The State of the Chemical Solutions Industry, Part 1

With nearly 40 years of chemical solutions development and distribution, T&L Specialty has seen a lot of change. These past few years, however, have been unlike any before.

“The chemical solutions industry is crazy right now,” said Mike Amicone, T&L’s lead chemist.                                                                              

Critical Supply Chain Issues

Perhaps most significant is the issue of sourcing chemicals. With the supply concerns introduced by the pandemic, many companies can’t access the raw materials they need to either make or sell a product.

"We've found solutions that work for us, and in time, the supply issues will resolve."

Freight trains, which transport critical chemicals such as ethanol, have declined in reliability with an alarming increase in delays and servicing. Recent numbers show ethanol-carrying trains are sitting on tracks 30% more often than in 2021 and 40% more than before the pandemic. 

Add in inflation, port gridlock, and geopolitical tensions, and you have even more issues to resolve before returning to what the industry remembers.

For Amicone, the supply issues have taken up much of his time these last couple of years. When the pandemic hit, around 50 chemicals needed to formulate his products were suddenly difficult or even impossible to find. 

Some of those chemicals were re-routed to prioritized industries. For example, phosphates, which T&L uses to create some products, were re-directed into fertilizers to meet agricultural requirements.

“People needed food more than they needed a cleaner,” Amicone explained. 

And yet there were customers globally who depended on chemical solutions products to run their businesses. So Amicone’s job became two-fold: he was searching to find the raw materials he needed, and at the same time, he was trying to figure out how to replace the materials he couldn’t get.

Thankfully, T&L has been able to find or make replacements for ingredients in their products. Not every company has been so successful.

"But I'm encouraged," said Amicone. "We've found solutions that work for us, and in time, the supply issues will resolve."

After decades in the industry, the T&L team knows there’s always the opportunity to get better. So Amicone is almost appreciative of industry changes brought about by the pandemic.

Next time … read our post about technology’s growing role in chemical production.