Acrylate adhesive producers found their raw material needs frustrated again in the second half of 2010 as more monomer manufacturing outages reared their ugly head. Following on from similar supply restrictions in late 2009, the resulting increase in prices can only have been a disappointment to users who had seen a stabilisation in the summer. Unfortunately there is likely to be yet more bad news, as industry analysts are predicting ongoing supply constraints and continued high prices in 2011 - but acrylate formulators are not alone in this.1 Acrylate production outages have been occurring dismayingly often since two plants halted acrylic acid synthesis in Texas in December 2009.2 These were followed by more in Europe, including at one plant in France in early 2010, which was repeated in August, when it was accompanied by a second plant in Germany.3 Further bad news came when Asian countries restricted exports. By this time, contract prices for 2-ethylhexyl acrylate INSERT INTO [lzx].[dbo].[tb_new]([id],[type],[title],[source],[personal],[image],[contents],[time],[number]) VALUES (2-EHA) and butyl acrylate (BA) used to produce pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA) and sealant polymers, were already up 50 to 60 percent from the beginning of the year. Despite these problems, prices had stabilised through June, July and August. Then, in August, a number of companies announced that they would raise their prices again by up to 15 percent, with further increases introduced in January 2011.
Since that time, supplies have increased, but so has demand. Suppliers have not been able to build inventories, which means that any disruptions can have a rapid impact. The demand growth suggests that buyers are interested in using more of these raw materials, but are being frustrated by the limitations to supply, a situation that looks set to continue into 2011. Demand expansion is in part being caused by growth in markets that compete with adhesives for acrylic acid monomers, like superabsorbent polymers. Some of this competition also arises because some acrylic producers are vertically integrated, and their downstream markets are also predicted to see greater demand. Customers are expected to be turned away in 2011, due to the level of internal need. Acrylic acid suppliers numbers have also been diminished in recent years by mergers and acquisitions, so buyers have fewer alternatives to secure supply. Consequently, adhesive manufacturers have begun passing these price rises onto their customers. This would appear to favour adhesives using alternative material systems, like natural rubber and block copolymers for PSAs and polyurethanes and silicones for sealants. Yet all materials have seen some degree of price rise as the world emerges from the financial doldrums. Natural rubber prices increased around 40 percent in 2010, encouraging conversion to styrene butadiene rubber and also raising block copolymer prices. Rosin tackifier prices rose more than 50 percent as well. With tackifiers often contributing around a half of the costs of such adhesives, and the polymer backbone around one-third, elastomeric and hot-melt PSAs are almost as badly off as their acrylate rivals. 4
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