Trichlor prices rise from supply shortage - Pool Service Industry News

Clip source: Trichlor Chlorine prices rise from supply shortage - Service Industry News

Chlorine prices rise from pandemic supply shortage and closed US chemical distribution plant.

  Pool service companies are feeling the repercussions of the massive chemical fire at the Bio-Lab facility in Westlake, Louisiana.

   In the wake of Hurricane Laura, the trichlor manufacturing plant caught fire on August 27, 2020, and continued to burn for three days, destroying an untold amount of the dry chemical relied on by the industry.

   Now, according to Terry Arko, Hasa’s Product Training and Content Manager, there is a concern in the service trade.

   “Distributors are rationing purchases to prevent hoarding. We are hearing stories that prices have gone up from around $80 a bucket to around $150 and as high as $200.

  Demand for trichlor and other pool chemicals and equipment was already unprecedented this year, as stay-at-home orders resulted in millions of Americans relying on their backyard pools as their sole means of entertainment.

   “Domestic manufacturers barely kept up this summer and distributors complained about long lead times, but Hurricane Laura took out one of the three domestic producers. The destruction of Bio-Lab’s Lake Charles plant reduced the supply by a third,” Arko said.

   According to Robert Rankin, Vice President of Pool Corp, contributing to the trichlor shortage is the fact that nearly all of the products currently sold in the U.S. is now domestic, although that was not always the case.

   “Since heavy tariffs were levied against China, there is very little of that product being brought into the U.S. (They would have been the largest exporter at that time). Japan still moves products into the U.S. but it is very small in the big picture. Mexico also sends product into the U.S. and that could increase but they are very limited by capacity,” Rankin said.

   With the destruction of one of the three main domestic producers of trichlor (the others being Occidental Chemical Corporation and Clearon Corporation) it appears that domestic supply cannot possibly meet demand.

   Furthermore, according to Arko, the U.S. inventory of China’s pre-tariff trichlor has been exhausted.

   Rankin says that it is still too early to know the full impact of the Bio-Lab’s fire in Louisiana.

   “There is no doubt it is going to be a very tough 2021 as it pertains to dry chemicals. That plant was very important to our industry and depending on how long it takes to rebuild and replenish, will determine just how difficult this gets for our industry. Millions of pounds have just been removed from our industry and there is simply no way to replace all of the product that was moved through that facility,” Rankin said.

   While other vendors are trying to step up and fulfill the immediate need, they simply don’t have the capacity.

  The only positive is that in most regions of the country, the swimming season is coming to a close, and the market for trichlor outside of the Sunbelt will decrease, perhaps allowing enough dry chemicals for those pools that remain open yearlong.

  Rankin says that only time will tell how bad the damage was, or how fast Bio-Labis able to rebuild and begin producing again.

   “If it truly is as bad as reported, or worse, 2021 will be long remembered as the year the Industry survived without dry chemicals.”

The price of pool chemicals are up 200% Since 2020

There seems to be a shortage of everything, with supply chain issues hitting pool service supplies that in the past, were taken for granted.

Pool service companies may struggle to keep up with maintenance and supplies, with Covid supply chain issues hitting the sector hard.

An industry body said the blow the coronavirus outbreak had dealt the economy, in general, was being felt by pool supply sellers and technicians as well.

“We’ve never had such a product shortage before,” said Swimming Pool and Spa Association chief executive Lindsay McGrath.

“And it's not just for manufactured products (like pumps) – you’ve got commodity chemical products like sodium bicarb and chlorine which are manufactured globally.

“(The impact on the movement of) shipping containers alone, especially in commodity products, it just increased prices exponentially.”

Pool supplies and chemicals are not immune to our supply chain issues.

He also said the unemployment has limited his workforce of technicians by as much as 30% in some parts of the country.

“It's almost a perfect storm,” he said.

Another factor putting pressure on the industry is the fact demand for pool supplies and services had skyrocketed during the earlier phases of the pandemic, Mr McGrath said.

That's because many locked-down homeowners chose to invest their money in the backyards where they were stuck.

“When Covid hit, everyone was cocooning at home. And while there was a lack of travel, people still had cash flow … the demand went through the roof,” Mr. McGrath said.

Muriatic Acid and Chlorine are both used to keep pool water fresh and clean. There has been a significant issue with supply and significant price increases on both

Mr. McGrath said consumers may have to use other products than they’re used to while supply issues remain, and recommended pool owners to service their pools regularly. “Don’t neglect your pool and have a green water issue costing hundreds of dollars,” he said.

Chlorine and Acid have seen price increases approaching 200% from the pre-2020 norm and may continue to go up.

Reach out to your local pool service company for information about alternatives to dry chlorine, or you can email our referral network at: referral@poolservicereport.com