Chemical and Metal Shortage Alert – November 2019

The purpose of this blog is to identify chemical and metal 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 2019.

Section I below lists those chemicals and metals that were on the previous month’s Chemical and Metal Shortage Alert list and continue to have news releases indicating they are in short supply. Click here to read the October 2019 Chemical and Metal Shortage Alert list.

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

Section I.

Ethylene oxide:  United States; supply not keeping up with demand

Palladium:  global; production not keeping up with demand

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

Balsa wood:  global; production not keeping up with demand

Helium:  global; production not keeping up with demand

Propane:  United States, Canada; supply not keeping up with demand

Rebar steel:  China; supply not keeping up with demand

Sand:  India; supply not keeping up with demand

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: balsa wood; helium

3.  Government regulations: none

4.  Sources no longer available: none

5.  Insufficient imports:  none

6.  Supply not keeping up with demand: propane; rebar steel; sand

Reaching A Circular Metal-Use Economy

An important requirement needed for the continuing welfare and benefit of our global community is the availability of metals.  So, governmental regulations and incentives need to include considerations related to metal availability and use, and availability and use that must be looked at from the perspective of a circular economy.  To help governments in these considerations, government decisionmakers should take advantage of work done by the United Nations in developing seventeen “Sustainable Development Goals” or SDGs (click here to read details about SDGs).

These goals pertain to much more than metal sustainability, e.g. goals dealing with poverty, hunger, health, education, climate, land use, and human development.  But some of the goals are especially relevant to metal use and therefor metal use considerations are needed to reach certain SDG goals.  For example, the following SDGs can easily be related to metal availability and use:

SDG 6 – Clean Water and Sanitation.  Metal mining can include large amounts of water use, which often is badly polluted by the use.

SDG 7 – Affordable and Clean Energy.  Metal use and availability are critical in many aspects of energy use and developing new energy sources.

SDG 9 – Industry Innovation and Infrastructure.  Metal use is a foundation in many industrial processes.

SDG 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities.  Goals in this SDG are critical to sustainable use of metals, since so much of city development and infrastructure requires huge amounts of metal use.

SDG 12 – Responsible Consumption and Production.  Success here is essential to the development of a circular economy, which must include a circular use and availability of metals.

SDG 13 – Climate Action.  Metal use is critical in many technologies that hopefully will reduce carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, a major cause of climate change.

Major objectives of such overview and analysis are governmental regulations and incentives include the following:

1.                   Smart city models requiring developments, infrastructures, regulations, etc., that promote a circular economy;

2.                  Regulatory codes that effect how people live in communities, so that people can have desired life styles that are consistent with a circular economy;

3.                  Governmental incentives for the development of technologies that promote a circular economy; and

4.                  Governments that recognize the need for a circular economy and equip themselves with the planning and other resources needed to obtain that circular economy.

So, yes, targets for resource use, such as metal resource use, should be incorporated in the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.  

And, the chemical enterprise should be directly and actively involved in providing input to help develop a circular economy for metals.

Indium – Uses, Prices, and Production

This blog highlights information and data I have found on the Internet related to indium uses, prices, and production.   Key blog objectives are to present an indium 2018 global production amount and the amount of global revenues represented by the sale of this production.

Uses.  As for other metals, indium’s physical properties account for how it is used. For example, as a metal with a low melting point and stickiness (bonding) to itself and other metals, indium is used as a solder.  This good bonding property along with being a good electrical conductor accounts for indium’s use as a conductive transparent film on electrical device screens and solar panels (in combination with tin oxides and with copper, gallium, and selenide).  This use as opto-conducting coating material accounts for 60 to 70% of global indium use.  Other uses include: in semiconductors; as an alarm trigger in fire sprinkler systems (due to its melting point range); as a corrosive-resistant coating on such devices as bearings; and for measuring thermal neutron flux in nuclear reactors.

Prices.  The average global price of indium during 2018 has been put at $310 per kilogram (kg).  This represents an increase over the indium 2017 prices (e.g., a range of $190 to $290 per kg.)

Production.  Indium is produced as a by-product of mostly the mining of zinc (and lesser amounts of other major metals such as cooper).  For this reason, indium production is constrained by scheduled mining activities of zinc (and other major metals).   Estimates are that in 2018 approximately 750 metric tons (mt) of indium was refined from mined ores.   In addition to this, in the mining process, wastes are generated containing indium and these wastes were further processed to recover amounts of indium contained in them.  This further processing accounted for an additional approximate 1,000 mt, for a total of 2018-produced indium of 1,750 metric tons.   With an average 2018 price of $310 per kg and 1,750 mt produced, potential revenues generated by indium sales in 2018 would have been $543 million ($310 per kg X 1,750 mt X 1kg/0.001 mt).  Estimated global reserves of indium are 50,000 mt, suggesting concerns about enough supplies over the long-term.  Indium has been listed as a critical element for national purposes by both the United States and the European Union.  For these reasons, much interest exists in developing processes for recovering indium from screen-containing electrical devices, which represent 60 to 70% of global indium used (see Uses above).  Click here (pdf file), here, and here (pdf file) for details that reflect the needs, interest, and activities in developing indium recovery from electronic devices.

Chemical and Metal Shortage Alert – October 2019

The purpose of this blog is to identify chemical and metal 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 October 2019.

Section I below lists those chemicals and metals that were on the previous month’s Chemical and Metal Shortage Alert list and continue to have news releases indicating they are in short supply.  Click here to read the September 2019 Chemical and Metal Shortage Alert list.

Section II lists the new chemicals and metals (not on the September 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 metals 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 October not found on the Previous Month’s List

Ethylene oxide:  United States; supply not keeping up with demand

Gamma ferric oxide:  global; production not keeping up with demand

Palladium:  global; production not keeping up with demand

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: gamma ferric oxide; palladium

3.  Government regulations: none

4.  Sources no longer available: none

5.  Insufficient imports:  none

6.  Supply not keeping up with demand: ethylene oxide