Exclusive | BASF and other chemical giants cut off supply?
business response
Recently, it has been reported that many chemical giants such as BASF and Dow have "cut supply" in Europe. The first financial reporter learned exclusively from the company that the reason for the "cut supply" was a joint venture between BASF and Dow in Belgium. The plant, which produces propylene oxide (HPPO), was unable to deliver on time due to technical problems.
BASF blamed "force majeure" for the aforementioned supplier's technical problems.
In an official statement sent to China Business News reporters, BASF responded: "BASF's polyurethanes company in Lemfrde, Germany announced on May 5 that it will start a new business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). The product supply of polyether polyols and polyether polyol-based polyurethane systems experienced force majeure. This was due to an unforeseen technical failure of one of the company’s key suppliers that was beyond our control.”
For now, this supply shortage has not affected other markets.
A relevant person from BASF China told Yicai.com: "This problem mainly affects the supply chain of the company in the European market. There is currently no 'cut of supply' in China."
A number of other chemical giants also told the First Financial Reporter that China's supply chain has not seen any abnormalities at present.
A related person from DuPont told the First Financial Reporter: "There is no abnormality in China's supply at present. If there is a problem, we will send a letter to inform the customer as soon as possible."
Recently, the price of chemical raw materials has continued to rise due to the tight global supply chain.
In response to this situation, a relevant person from Huntsman, a specialty chemical manufacturer, told the First Financial Reporter: "The price increase may be related to high logistics costs, and downstream demand is also affected."
A person from Clariant, a polypropylene (PP) catalyst manufacturer, told the First Financial Reporter: "We are also concerned about the recent increase in the price of raw materials, but it still depends on different businesses, and the factors that affect the price are not just as simple as logistics. "
"The price increase of oil and natural gas will definitely cause the price of chemical raw materials to rise. Oil and natural gas are the basic raw materials." Ma Dawei, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a researcher at the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, told Yicai.com.
In order to ease the pressure on the global supply chain, many manufacturing companies in Shanghai are actively promoting the resumption of work and production.
Clariant has also been in closed-loop production during the epidemic, and was included in the "second batch of resumption of work and production list".
"Our factory has not stopped, and workers are managed in a closed-loop. The next step is to arrange to return to the laboratory at the headquarters." A Clariant official told Yicai.com.
3M, headquartered in Shanghai, told Yicai.com: "3M is actively cooperating with the Shanghai government's guiding policy on resumption of work and production, and on the basis of doing a good job in epidemic prevention and control, it is going all out to promote the resumption of work and production."
As of May 7, 3M's four factories in Shanghai have all resumed closed-loop production, and are focusing on promoting production capacity in an orderly manner.
However, 3M also revealed to the first financial reporter: "Although the transportation of raw materials and finished products has been greatly improved compared with before, the current logistics is still facing relatively big challenges, and the resumption of work of professional transportation companies in the market is still relatively slow. We have already Obtaining a pass for inter-provincial and municipal transportation has solved our previous logistics and transportation problems to a certain extent, but it is still far from enough compared with the transportation volume we need."