Monday, March 31, 2014

Chemical and Material Shortage Alerts – March 2014

The purpose of this blog is to identify chemical and material shortages reported on the Internet.  The sources of the information reported here are primarily news releases issued on the Internet.  The issue period of the news releases is March, 2014.

Section I below lists those chemicals and materials that were on previous Chemical and Material Shortage Alerts lists and continue to have news releases indicating they are in short supply. Click here to read the February 2014 Chemical and Material Shortage Alerts list.

Section II lists the new chemicals and materials (not on the February alert).  Also provided is some explanation for the shortage and geographical information.  This blog attempts to list only actual shortage situations – those shortages that are being experienced during the period covered by the news releaseswww.bio.org/wc/cen.   Chemicals and materials identified in news releases as only being in danger of being in short supply status are not listed.

Section I.   Chemicals and materials that continue from February to be reported as in short supply are: construction materials (United Kingdom). 

Section II.   Shortages Reported in March not found on the Previous Month’s List

Iron ore.  India is experiencing shortages of iron ore for use in steel manufacturing; primarily due to government crackdowns on illegal mining operations.

Reasons for Section II shortages can be broadly categorized as: 

1.  Mining not keeping up with demand: none
2.  Production not keeping up with demand: none
3.  Government regulations: iron ore (India)
4.  Sources no longer available: none
5.  Insufficient imports:  none

6.  Supply not keeping up with demand:  none

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Some Observations about India’s Chemical Industry

There seems to be very few large Indian chemical companies.  Searching the internet for Indian chemical companies found only eight with revenues greater than $500 million((Reliance Industries; Asian Paints; Tata Chemicals; Narmada Valley Fertilizers; UPL (formerly United Phosphorus Limited)); Pidilite; India Glycols; and Mangalore Chemicals), and only three with revenues granter than $1 billion (Reliance Industries; Asian Paints; and Tata Chemicals).   However, smaller chemical companies (revenues less than $500 million) seem rather numerous.

Estimates found on the internet suggest recent total India annual chemical product sales revenues are in the $100 to $175 billion range, with a 10 to 12% growth rate.  This chemicals sales total seems very low for India’s population.  Another estimate found is that India’s per capital consumption of chemical products is only 1/10 the world average.  These statistics, if reasonably correct, suggest the potential for great growth in chemical product consumption in India and for companies selling chemical products there.


The Indian chemical companies would also benefit from greater emphasis on increasing efficiency.  For 22 chemical companies for which revenues and numbers of employees could be found, the average revenues to employee ratio is about $280,000 per employee, much below what is found in the United States (see a recent blog I wrote on comparing revenues to employee ratios  between US and Chinese chemical companies, by clicking here).

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Acrylonitrile Production in China

Based on data found on the internet, China in recent years has produced around 1,100,000 tonnes (metric tons) of acrylonitrile per year.  Demand has perhaps been 30% greater than this production, with the difference being made up by imports. The demand in China for acrylonitrile is expected to grow at about 7 to 8% per year.  Again from the internet, eleven production facilities have been identified, all located within petrochemical complexes, meaning sites with a petroleum supply.  The reported major uses of acrylonitrile are for acrylic fibers, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene polymer (ABS), and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) production, used in carbon fiber production.  The sites with the facilities producing the acrylonitrile often also contain the facilities producing the fibers and polymers.  Most, if not all, of the acrylonitrile production uses propylene ammoxidation technology.  The eleven production sites are identified below and their suspected production capacities are reconciled with the presumed actual production amounts.

Five of the eleven acrylonitrile producing facilities are owned by, as subsidiaries, the giant, state-owned petroleum company PetroChina (China National Petroleum Corporation).  The five are: Jilin Petrochemical Co. (Jilin Province), with a acrylonitrile production capacity of 424,000 tonnes per year (the largest in China); Fushun Petrochemical Co. (Liaoning Province), production capacity, 94,000 tonnes per year; Daqing Petrochemical Co. (Heilongjiang Province), production capacity, 88,000 tonnes per year; Daqing Refinery and Chemical Co. (Heilongjiang Province), production capacity, 50,000 tonnes per year; and Lanzhou Petrochemical Co. (Gansu Province), production capacity, 31,200 tonnes per year.

Three of the eleven acrylonitrile production facilities belong to the other giant, state-owned petroleum company, SINOPEC (China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation).  These are:  Anqing Petrochemical Co.  (Anqing Province), production capacity, 210,000 tonnes per year; Shanghai Petrochemical Co. (Shanghai Municipality), 130,000 tonnes per year; and Qilu Petrochemical Co. (Shandong Province), production capacity, 80,000 tonnes per year.

The remaining three acrylonitrile production facilities are: Secco Petrochemical Co. (Shanghai Municipality), production capacity, 260,000 tonnes per year (the second highest in China); Qitai Petrochemical Co. (Shandong Province), production capacity, 8,000 tonnes per year; and Keyuan Petrochemical Co. (Zhejiang Province), production capacity unknown.

The total production capacity of these eleven facilities given above is 1,375,200 tonnes per year (the individual amounts are based on data found on the internet).  This capacity amount is above the 1,100,000 tonnes believed to be the recent amount produced in China.  But, these production facilities are unlikely to run at 100% capacity.  The capacity of these eleven plants agrees reasonably well with what is believed to be the actual production amount in China.

Please email me if you are interested in further research and analysis related to Chinese chemical production.


Saturday, March 1, 2014

Chemical and Material Shortage Alerts – February 2014

The purpose of this blog is to identify chemical and material shortages reported on the Internet.  The sources of the information reported here are primarily news releases issued on the Internet.  The issue period of the news releases is February, 2014.

Section I below lists those chemicals and materials that were on previous Chemical and Material Shortage Alerts lists and continue to have news releases indicating they are in short supply. Click here to read the January 2014 Chemical and Material Shortage Alerts list.

Section II lists the new chemicals and materials (not on the January alert).  Also provided is some explanation for the shortage and, when appropriate, geographical information.  This blog attempts to list only actual shortages situations – those shortages that are being experienced during the period covered by the news release.   Chemicals and materials identified in news releases as only being in danger of being in short supply status are not listed.

Section I.   Chemicals and materials that continue from January to be reported as in short supply are: construction materials (India, Malaysia); natural gas (Iran).  See the January alert (click here) for explanations for the shortages.

Section II.   Shortages Reported in February not found on the Previous Month’s List

Road salt.  Several localities in many US states had shortages of road salt due to higher than expected snow and cold weather.

Reasons for Section II shortages can be broadly categorized as: 

1.  Mining not keeping up with demand: none
2.  Production not keeping up with demand: none
3.  Government regulations: none;
4.  Sources no longer available: none
5.  Insufficient imports:  none
6.  Supply not keeping up with demand:  road salt