The European chemicals and plastics industry is clearly hurting amid the tense market situation, and as the cost of production continues to rise and supply chains grow more precarious, major players and interest groups are increasingly sounding the alarm.

Following German and French packaging producers and, most recently, Brussels-based European Plastics Converters (EUPC, Brussel; www.eupc.org – see Plasteurope.com of 12.09.2022 and 21.09.2022), the latest to speak up are converters of PVC.

With “never-ending price increases”, a still-difficult supply situation and rising force majeure declarations in the third quarter of 2022, the PVC converting industry is being continuously confronted with “several crises” that are beginning to endanger existences in the sector, says Industrieverband Kunststoffbahnen Europe (IVK Europe, Frankfurt, Germany; www.ivk-europe.com), the industry association of companies producing sheets made of plastics and rubber.

Citing figures published by EuPC, PVC sheet makers say that, compared to the beginning of 2022, they are now paying up to 750% higher prices for electricity while still grappling with supply glitches.

As a consequence, IVK says its member companies are having to temporarily shutter production facilities, and this is having a negative effect on the entire PVC chain. What’s more, “urgently planned and needed investment in innovative products as well as in recycling technologies” are being put on ice due to the extreme financial burden the industry’s companies are shouldering.

Since March 2022, the number of force majeure declarations in Europe has increased monthly, the converters assert, quoting figures published by Polymer Comply Europe (PCE, Brussels; www.polymercomplyeurope.eu) and adding that, among all polymers, PVC is the worst affected. According to the data, 58 FMs altogether were still in place as October began, with 25 having begun between July and September.

According to Plasteurope.com’s Polyglobe database (www.polyglobe.net), current utilisation rates in Europe are only at about 76% of all available PVC capacity. Nearly 14% are offline due to forces majeures, 8% of plants have reduced output, and 2% are under maintenance.

The forecasts for PVC processing generally and for the member companies of IVK Europe going forward “look similarly alarming”, the grouping says. “This is a last sign for the German and European policy makers who must act urgently to prevent even worse developments.”