ICIS Chemical
Business
Markets Industrial Specialties
Page 42-43
Excerpts from… “Adhesives are glued to growth”
By Lindsey Blanchfield,
Contributing Writer
………“Our estimate is that 2006
will continue to see probably an additional 8-10% increase in raw material
prices,” says Daniel Murad, ChemQuest’s President and CEO. “The biggest reason for that is that raw
material suppliers are continuing to catch up on past raw material increases
that they were not able to pass through.”
……….“I
think they’ve done a great job in passing along price increases to customers, ChemQuest’s Murad says. “In the initial phases, at the end of 2004
and into 2005, the end-use customers were accepting this rather readily because
they could see that it was needed and they could see the media reports on all
the escalation of natural gas prices and crude oil prices.”
……….“Now
customers are starting to complain,” Murad
says. “They’re a bit more grudging
in accepting raw material increases.
But, I think the top adhesive companies have been pretty disciplined at
continuing to pass through and justifying them accordingly.”
One of the biggest challenges, according to ChemQuest’s Murad, for the adhesives and sealants
market is that the industry wants an adhesive that can be reversible. “End-users want to be able to assemble a
component with the adhesive and then when they need to disassemble it, they
want to be able to pull the product apart,” says Murad.
But, Murad
notes conventional chemistries are essentially permanent. The European standard for recycling, where by
2008 everything in the car has been recycled, means that if a car is built with
adhesives, it has to be able to be taken apart and broken down.
(To read the complete article…see ICIS Chemical Business