The Urethane Blog
Everchem Updates
VOLUME XXI
September 14, 2023
Everchem’s exclusive Closers Only Club is reserved for only the highest caliber brass-baller salesmen in the chemical industry. Watch the hype video and be introduced to the top of the league: — read more
June 7, 2023
US mattress maker Serta Simmons receives Chapter 11 plan approval
Story by Reuters • Yesterday 10:57 PM
June 6 (Reuters) – Mattress maker Serta Simmons Bedding on Tuesday said that its Chapter 11 reorganization plan has been confirmed by a U.S. bankruptcy court, bringing the bedding company one step closer to emerging from bankruptcy.
The Doraville, Georgia-based company, whose roots date to 1870, filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors in January with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of Texas, in a bid to eliminate most of its debt.
The mattress manufacturer, which accounts for nearly one-fifth of U.S. bedding sales and whose brands include Serta, Simmons, Beautyrest, and Tuft & Needle, said it is operating normally as usual.
Serta Simmons, backed by Apollo Global Management and Gamut Capital Management through its restructuring plan aims to reduce its debt to $315 million from $1.9 billion, in addition to which it projects that the company’s annual cash interest expense will fall by more than $100 million.
The company during the COVID-19 pandemic had added $200 million of new capital to weather higher raw material costs and supply chain disruptions.
However, significant amounts of debt maturing in 2023 have made the company’s capital structure unsustainable, necessitating a comprehensive restructuring that is now supported by more than three-quarters of its key lenders. (Reporting by Mrinmay Dey in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema)
June 7, 2023
Univar Solutions Stockholders Approve Acquisition by Apollo Funds
News provided by Univar Solutions Inc.
06 Jun, 2023, 16:15 ET
DOWNERS GROVE, Ill., June 6, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Univar Solutions Inc. (NYSE: UNVR) (“Univar Solutions” or the “Company”), a leading global solutions provider to users of specialty ingredients and chemicals, announced today that its stockholders have voted at a special meeting of Univar Solutions stockholders (the “Special Meeting”) to approve the Company’s pending acquisition by funds managed by affiliates of Apollo (NYSE: APO). Under the terms of the merger agreement, Univar Solutions stockholders will receive $36.15 per share in cash for every share of Univar Solutions common stock they own immediately prior to the effective time of the merger.
At the Special Meeting, approximately 93.6% of the shares voted were voted in favor of the merger, which represented approximately 81.3% of the total outstanding shares of Univar Solutions common stock as of May 1, 2023, the record date for the Special Meeting.
Univar Solutions Stockholders Approve Acquisition by Apollo Funds
“We are pleased that our stockholders overwhelmingly supported our transaction with Apollo,” said Chris Pappas, chairman of the Univar Solutions Board of Directors. “We now shift our focus to the important next steps toward completing the transaction and maximizing value for Univar Solutions stockholders.”
Assuming timely satisfaction of necessary closing conditions, the transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2023.
The final voting results on the proposals voted on at the special meeting will be set forth in a Form 8-K filed by Univar Solutions with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
June 6, 2023
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
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
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
Everchem Updates Archive 
Sign Up for Email Updates