Monday, October 3, 2022

C&EN: European resin plant closes due to high natural gas prices

In this week's Chemical and Engineering News, this article by Craig Bettenhausen:
European gas prices shut down Arakawa resin plant

The specialty resin maker Arakawa Chemical Industries has decided to permanently close a plant in Germany where it makes Arkon, a hydrogenated hydrocarbon resin used in adhesives and as a plastics additive. Arakawa says it expects strong demand for the resin, especially in personal care products, but high prices for natural gas and hydrogen, as well as ongoing supply chain disruptions, made the German plant unsustainable. When the plant shuts down at the end of March 2023, the Japanese firm will supply the resin from its facilities in Japan.

It feels like (and maybe I am wrong) that the European commodity/specialty chemicals is going to take a beating because of the Russian/Ukrainian war, and there is no real end in sight... 

2 comments:

  1. natural gas condensates = ethane => ethylene => alpha olefin products (including polymer resins). Ammonia production is way down, too - just when nitric acid demand is picking up...

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  2. Oof. I work for Evonik and we are planning on announcing large price increases for 2023. Going to be seen how customers respond...

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looks like Blogger doesn't work with anonymous comments from Chrome browsers at the moment - works in Microsoft Edge, or from Chrome with a Blogger account - sorry! CJ 3/21/20