During the last year, the business has had more allocations than I've come across around my thirty years experience. In the past I have seen sharp price increases, and I have experienced several shortages, and delivery problems as a consequence of plastic resin allocations by plastic resin manufacturers. This is definitely the first instance I have seen all these issues at one time.
PTFE Sheet (TFE) and Kynar are both on allocation.
The two of these resins are in short supply. The PTFE - Polytetrafluoroethylene product PTFE (TFE) as well as Kynar-PVDF manufacturing requires a mineral called Fluorspar that's mined in Mongolia and China. The world need for this mineral has increased significantly, and the supply has tightened. PTFE materials have high heat resistance, excellent chemical resistance and very low co-efficient of friction (slippery) and is utilised in a good deal of applications from non-stick fry cookware to ptfe tape for use at home. This mineral is actually a key raw materials inside the production of fluoropolymers, fluorolubricants and a lot of refrigerants.This increased demand combined with general shortage of raw materials has caused a dramatic price increase (almost double in the last year), shortages, and we expect both these factors to stay in affect in the near future.
