For polyamide 66 processors across Europe, the situation has now become critical. Extremely tight supply for base polymer and compounds will intensify further now that both Invista & Solvay have declared force majeure for the total European production capacity of Adiponitrile (ADN).

The recent announcements that both Invista & Solvay have declared Force Majeure for ADN, Hexamethylene Diamine (HMD), Nylon Salt, PA66 polymer, PA66 fibres, PA66 compounds and all other PA66 related products is very bad news indeed. The companies have taken this step as a result of their ADN supplier being unable to fulfil their contractual obligations for an unspecified period of time.

The Butachimie plant accounts for 100% of the total European production of ADN so the knock on affect for PA66 production is very serious and will undoubtedly affect all the major European producers and suppliers of nylon 66 base polymer and compounds. It also accounts for 33% of the global capacity so it could also have a much wider impact across the World. This same plant also has major production capacity of HMD (180k tonnes/year) which accounts for 9% of the total global market.

A further complication of this news is that Solvay is currently in the process of selling its share of the JV to BASF.

Current Force Majeures in place that are potentially affecting PA66 are;

Invista – PA66 polymer, since August 2017

Solvay – PA66 polymer, since January 2018

BASF – HMD, since January 2018

Ascend – HMD, since January 2018

Solvay – ADN, since February 2018

Invista – ADN, since February 2018

There is undoubtedly much more bad news to come and the situation regarding PA66 supply is going to get substantially worse before it gets better. The additional knock on affect is that PA66 polymer & compound prices are going to rise still further, but this is of little consequence if processors cannot secure anywhere near the volumes of PA66 they require.