DuPont to help auto industry cope with nylon 12 squeeze – CEO

19 April 2012 16:04  [Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (ICIS)--DuPont is working to help customers in the auto industry to cope with current nylon 12 shortages, the CEO of the US-based producer said on Thursday.

An explosion last month at Evonik’s cyclododecatriene (CDT) plant in Marl, Germany, has taken out an estimated 40% of the world's nylon 12 capacity, leaving automotive customers scrambling to find alternatives.

“We will expend our efforts and time to collaborate with [auto industry customers] to find alternatives so that they can minimise supply disruptions,” CEO Ellen Kullman said in response to analysts's questions during DuPont’s first-quarter results conference call.

“We have got application development people and sales people out with each of the OEM [original equipment manufacturers] that are impacted to really understand if we can help out,” she said.

DuPont offers nylon products that could be an alternative to nylon 12 (also known as also known as polyamide 12 or PA 12) in certain automotive applications.

Kullman added that DuPont does not foresee any supply shortages in its own products as a result of the Evonik blast.

Evonik has said it expects substantial constraints in supply CDT-based products. Meanwhile the Germany-based specialty chemicals firm is making every effort to ensure the Marl facility is repaired and running as soon as possible, it said.

CDT is used to make laurolactam which, in turn, is used as a monomer in nylon 12.

Additional reporting by Wesley Busch

By: Stefan Baumgarten
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