AKRON, OHIO — BASF Corp. and Monsanto Co. each have announced plans to hike nylon resin prices in the next month.
The announcements come a week after DuPont Co., based in Wilmington, Del., announced a similar move that would raise nylon prices 6-10 percent, effective May 1.
BASF announced a 6 percent hike, effective June 1, for its Ultramid-brand nylon 6 and 6/6 grades.
A 6 percent increase on the Mount Olive, N.J.-based company's copolymer nylon and Ultradur-brand polybutylene terepthalate will be effective on the same date.
In addition, the company announced 8 percent hikes for specialty flame-retardant nylon grades and color grades of nylon and PET, and a 5 percent increase for Ultraform-brand acetal copolymers. All of those increases also have an effective date of June 1.
St. Louis-based Monsanto plans two price increases for May 15.
Prices for general-purpose grades of nylon 6/6 will go up by 6 percent and prices on all of the company's other nylon grades, including glass-filled and mineral-filled products, will increase by 10 percent, the company said. Monsanto spokesman Carl Moskowitz said the increase will affect orders shipped on or after May 15.
BASF's nylon increase is tied to escalating prices of such raw materials as caprolactum, according to Raj Menta, BASF's business director for engineering plastics.
``Reinvestment doesn't exist,'' Menta said April 25, explaining the need for the increase. ``We're not getting enough to put back in the operation.''
Menta added that the increase is the first such hike in almost two years for BASF.
Monsanto's Moskowitz said his company's increase is based on nylon growth trends, which have shown an average 7 percent growth rate in the past four years.
Monsanto officials said they expect that trend to continue, resulting in a need for 80 million additional pounds of nylon resin each year.
``We need the reinvestment economics to support those kind of capacity adjustments,'' Moskowitz said.
