FBA Letters to Adhesive Companies

Fibre Box Association (FBA) recently sent letters to two adhesive suppliers, Henkel and H.B. Fuller, asking the companies to prioritize supply of adhesives to the corrugated industry. Several member companies made FBA aware of short supply and allocations put in place by both companies as a result of the extreme weather conditions in Texas and the Gulf Coast. Members asked FBA to respond on behalf of the industry with a request to prioritize box manufacturers as essential to the supply chain.

Please feel free to use these letters: (click here and here) as you have conversations with your customers to show the industry is also pushing for steady supply.

This week, the Adhesives and Sealant Council (ASC) sent an alert updating members on the shortage of key adhesive intermediates. The alert included the following information:

The disruption is not limited to one supplier or one product line. Production at major chemical intermediate facilities in the Texas Gulf Coast have been negatively impacted as have intermediates produced by these facilities. There is supply tightness across the board.
In North America, reports indicate all production lines of vinyl acetate monomers (VAM) were down until March 10. Reports indicate one or maybe two VAM producers resumed production last week.
Shipments of VAM could resume late this week or early next week (week of 3/22). Given the surge in demand, transportation bottlenecks will likely lead to longer lead times.
Other feedstocks, including ethylene, acrylic and acrylate production are also down. Additives used to formulate adhesives and sealants are also extremely tight and many are on allocation.
Restarting these facilities is a long, careful and methodical process. For example, inspection of pipes, which were reported to have been heavily damaged by the deep freeze, takes time and thorough testing.

The full update from ASC can be found here.