MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF says a “continued and rapid escalation” in raw material costs and availability, as well as higher manufacturing and transportation costs, has prompted it to increase its formulation and performance additives prices in North America by up to 10%, according to Chemweek.
The increase will be effective 1 April 2021, or as contracts permit.
The increase is required “in order to provide continued service, support, and sustainable product manufacturing for our customers,” it says.
As MRC reported before, earlier this week, BASF announced prices increases in North America for formic acid, neopentylglycol, select polyetheramines, and 1,4-butanediol (BDO) and its derivatives.
We remind that in mid-February, BASF said it was restarting one of its steam crackers at its Ludwigshafen complex in Germany after operations were halted last Wednesday due to a technical issue. The naphtha cracker produces ethylene and propylene, and is one of two crackers on the site. One has a production capacity of 420,000 metric tons/year, with the other's capacity at 240,000 metric tons/year, according to IHS Markit data.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,220,640 tonnes in 2020, up by 2% year on year. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, polypropylene (PP) shipments to the Russian market reached 1 240,000 tonnes in 2020 (calculated using the formula: production, minus exports, plus imports, excluding producers" inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply of exclusively PP random copolymer increased.
BASF is the leading chemical company. It produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries.
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