disposal. He pioneered much of the FPF industry’s flammability research and was a leader and an officer in the PFA and in other industry and national associations. In 2007, Dr. Stone was inducted into the Flexible Polyurethane Foam Hall of Fame.
Beyond his professional work, Dr. Stone spent much time educating young people on the importance of remembering the Holocaust. His own personal story appears in the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC.
“Dr. Stone would have been particularly proud of the quality of the technical presentations this Spring,” noted Bill Gollnitz, Past President of PFA and Moderator for the Technical Program. “In the voting for the Technical Excellence Award (the winner is chosen by the audience in the Technical Session), every presentation received first place votes, and all finished within fractions of a point of each other.”
June 5, 2023
European PO Update
Propylene Oxide Prices Increase in Europe Amid Rising Demand From Glycol Industries
- 05-Jun-2023 2:16 PM
- Journalist: Rene Swann
As per the recent analysis, the Propylene Oxide market showcased positive sentiments during May 2023 after declining in the European region for the past couple of months. At the end of April 2023, the Propylene Oxide market shifted upward due to the increased inquiries and offtakes from downstream Propylene Glycol industries.
Meanwhile, Propylene Oxide’s inquiries were stable to low from the Polyol manufacturers for the past few weeks amid low consumption and availability of previous stocks. The regional Polyol manufacturers started destocking their product inventories in the Asian market like India as the Asian key market of China was closed from 1st May to 3rd May 2023 due to the Labour Day holidays. The Polyol market continued to remain dull and weak till the end of the month, and prices were again negatively revised by suppliers.
The supplies were tightened by Glycol producers as the available stocks of downstream product Propylene Glycol were limited in the market due to declined production rates of Propylene Oxide. The reason is that around 60% of Propylene Oxide goes to the Polyol industries to make Polyurethane. For the past few months, the downstream orders were depressing from the Polyol industries. So Propylene Oxide producers cut down their production rates. It affected the feedstock availability to the Propylene Glycol industries. Consequently, the production rates of Propylene Glycol remained moderately low in the past few weeks, and the inventory levels remained below the demand from end-users.
According to the ChemAnalyst data sources, the Propylene Oxide prices increased by 1% in May 2023, and the Propylene Glycol prices rose by USD 20/MT.
On the contrary, the upstream cost pressure eased as the Propylene Oxide key feedstock Propylene’s prices contracted by almost 12% during the month amid decreases in upstream Naphtha costs due to increased inventory levels.
Furthermore, Europe’s manufacturing Purchaser’s Manufacturing Index rose slightly during May 2023, indicating some improvement in manufacturing activities. However, it was below 50 points.
As per ChemAnalyst’s estimation, “The Propylene oxide prices will increase in the upcoming weeks due to positive market sentiments. The increasing demand from downstream Propylene Glycol producers will further boost the manufacturing and trading activities of Propylene Oxide. Meanwhile, recent stabilizations in costs of the feedstock Propylene and improvement in upstream Crude Oil price will increase the upstream cost pressure and production costs of Propylene Oxide. Conversely, inquiries are likely to remain weak from the Polyol industries amid slow consumption from downstream Polyurethane industries.”
June 5, 2023
Chemical Production Trending Higher
Global and U.S. chemical production trended higher in April, ACC says
MOSCOW (MRC) — Marking another month of incremental gains, global and U.S. chemical production rose in April. According to the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.), the Global Chemical Production Regional Index (Global CPRI) rose by 0.4% in April following a revised 1.5 % increase in March, said Chemengonline.
In the U.S., the U.S. Chemical Production Regional Index (U.S. CPRI) rose 0.5% in April. Both indices are measured on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis to reduce month-to-month volatility.
“Chemical output increased in April for all regions except South America,” said Martha Moore, ACC’s chief economist. “On a year-over-year basis, while global production remained lower compared to a year ago, output was higher in Europe, Asia Pacific, and Africa & Middle East.”
In the U.S., April’s gain reflects improvement across several chemistries, especially those recovering from production outages during Q1 due to bad weather and maintenance to refineries, says ACC.
We remind, The U.S. Chemical Production Regional Index (U.S. CPRI) rose by 0.7% in February, following declines of 2.4% in December and 0.6% in January, according to the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.).
mrchub.com
June 1, 2023
EVERCHEM UPDATE: VOL. 11 – Where’s the Competitive Edge?
When we lose business to a better player, do we take it personally? Don Draper from Mad Men wouldn’t take it personally. He would study hard to find what exactly blew the deal, get blackout drunk on bourbon on a few days’ bender at the public house, and the next week hatch himself a revised plan of conquest and redemption. Let’s bring that energy back.
Subscribe to the Urethane blog for more Everchem Updates here
May 31, 2023
Different Topic, Same Chart
Apollo’s Top Economist Says Supply Chain Roller Coaster Over
by Tyler Durden
Wednesday, May 31, 2023 – 03:45 PM
According to a new report from Apollo’s chief economist Torsten Sløk, the global supply chain crisis appears to be over, as there are indications of normalization in shipping rates, delivery capacity, and retailer inventory.
Sløk presents a chart pack that shows the supply chain roller coaster ride of the last three years is over. He shared several charts showing cheaper shipping costs and fewer bottlenecks, which might support disinflation trends.
Price of transporting a container from China at pre-pandemic levels
Container freight rates falling: Inflation pressures are easing
Container ships at America’s largest ports return to pre-pandemic levels
Amount of time a container waits to get picked up at a marine terminal after being unloaded from a vessel
Supply chains have normalized
Sløk then argues supply chain normalization has put downward pressure on inflation.
Inventory to sales ratio normalizing
Inflation pressures are gradually easing
More evidence of supply chain normalization puts downward pressure on inflation
Supply chain bottlenecks correlated with corporate bond yields
Sløk’s chart pack aligns with Goldman Sachs’ latest data on tracking supply chains showing barely any congestion.
Considering the importance of supply chains, its return to normalcy is more positive news that could help subdue inflation.
In terms of what’s next, A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S, the world’s biggest shipping company, issued a warning several weeks ago about a potential global slowdown.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/apollos-top-economist-says-supply-chain-roller-coaster-over
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