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Plastic is becoming scarce in Germany.

The manufacturers of plastic packaging are currently having considerable problems in purchasing sufficient raw materials on the market, reports the IK Industrievereinigung Kunststoffverpackungen.

"The situation is extremely tense," warns Managing Director Martin Engelmann, referring to a recent lightning survey among the members of the industry association.

According to this, 76 percent of the participants reported a “poor to very poor supply situation”.

Some manufacturers are already out of service.

"If the production of packaging comes to a standstill due to a lack of raw materials, it also jeopardizes the system-relevant supply of the population with safely packaged food and medical products," emphasizes Engelmann.

The bottlenecks are particularly great for polypropylene, or PP for short, but also for hard polyethylene (HDPE) and soft polyethylene (LDPE), all three of which are among the most frequently used standard plastics and are mainly used in the packaging sector.

This affects both medium-sized manufacturers and large companies, above all manufacturers of film packaging, plastic bottles and packaging cups.

Source: WORLD infographic

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The Zentralverband Elektrotechnik- und Elektronikindustrie (ZVEI) also reports a shortage of polyvinyl chloride, better known as PVC, which primarily affects the manufacturers of cables and lines that use PVC as an insulation and sheath material.

The IK also sees problems with polyamide (PA), which is one of the most important engineering plastics.

There are several reasons for this emergency.

Engelmann mentions, for example, the lack of raw material imports from the USA and Saudi Arabia.

"These goods are currently being diverted primarily to China," explains the expert.

At the same time, deliveries from America were recently dropped because the freezing cold in Texas had paralyzed the energy supply.

In addition, there are a number of so-called force majeure declarations from suppliers in Europe.

This means: There have been incidents and situations in their systems that were “unexpected and beyond the control” of the operator and that led to production failures and stoppages.

Failures are increasing

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According to the IK survey, in which 75 companies took part, 28 percent of processors report being affected by such a force majeure case, and 51 percent of customers even reported several cases.

According to IK, at least 68 processors are affected.

For comparison: at the end of January there were only 28. And a large number of them are not even justified, according to the IK.

If so, the suppliers mentioned above all technical problems and the resulting machine failures, as well as weather events and their own problematic supply of raw materials.

What is meant then, above all, is a lack of ethene and thus of the raw material for the production of polyethylene.

"Ethene is obtained in the petrochemical processing of crude oil," explains Engelmann.

"In the Corona crisis, however, significantly fewer cars were driven, so less gasoline and diesel had to be produced."

And that in turn had an effect on the amount of ethene produced.

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The situation is exacerbated by the recent sharp rise in the demand for plastic.

While the pandemic-related increased demand for packaging for food and medical products could initially be cushioned by lower demand in industry, the order quantities there are now increasing again significantly.

There is a boom in electrical appliances, for example, but the auto industry is also working at full capacity again, more furniture was built than expected and the construction industry is also doing well.

In December 2020, the fall in industrial production compared to the same month last year was therefore only 1.5 percent, reports the Federal Statistical Office.

The situation has recently come to a head.

"In autumn the situation was still comparatively calm," reports Engelmann.

At that time, too, his association had made a member survey.

At the end of November and beginning of December there were signs of a shortage and increase in the price of raw materials.

And you are in a real crisis.

There is no improvement in sight in sight

"The plastic packaging manufacturers are alarmed and very concerned," describes Engelmann, who does not want to speculate in which industries the crisis will also be felt by consumers first.

In any case, more than 80 percent would say that their production and thus their ability to deliver is limited.

And improvement does not seem in sight: Four fifths also expect the current development to continue or even worsen.

Because force majeure cases can take a long time: the IK survey mentions an average of 62 days, but the currently longest lasts 210 days.

There is speculation in the industry that suppliers have arranged for their systems to be serviced, probably in anticipation of an ongoing crisis - but then demand rose surprisingly quickly.

However, it is also assumed that a deliberate scarcity is intended to drive up prices.

Indeed, the raw materials currently cost as much as they did six years ago.

However, this idea cannot be proven.

Association boss Engelmann now hopes for insight and common sense: “We urgently appeal to our partners in the plastics industry not to let the packaging manufacturers in Germany hang in this crisis and to use all possible levers to defuse the situation as quickly as possible . "

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The supply problems with plastic currently fit into the picture.

Because there are also bottlenecks in other raw materials in this country.

Steel, for example, is currently scarce and expensive, reports the German Steel and Metal Processing Association (WSM).

Then there are semiconductors and chips.

The same also applies to chipboard.

The Association of the German Kitchen Furniture Industry (VdDK) had already warned of delivery delays in autumn because the unusually high demand was not matched by an adequate supply.

Furniture manufacturers, on the other hand, complain that foams are in short supply.

This also affects the producers of mattresses, who complain about bottlenecks and sharp price increases for toluene diisocyanate (TDI), from which the required flexible foams are made.