Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Some Data Related to Sales of Chemicals Used in Water Treatment

The World Bank provides the annual water withdrawals for countries at its website.  Click here to find this data.  Using this data, I did a regression analysis of the annual water withdrawal for the 50 countries with highest withdrawals against the countries’ population, then gross domestic product (GDP), and then GDP per person.  All data (water withdrawal amounts, population, and GDP) are 2013 data and can be found at the World Bank site.

Results of the regression analysis show that water withdrawal amounts have a fairly good correlation with a country’s population (R square value = 84%).  The correlation between water withdrawal amounts and GDP is weak (R squire value = 39%).  And, no correlation was found between water withdrawal amounts and GDP per person.

These correlation results do not seem surprising to me.  I would think that the larger a country’s population, the more water would be withdrawn to meet the population’s need.  That some correlation, but a weak one, between water withdrawal amounts and GDP also does not seem surprising.  I would expect that the higher a country’s GDP, the more use (e.g. non-personal use) a country would have for water, but many factors other than GDP likely influence such use and should be taken into account.

Using the water withdrawal amounts found at the World Bank site and the market values (that I found on the Internet) for chemicals used in water treatment, I created this table:

country
total market water treatment chemical
total cubic meters water withdrawn
$ per cubic meter
GDP per person
United States
 $   4,500,000,000
478,400,000,000
 $  0.009
 $ 54,677
global
 $ 23,500,000,000
3,906,900,000,000
 $  0.006
 $ 20,840
China
 $   3,000,000,000
554,100,000,000
 $  0.005
 $    7,595
India
 $       485,000,000
761,000,000,000
 $  0.001
 $    1,596


I was only able to find water treatment chemical market values for the 3 countries in the table.  I was also able to find a global market value for chemicals used in water treatment.  All data in the table are 2013/2014 data.

The table shows the $ per cubic meter of water withdrawn for each country and also on a global basis.   I am wondering whether the $ per cubic meter results might be useful in providing a rough estimate of market values for water treatment chemicals for individual countries.  For example, more advanced countries, such as the US, might have a market value for water treatment chemicals close to $0.009 per cubic meter of water withdrawn.  The average, represented by global, might be around $0.006 per cubic meter water withdrawn, and poorer countries closer to $0.001 per cubic meter withdrawn.

An indicator of more, average, and less developed might be the GDP per person.  For the United States, China, and India these values were computed from World Bank data to be $54,677. $7,595, and $1,596 respectively.  Based on CIA World Fact Book data, the average global GDP per person is $20,840.




Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Chemical and Material Shortage Alert – November 2015

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 November 2015.

Section I below lists those chemicals and materials that were on the previous month’s Chemical and Material Shortage Alert list and continue to have news releases indicating they are in short supply. Click here to read the October 2015 Chemical and Material Shortage Alert list.

Section II lists the new chemicals and materials (not on the October 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 releases.   Chemicals and materials identified in news releases as only being in danger of being in short supply status are not listed.

Section I.   None

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

Agar:  global; sources no longer available

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: agar
5.  Insufficient imports:  none
6.  Supply not keeping up with demand:  none





Saturday, November 21, 2015

Electronics Chemicals Sales

In a recent blog, I provided data and comments on construction chemicals sales.  Click here to read that blog.   In this blog, I provide data and comments on electronics chemicals sales.

Global electronics chemicals sales in 2014 are estimated to be in the $35 billion to $40 billion range.  These estimates of sales amounts are based on market studies data, which can be found searching the Internet.

Electronics chemicals are chemicals used in the electronics industry during processing steps in the manufacturing of such things as silicon wafers and integrated circuits, printed circuit boards, semi-conductors, optoelectronics, flat panel display products, and electronics components.  Functions that these chemicals provide include:  plating; etching; photo resisting; stripping; developing; coating; polishing; dissolving; cleaning; and anti-reflecting.

An intensive Internet search was done to identify public companies that report electronics chemicals sales separately as segments.  Companies found are identified in Tables 1, 2, and 3.  These tables provide average sales (average of sales over the last 2 to 3 years) for the electronics chemicals segments.  Also provided are reported operating incomes for the electronics chemicals segments and the percentages that the operating income segments are of the electronics chemicals segments sales.  Using the total sales (all sales including electronics chemicals) (shown in the tables), the percentages that the electronics chemicals segments sales are of the total sales are shown in the tables.  These percentages show the extent to which electronics chemicals sales account for totals sales of the companies.

table 1   japanese companies
recent average electronics chemicals segment sales in yen
recent average operating income from electronics chemicals segment sales in yen
segment operating income as a percentage of segment sales
latest total company sales in yen
electronic chemicals segment sales as percentage of total sales
shin etsu
398,870,000,000
73,622,500,000
18%
1,256,000,000,000
32%
sumitomo
355,800,000,000
27,333,333,333
8%
2,250,000,000,000
16%
adera
204,500,000,000
36,000,000,000
18%
214,300,000,000
95%
nagase
143,450,000,000
6,000,000,000
4%
759,700,000,000
19%
jsr
135,650,666,667
17,874,666,667
13%
404,073,000,000
34%
mitsubishi
123,566,666,667
-4,466,666,667
-4%
1,942,985,000,000
6%
ohka kogyo
78,758,000,000
7,999,666,667
10%
88,086,000,000
89%
yokuyama
53,955,000,000
3,617,500,000
7%
302,085,000,000
18%
total
1,494,550,333,334
average
9%


total USD 2014
 $    13,574,357,484
















table 2  european companies
recent average electronics chemicals segment sales in euros
recent average operating income from electronics chemicals segment sales in euros
segment operating income as a percentage of segment sales
latest total company sales in euros
electronic chemicals segment sales as percentage of total sales
merck kgaa
1,851,300,000
632,400,000
34%
11,500,800,000
16%
air liquide
1,180,500,000
260,500,000
22%
15,358,000,000
8%
total
3,031,800,000
average
28%


total USD 2014
 $      3,867,091,837
















table 3   united states companies
recent average electronics chemicals segment sales in usd
recent average operating income from electronics chemicals segment sales in usd
segment operating income as a percentage of segment sales
latest total company sales in usd
electronic chemicals segment sales as percentage of total sales
3m
 $      5,500,000,000
 $   1,018,000,000
19%
32,000,000,000
17%
dupont
 $      2,533,333,333
 $       232,000,000
9%
34,723,000,000
7%
air products
 $      2,336,666,667
 $       390,733,333
17%
10,439,000,000
22%
kmg
 $          192,966,667
 $         13,833,333
7%
353,000,000
55%
total
 $    10,562,966,667
average
13%




Interesting, the total electronics chemicals sales of all 14 companies in tables 1, 2, and 3 total approximately $28 billion, which is from 70% to 80% ($28 billion/$40 billion; $28 billion/$35 billion) of the estimated total global electronics chemicals sales.

The 70% to 80% indicates how significant these 14 companies in tables 1, 2, and 3 are for providing the needed chemicals for supporting the electronics industry.

Also, the average 14% for the electronics chemicals operating income as a percentage of electronics chemicals sales for 13 companies (Mitsubishi with a -4% value is not included in the average) seems quite good compared to most other sectors.


Saturday, November 7, 2015

Construction Chemical Sales

An extensive search of the Internet was made to find market sales data related to chemicals used in construction.  In information found, construction chemicals are generally defined as chemicals added to construction materials to improve the performance of the materials.  Examples include: concrete and asphalt additives; adhesives and sealants; protective coatings; waterproofing materials; and repair chemicals.

The market sales data found indicate that recent year estimates of global sales values for such chemicals range from the low 20 to high 30 billion US dollar range.  At the same time, the global sales value for construction is estimated to be from 8 to 8.5 trillion US dollars.  So, this data gives an approximate construction chemical sales to construction sales ratio of from about 0.24 to 0.5% (20 billion/8.5 trillion; 40 billion/8 trillion).

US Census data indicates that in 2014, the total construction sales value in the United States was $962 billion (click here to find this amount).   (Census Bureau notes indicate that this $962 billion is the total sales value of construction work done in the US.)

Assuming that 0.25 to 0.5% as the ratio for construction chemicals (as defined above) to total construction sales is correct, this indicates that in 2014 in the US construction chemical sales ranged from about $2.4 billion (0.0025 X $962 billion) to about $4.8 billion (0.005 X $962 billion).

To test this result, I looked at annual reports for chemical companies that report separately (as a segment) construction chemical sales or has only construction chemical sales as their business.   I found such data (for 2014) for the five companies listed in this table:

company
total construction chemical sales ($ billion)
percentage of sales in US
sales value of construction chemicals in US ($ billion)
basf
2.63
0.27
0.71
dow
1.77
0.45
0.80
grace
1.09
0.33
0.36
rpm
2.99
0.62
1.85
sika
5.78
0.134
0.77
total
14.26
4.49


As seen in the table, the total US construction chemical sales of these five companies total $4.49 billion.  Other companies certainly have construction chemical sales, but do not report such sales separately in their company reports.

The $4.49 billion sales found for the five companies agrees fairly well with US sales estimates provided above.  So it seems reasonably to write that less than 1% of total construction sales include construction chemicals.