NYCOA TOPICS: 2021 Weather and Supply Chain Disruptions
The winter of 2021 has seen extreme weather in parts of the US that have surprised many and, sadly, caused significant hardship. This toll on the communities of Southern states such as Texas has been featured heavily in the news, representing an acute crisis that we all hope will be resolved quickly and completely. This article is focused on another aspect of the disruptions caused by weather, particularly weather in these regions of the US: supply chain disruptions.
Texas and the southern states are economic and industrial powerhouses. One industry in particular - the oil refining industry - ties into many different economies, including the manufacture of polymers such as Nylon. To understand how, it is important to take a quick moment to learn about HMDA, a key building block for Nylons (particularly nylon 6,6, which is thought to consume about 90% of the world’s production of HMDA).
Hexamethylenediamine (HMDA) is one of the key intermediates in the preparation of nylon 6,6, which occurs by condensation reaction with adipic acid. Most HMDA is made at commercial scale from the hydrogenation of adiponitrile (ADN) in ammonia, which is itself produced by butadiene (via hydrocyanation).
ADN from butadiene is currently the most cost-effective process, and occurs primarily in the US - specifically, in multiple plants in Texas and Florida (there is also production in Europe). With only a few plants around the world that support the production of ADN -> HMD -> Nylon 6,6, weather and efficiency issues can cause supply constraints, and force companies to declare force majeure, which means they place their customers on limited allocations due to limited supply of product. One recent episode of this took place in 2018. Force Majeure can have major impacts on downstream industries. For Nylon, this means shortages of critical parts for automobiles, cables, fibers, apparel, carpet, and more. Force Majeure declarations are not always public knowledge.
Now, we revisit the extreme winter weather of 2021. In the past week, some groups have reported Force Majeure on nylon materials - DuPont and BASF are both announcing limitations and reductions in nylon production in the US, many Texas plants are declaring Force Majeure in their product lines, and February weather has even caused Force Majeure declarations in Europe. While there are certainly limits on what information is publicly available, it is likely that these weather-related limitations in nylon production are due to impacts upstream in their intermediates and feedstocks.
The results of these disruptions are less important than the humanitarian work that is ongoing to return safety and wellbeing to these populations. They do, however, have broad and significant impacts on all producers of nylons, as well as products made with them. In severe supply disruptions, due to the prolonged increase in prices due to intermediate shortages, industries often start to look at alternatives for nylon 6,6 - searching that took place in earnest during a prolonged shortage in 2018. Some of these alternatives look at switching nylon 6,6 (made with the HMDA, ADN supply chain) with nylon 6 (which is made using caprolactam, a feedstock that has many more sites of manufacture and which is not affected by the ADN and HMDA intermediate chain).
NYCOA, like all engineered nylon manufacturers, expends great efforts to strengthen our supply chain. We are thankful that this most recent disruption has found us as prepared as ever to continue production and customer support. While we respect that the situation may change, we are currently in full production and working hard to manage any raw material shortages or disruptions with minimal impact to our end customers.
NYCOA has been reaching out to its business and personal contacts in these communities throughout this challenging period, in an effort to facilitate the full and complete recovery of these systems as quickly as possible. While any interruptions to normal business represent an inconvenience, they are miniscule in comparison to the importance that NYCOA puts on the humanitarian impact that these weather conditions have had on the communities involved. We hope that, with federal and state support, this challenging chapter may be closed and safety for the communities may be returned.
About NYCOA
NYCOA (the Nylon Corporation of America) commercially manufactures many grades of specialty engineered nylon, including nylon 6, nylon copolymers, filled and super-tough grades, nylon 6,10 and 6,12, and unique long-chain polyamide family NXTamid , and our unique flexible PEBA Nylon Ny-Flex. All NYCOA products are made in the USA, manufactured in our ISO plant located in Manchester, NH. NYCOA is dedicated to plastics engineering, plastics innovation, and a consistent quality earned through operational excellence. NYCOA is dedicated to its customers, and produces specialty engineered polymers for industries and partners around the world, and has plastics compounding capabilities to produce a variety of reinforced grades.
Nylon manufactures for many industries and applications, including fasteners, hook and loop, extruded parts, injection molding, athletic accessories, military and transportation applications, foamed components, monofilament, powders, and wire and cable jacketing.
Interested in a sample of our specialty nylon grades, or more information about their chemical resistance properties? CONTACT US
Contact:
333 Sundial Ave.
Manchester, NH 03103-7230
Tel: 603.627.5150
Fax: 603.627.4499