Packaging News
EuPC urges converters to question supplier ‘force majeure’ claims
The European Plastics Converters Association (EuPC) has urged members to challenge suppliers if they are suspicious that claims of ‘force majeure’ have prohibited them from providing materials are not genuine.
EuPC said that, even though the availability of plastics raw materials is now “an issue of national strategic concern” in some countries, the recent frequency of ‘force majeure’ was “unprecedented in our working life-time”.
Alexandre Dangis, managing director of EuPC, said: “These really need to be put to the test as only the courts can form that view.
“It is ironic that just as society is beginning to appreciate the positive role of plastics in addressing some of the big issues of our time, raw material unavailability is set to undermine the reputational progress our industry has made in recent years.”
Dangis said that while demand for raw materials had dropped considerably at the start of the banking crisis, the degree of recovery experienced in the last nine months had taken many members by surprise.
Converters are now said to be in a difficult situation because of so many suppliers claiming ‘force majeures’.
Dangis said this had caused hardship for plastic processors who were struggling to “fulfil their own supply contracts with customers, while not having the possibility of any legal recourse to their own suppliers.”
However, EuPC acknowledges that in some parts of the EU, some specialist materials are “just not available”.
“Some of our members associations have informed their respective governments that the availability of essential plastics raw materials is now an issue of national strategic concern,” said Dangis.
A recent KPMG study titled ‘The Future of the European Chemicals Industry” forecasted a 26% reduction in cracker capacity in the EU by 2015.
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