HOBUM News | May 2021
Dr. René Manski
Dear partners and friends
Long-term partnership at eye level pays off, especially in the current economic situation. In contrast to the ongoing easing of the pandemic, the supply situation for raw materials, packaging and cargo hold is very tense. Due to our long-term approach in procurement and production, we have succeeded in delivering the confirmed quantities to you on time. In order to ensure this also in the coming months, we are increasing our stock of various raw materials and packaging.
The first “HOBUM. Innovation. Exchange.” event was a great success, thanks to your participation. We will repeat this format on a regular basis as a complement to our ECS participation.
Our current newsletter informs you about these and other interesting topics.
Sincerely,
Dr. René Manski
Head of Sales & Marketing
Raw material prices at record levels
Source: Olenex.
It started as early as last autumn, when harvest expectations for vegetable oils, especially sunflower oil, led to first price spurts. The prices responded volatile to these shortages. This surprised many. Especially since for several years the vegetable oil complex had not only remained stable but at a very low level.
At that time, the chemical industry in Europe was still in a Corona crisis mode: Unused capacity, fierce competition, low prices. Factory closures in Europe occurred in the fourth quarter, like at the DOW in Terneuzen.
The new year caught the entire industry on the wrong foot: A strong Chinese economy and an emerging recovery in the US and Europe led to a massive demand jump. The markets were not prepared for this. Also logistics chains were overstretched and force majeure explanations for sensitive raw materials, e. g. epoxy resins, phthalates or glycol ethers exacerbated the situation. The result: massive price increases coupled with shortages in almost all areas. Sometimes the supply was completely stopped; so many companies had to stop production (temporarily).
Arnold G. Mergell, General Manager of HOBUM Oleochemicals GmbH
At HOBUM, we have been able to maintain our production without interruption. The supply of our customers was guaranteed at all times and we will continue to be a reliable partner in the market. We are sure that in the chemical industry there will be a change of thinking to be guided by the following principles:
- Just in time supply will be disrupted in times of disrupted supply chains,
- Regional supply of raw materials will become more important, especially as it is more sustainable;
- Long-term and partnership-based customer-supplier relationships will be intensified.
We attach particular importance to the latter. In an increasingly digital and therefore anonymous business world, personal contact and exchange will continue to be a fundamental part of HOBUM’s strategic orientation!
Therefore, please contact us at any time if you have any questions about products or their related supply chains.
Personnel changes
Claudia Klören, former employee
Claudia Klören is leaving our company at the end of this month. Thank you very much for your commitment. Since October 2016, she has worked for us as Sales Manager and was responsible for the areas of our Merginats and Isomergin Acids.
Your contact person for this area from now on is Dr. René Manski, Head of Sales & Marketing.
If you are interested in or have any questions about the above-mentioned products, please contact Dr. Manski at:
Email: rmanski@hobum.de
Tel. : +49 40 766 255 61
Mobile: +49 173 37 440 76
Our new employee Toni Maddonni at work.
In our warehouse we got support from a new colleague. We kindly welcome our new employee Toni Maddonni. He is a trained automotive mechanic and a professional truck driver. At HOBUM he is active as a trained specialist in warehouse logistics.
Quality and occupational safety hand in hand
Regularly we review the methods by which we specify our products for you. We do this to guarantee you reliably consistent product quality and our employees the highest possible level of occupational safety.
Last year, we successfully eliminated various CMR substances (carcinogenic, mutagenic, toxic to reproduction) from our routine analysis. This improvement followed the STOP principle of TRGS 600 (Technical Rules for Hazardous Substances). The determination of the Iodine Value and the Saponification Number was changed for the product group of Merginats (ESBO, ELO, etc. ) and Isomergin Acids.
In the first quarter, we revised the withdrawn DIN method for determining the hydroxyl number of our polyols. The new methodology was adapted in the interests of occupational safety while maintaining the specification limits known to you.
Stefanie Ehmke is Head of Laboratory and responsible for quality management.
We currently focus on the chemical-intensive analysis of the Amine Value of our epoxy hardeners, the Merginamids. We established a comparable potentiometric determination for all products for which the Amine Value has been specified by manual titration. This method has been evaluated over a longer period of time in internal tests. The starting signal for the exclusively formal adaptation of the methods on the Certificate of Analysis has been given.
If you have any questions, please contact our Quality manager, Stefanie Ehmke:
Stefanie Ehmke
Laboratory management / Quality management
Tel. : +49 40 766 255 86
Email: sehmke@hobum.de
Review: HOBUM.Innovation.Exchange.
“Welcome to our first HOBUM. Innovation. Exchange.! Right now we were intended to hear the bell at the European Coating Show in Nuremberg. ” With these words, our managing director Arnold G. Mergell opened our first online event on March 23, 2021.
With around 70 participants, we shared insights into our sustainability journey and the bio-based carbon content of our products. In the Deep Dive Session a selection of the application possibilities and benefits of our Merginols and Merginamids were presented.
After the presentation, there was the opportunity to book 1:1 sessions with our experts to ask individual questions and exchange ideas about applications. This also included our Merginat series (Epoxidized Esters and Oils) and the Conjugated Fatty Acids (Our Isomergin Acid).
Have a look backstage: our team was hosted by the ElbLOGE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIACCNkB_Ec
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