How come there's a TFE and PVDF long lead times

In the last year, the business has had more shortages than I have seen around my three decades experience. In the past I have seen sharp price increases, and I have observed several shortages, and delivery problems caused by resin allocations from plastic resin manufacturers. This is the first occasion I have seen all these issues at the same time.

PTFE (TFE) and Kynar both are on allocation.

This pair of resins are in short supply. The  PTFE Sheet product PTFE (TFE) and also Kynar  manufacturing requires a mineral called Fluorspar that is mined in Mongolia and China. The worldwide interest in this mineral has grown significantly, and the supply has tightened. PTFE materials have high temperature resistance, excellent chemical resistance and really low co-efficient of friction (slick) and is utilised within tons of applications from non-stick fry cookware to ptfe tape for use at home. This specific mineral is actually the critical raw material in the production of fluoropolymers, fluorolubricants and a lot of refrigerants.This escalating demand linked with shortage of raw materials is mainly responsible for a dramatic price increase (almost double during the last year), shortages, and we expect both these factors to keep at it in the near future.

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