Sofa factories can no longer sit still as sponge prices rise

“I can’t stand it, this kind of increase is too scary…” Yesterday, Mr. Wang from a sofa factory in Chengdu looked at one of the latest raw materials for sponge production. There were constant complaints about TDI prices. TDI was quoted at 50,000 yuan/ton that day, nearly five times the more than 10,000 yuan/ton at the beginning of the year! As TDI prices have skyrocketed, sponge prices have also risen. Mr. Wang’s sofa factory can no longer sit still and has recently had to raise the price of sofas like its peers.

A kind of raw material that most people have never heard of has risen so crazily, causing the prices of downstream industry products to rise simultaneously. What is the reason? A reporter from Chengdu Business Daily conducted an interview yesterday investigated.

Sofa manufacturers: Sofa prices increased by more than 10%

Yesterday, a reporter from Chengdu Business News visited several home furnishing stores in the urban area and found that the price of sofas has generally increased since the beginning of this year, with the price increase ranging from 500 yuan to 1,000 yuan. The increase is more than 10%.

“The price of sofas has increased a lot now. A living room sofa has increased by thousands of yuan.” According to a staff member of Shenzhen Meimu Gold Furniture, this year Due to the increase in the price of raw material sponge, the price of sofas that use a large amount of sponge has increased the most. In contrast, soft beds and mattresses have also increased, but not by much.

“We have been making sofas in Chengdu for more than 30 years, and we have never encountered an increase like TDI.” Mr. Zheng from Chengdu Tianzi Sofa Co., Ltd. told reporters yesterday that at the beginning of this year At that time, the lowest retail price of a set of fabric sofas in the living room was only more than 4,000 yuan, but now it has had to rise to about 5,000 yuan, while the retail price of leather sofas has also increased from more than 7,000 yuan at the beginning of the year to about 8,500 yuan.

Mr. Zheng did some calculations for reporters. Sponges account for about 30% to 40% of the cost of sofas. Recently, due to the sharp increase in TDI, the raw material for sponges, the price of sponges has also increased by nearly 10%. Times, the sofa bears the brunt of the impact.

Sponge manufacturers: prices have nearly doubled

“Compared with the TDI price of more than 10,000 yuan per ton at the beginning of this year, it has now risen to 50,000 yuan per ton, and sponges have also had to raise prices,” said a sponge company in Chengdu Boss Ma of the factory said in an interview with reporters that the raw material TDI accounts for about 30% of the production cost of sponges. “Affected by the price of TDI, the price of sponges has now nearly doubled.”

As a processing company, Boss Ma is deeply impressed by the changes in the price of TDI raw materials. “The price increase probably started on August 3. At that time, the price was one per day. Sometimes One price in the morning and another in the afternoon.” Boss Ma said that the price of TDI raw materials has now risen to 50,000 yuan per ton. “The key is that we may not be able to get the goods yet!”

Raw material prices: increased nearly 5 times during the year

The full name of TDI is the English abbreviation of toluene diisocyanate. For ordinary consumers, this chemical raw material is quite unfamiliar, but its chemical product, sponge, is something that everyone comes into contact with every day.

Sponge is generally a product of polyurethane plus TDI or MDI for glue-linking reaction. It is divided into various densities according to the size of the inner bubbles. In addition to synthetic sponges, TDI is also widely used in polyurethane, coatings, dyes, pesticides and other industries.

The reporter found from the Huicong Chemical Network that in recent years, with the continuous release of domestic production capacity, TDI prices have plummeted from a peak of 17,500 yuan/ton in August 2014 to The price at the beginning of the year was around 11,900 yuan/ton, and even hovered around 10,000 yuan/ton for a time. However, the price began to rise suddenly in August this year. On the eve of the National Day, the TDI price rose to 20,000 yuan/ton; after the National Day, the TDI price surged again. , rising from about 23,000 yuan/ton to 47,500 yuan/ton last Friday. Just yesterday, the latest domestic TDI price has climbed to 50,000 yuan/ton, and some suppliers such as Yantai Juli have closed their orders and suspended shipments.

Reasons for the surge: Global TDI giants cut production

Why did the chemical raw material TDI suddenly soar? According to research reports by many chemical industry analysts, the main reason for the rise in TDI prices is the contraction of foreign supply, which drives domestic exports and leads to domestic TDI prices continue to rise.

Data shows that global TDI giants mainly include companies such as Covestro, BASF, Mitsui Chemicals and Wanhua Chemical.��. Since March this year, TDI supply has begun to shrink globally. In May this year, Japan’s Mitsui announced the permanent closure of the Kashima 120,000-ton TDI unit; France’s Vencorex shut down its 126,000-ton TDI unit; Mitsui Omuta, Basf South Korea’s Yeosu, and China’s Yantai Juli equipment undergoes centralized maintenance. At the same time, the TDI devices of Bosu Chemical, Covestro, Hanwha Chemical, and South Korea’s OCI entered the maintenance stage from August to November.

Entering October, the global TDI giant Covestro announced that the TDI products produced by Covestro were affected because the upstream nitric acid supplier could not be restarted after maintenance. Due to these factors, supply in foreign markets has been significantly reduced, and TDI prices have soared.

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