How come there’s a Teflon and Kynar- PVDF long lead times
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- March 30, 2021
Over the last year, the business has had more difficulties than I’ve come across around my thirty years experience. In the past I have seen sharp price increases, and I have witnessed several shortages, and delivery problems because of plastic resin allocations coming from resin suppliers. This is definitely the very first occasion I have seen all these issues at the same time.
Polytetraflouroethylene (TFE) and Kynar are both on allocation.
This pair of resins are in short supply. The PTFE Sheet suppliers product PTFE (TFE) as well as PVDF manufacturing requires a mineral called Fluorspar that’s mined in Mongolia and China. The worldwide requirement for this mineral has increased significantly, as well as supply has tightened. PTFE materials have high heat resistance, excellent chemical resistance and very low co-efficient of friction (slippery) and is utilised within tons of applications from non-stick fry pots and pans to ptfe tape for home use. This mineral is actually a critical raw materials within the manufacturing of fluoropolymers, fluorolubricants and lots of refrigerants.This escalating demand combined with shortage of raw materials is mainly responsible for a dramatic price increase (almost double over the last year), shortages, and we expect these two factors to keep at it in the near future.