How come there's a Teflon and Kynar long lead times

In the last year, the market has had more allocations than I have come across in my three decades experience. In the past I have seen sharp price increases, and I have witnessed several shortages, and delivery issues as a result of plastic resin allocations coming from resin suppliers. This is definitely the very first instance I have seen all these issues at the same time.

PTFE Rod (TFE) and Kynar both are on allocation.

These two resins are in short supply. The  PTFE Sheeting product PTFE (TFE) and Kynar-PVDF  manufacturing requires a mineral called Fluorspar that is mined in Mongolia and China. The world demand for this mineral has increased significantly, as well as supply has tightened. PTFE materials have high heat resistance, excellent chemical resistance and incredibly low co-efficient of friction (slick) and is used throughout a bunch of applications from non-stick fry pots and pans to ptfe tape for home use. This specific mineral is a important raw materials within the production of fluoropolymers, fluorolubricants and a lot of refrigerants.This increasing amount of demand joined together with shortage of raw materials is mainly responsible for a dramatic price increase (almost double over the last year), shortages, and we expect these two factors to keep at it in the near future.

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