China News Service Client, Beijing, April 25 (Zuo Yukun) "Lamborghini's mask, Armani's protective clothing, Ferrari's ventilator, LV's hand sanitizer. Every breath is a luxury, every time you wash your hands Show off your wealth. "
With the global spread of the epidemic, many big-name foreign companies have also embarked on the road of converting epidemic prevention supplies. Just when netizens were thinking about whether they could use the hand sanitizers produced by Dior and Guerlain, they suddenly discovered that their cosmetics might not be available.
The rising prices of raw materials, even out of stock, out of stock, make cosmetics companies also face a production crisis.
Customers buy cosmetics in shopping malls. China News Service reporter Zhang Changshe
The price of "meltblown in the cosmetics industry" has doubled this year
"The imported carbomer 941, which was 158 yuan / kg a month ago, rose to 220-250 yuan / kg in a week." "The average price has exceeded 100,000 per ton, and you can't buy it if you have money" ... recently The protagonist of the daily chemical industry is the legendary "catching up the meltblown cloth" of Carbomer.
The name Carbomer may be very strange to everyone, but it is inseparable from the disposable cleansing gel that was common during the epidemic. As an acrylic polymer, Carbomer is widely used in daily chemical products. It is also used in lotions, creams, shampoos, and toothpastes.
The biggest feature of carbomer is that because of its special molecular structure, it can absorb 400 to 500 times its weight of water. As the polymer swells, the viscosity of the system increases, and the liquid can be turned into a gel. Thickening, suspending and stabilizing effects, these special properties also make it difficult for carbomers to have substitutes.
Under the epidemic, the sharp increase in the global demand for disinfecting hand sanitizers has driven the craze in the Carbomer market. Compared with the end of last year, prices have shown a crazy increase of more than 100%.
In a large supermarket in the center of Berlin, Germany, a customer was rushed to buy empty shelves of disinfectant and hand sanitizer. China News Service reporter Peng Dawei
The market has risen, of course, the busiest manufacturer is Carbomer. It is understood that the major global suppliers of carbomer resins include Lubrizol in the United States and Godsend Materials in China, with production capacity accounting for more than 85%.
"During the epidemic, the number of Lubrizol Carbomer-related products exported to China has doubled compared to the same period last year." Wang Chang, Commercial Director of Lubrizol's Personal and Home Care Division in Asia Pacific, said in an interview with the media that the global Under the factory's overloaded operation, Lubrizol Carbomer's monthly output now can supply the global production of 1 billion bottles of disinfectant hand sanitizer per month.
The God-given material with the second largest production capacity in the world and the first in the country has also become a hot snack. On April 3, Tianci Materials responded to investors that under the influence of the current epidemic, the market demand for Carbomer products has grown rapidly, and the supply is in a relatively tight state.
According to the information disclosed by Tianci Materials, the company's current capacity of Carbomer is about 5,000 tons per year. Sales in January this year were 39 tons. It began to increase significantly to 356 tons in February and further increased to 411 tons in March. The capacity utilization rate reached 95%, while the average capacity utilization for the three years from 2017 to 2019 was only 45%.
Tianci Materials said that the current order of Carbomer products is about 1,755 tons, and the company is delivering the products in an orderly manner. "We expect that the global supply of powdered carbomer products may remain tight for some time, but will ease in the second half of the year. However, it cannot be ruled out that there may be a continuous shortage of goods when the epidemic continues."
Wang Chang also believes that consumers' fear of viruses and epidemics will inevitably make the use of disinfectant hand sanitizer a long-term habit. If the epidemic can be controlled at the end of the year, this habit will continue for at least 6 months to 1 year. Consumer demand for disinfection products will maintain a high level in the future, and the demand for carbomers will also exist for a long time.
Crazy polypropylene makes cosmetics “dressing” difficult
In addition to the short supply of Carbomer, the surge in polypropylene (PP) prices has also caused cosmetic packaging materials to experience another disaster.
Recently, the "mask heart" meltblown fabric market has been crazy, and the price of polypropylene, the main raw material for making meltblown fabrics, has skyrocketed, and polypropylene is also the main material used for many cosmetic plastic packaging materials.
The employees of the skin care products factory work on the production line. China News Agency reporter Liu Ranyang
It is understood that the plastics currently used in cosmetic packaging mainly include thermoplastic polyester (PET), polyethylene (PE), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polypropylene (PP), etc. Especially PP is an environmentally friendly material and can be directly used with cosmetics , Food contact, and according to different molecular structure, can reach three different degrees of softness and hardness.
"PP has better environmental performance, and PP is used in conventional daily chemical packaging." Liang Qiquan, general manager of Guangzhou Shanggong Plastic Co., Ltd., said in an interview with the media that apart from some high-end cream products, almost most skin care products and washing products Polypropylene is used in protective packaging; at the same time, it is also the main raw material for general plastic pump heads and vacuum bottles.
How much has polypropylene gone up? Taking the polypropylene fiber material S2040 as an example, the price was 7950 yuan / ton in early 2020, and the price began to rise in early April. As of April 13, CNPC introduced a price limit of 11,500 yuan / ton. It took only two weeks to achieve the over 50% increase.
"This is a hassle. After all, the usage rate of PP in packaging materials is too high, and now the entire cost has risen. But customers will think that the cost increase is our own business, and they are very troublesome to raise prices." Liang Qiquan said.
Multiple raw materials are urgent, "beautiful industry" has many disasters
If carbomer and polypropylene have already made the cosmetics industry breathless from "content + packaging materials", the price increase of other raw materials has made this industry of infinite past even worse.
"In addition to masks, the rest are temporarily out of production." During the epidemic, non-woven fabrics were used in large quantities to produce masks, protective clothing, wipes and other epidemic prevention products. The prices rose sharply, and the orders of non-woven fabric buyers were arranged to 2 Months later.
On the mask production line, three layers of non-woven fabric and melt-blown fabric are compounded. Photo by He Penglei
The non-woven fabric is also the base fabric material for making facial masks. The shift of production focus of non-woven fabric factories has greatly squeezed the production line of facial masks and membrane cloths, leading to price increases and even supply cutoffs, and the raw material reserves of many processing plants have shown a red light.
In addition, according to the eye-catching report of the beauty media, the entire raw material market has prices and supply cuts.
The prices of vitamin A and vitamin E produced in Europe, which account for 65% and 40% of global production capacity, have risen by 67% and 20% respectively since March; common basic raw materials such as fatty acids and glycerin have also increased by 10% to 30%; Indonesia, an important country of origin of flavors and fragrances, announced restrictions on external logistics, which affected the supply of flavors and fragrances.
The cosmetics industry chain under the epidemic situation can be described as "there is no one to worry about."
Will cosmetics go up in price?
For consumers, the most important question is, will cosmetics increase prices?
Yu Min, general manager of Shanghai Dike Fine Chemical Co., Ltd., believes that the price of cosmetics products in the second half of the year is unlikely to rise, because the cost of raw materials does not exceed 10% of the terminal price, and the brand supply exceeds demand, and merchants will not easily increase prices.
With the vigorous rectification of the relevant departments, the market is gradually cooling. The price of polypropylene wire drawing has been adjusted back from April 17th, which may be a sign that the market is returning to rationality.
But at the same time, the raw material crisis also brought a warning to the brand: China's cosmetic raw materials are too dependent on imports. Only localizing raw material technology and providing a demand plan in advance can prevent it from happening.
"Western countries have a 300-year chemical foundation, have a first-mover advantage in the global market, and the data on foreign raw materials are very beautiful, and the marketing is also extremely mature." Yu Min introduced that China's raw material market has a small capacity and input and output Disproportionate, coupled with the batch stability of China's raw materials has yet to be strengthened, resulting in China's raw materials lag behind foreign countries.
However, people in the industry generally believe that with the development of Chinese cosmetics companies, the production of raw materials will eventually be localized.
Did you arrange cosmetics for retaliatory consumption after the epidemic? (Finish)