The rise in commodity prices does not affect Chimcomplex’s ambitious investments, so it will double its production capacity in the next two years. Instead, the profit margin is affected and new cost optimizations will be imposed, told Energynomics the financial director (CFO) of Chimcomplex, Adrian Dumitriu. At the same time, Chimcomplex is taking gas from the Dutch FTT market, where there is a calming of prices for contracts for 2022 – from over 90 euro/mmc to about 60 euro.
“For our company, gas is not a raw material, it is a component that goes into the production of energy and steam. We make polyols. We are not in the situation of other companies like Azomureș, which use intensively gas, we are in another iteration. I am a steam consumer, but we are not the iteration from Azomureș, where gas is the raw material. We use propylene in the production of polyols, which is a fraction of the oil refining, but does not have the rate of increase of the oil price. We take gas at the market price, from TTF, the Netherlands “, he said.
Polyols are produced using propylene, which has become about 30% more expensive during the year.
“Our prices (for polyols) are in line with the market. We export about 70% of what we produce and we export at market prices. It is an oligopoly market in which we are not price makers, we are a small entity as compared to BASF, Shell or Dow Chemical. These price increases of raw materials do not affect our sales, but our profit margin. We will be marginally affected. What is happening in the gas and energy market does not affect the structure of our product demand,” said Adrian Dumitriu.
“We keep our investment as planned. We will increase the production capacity of polyols, in two or three years we will have a double capacity compared to what we have today. Our driver is the production of polyols, which are part of the decarbonization solutions. The most efficient wind turbine blades are made of rigid polyols. The best insulation is made of rigid polyurethane foam. Electric cars are produced – all the benches have in them the most famous polyol, polyurethane foam. It’s a huge demand. Soundproofing solutions for transportation… The whole Green Deal story creates an additional demand for our products,” he added.
Dumitriu sees a calming of gas prices in 2022, but electricity will keep a high tariff.
“When it comes to gas, we are now talking about a temporary storm. Now prices for 2022 have dropped from 90 to 60 euro/tcm. We get our gas from TTF, from the Dutch market. We are done with Romania… where there is a story… For 2022 Romania is a story… let’s see later, when the investments in the Black Sea will start … But, if we look forward to gas- the price drops, instead, I think we will stay with high prices at energy, not what we have now on the DAM market, but … so, we are more concerned about electricity.“
