Hunt for resin continues, even as supplies improve
Hunt for resin continues, even as supplies improve
Frank Esposito
Plastics News
April 9, 2021
North American resin availability is improving in the wake of recent outages, but many companies throughout the supply chain still can’t get all the material they need.
In the wake of Winter Storm Uri, which hit Texas and the Gulf Coast in mid-February, many material suppliers put customers on force majeure sales limits or other types of allocation.
LyondellBasell Industries of Houston operates multiples sites making polyethylene, polypropylene and related resins and compounds in Texas. In an email to Plastics News, spokeswoman Chevalier Gray said that “nearly all of our assets, except for Corpus Christi, are back to normal operations.”
A spokesman for Wilmington, Del.-based DuPont Co. said that the firm still has force majeure limits in place for nylon, polybutylene terephthalate and several other materials. DuPont “is taking commercially reasonable steps to mitigate the effects of these shortages on its customers, but many of the upstream supply constraints persist,” he said.
“We take this matter very seriously and recognize the importance of supply reliability to meet the needs of our customers,” he added.
At Midland, Mich.-based Dow Inc., the firm “has continued to restart units and ramp rates through March and into April, as we manage a few raw material constraints and freeze damage repairs,” a spokesman said.
