VistaTek, along with the entire plastics industry, has seen its share of chaos in the first 2 quarters of 2021 due to hurricanes, a deep freeze in TX, a backlog on sea freight, domestic shipping delays and high resin demands. This is a perfect storm of a worldwide shortage in plastics. We have seen resin availability go from a 2-day delivery to 24 weeks. Prices have also skyrocketed. For example, Polypropylene has gone from $0.66/lb to $1.75/lb in less than 7 months. We are fortunate that we are staying busy, but material availability and pricing has been a challenge. We are doing everything we can to have plastic in-house to run our customers parts and keep the machines going.
VistaTek has been proactively ordering extra material and reaching out to customers to provide release orders. We appreciate that customers are providing us with orders up to 6 months out. This gives us the ability to keep resins on order or the ability to find alternatives.
Currently, we are experiencing a second round of shortages. Previously, it was ABS, PP, and some Nylon. PP and ABS are rebounding slightly, but now all Nylon and Acetals are showing incredible constraints. Acetals in particular are in extremely short supply. We urge you to also reach out to your contacts within the industry for options and alternatives.
Resin suppliers are giving indications that the challenges will last into the fourth quarter. We are hoping that as we reach the end of the year, the resin supply chain becomes more reliable, and we see prices start to fall.