Solutia to Increase PVB Prices 6 to 10 Percent
October 5, 2010

Solutia Inc. announced yesterday that it will be increasing the price of its Saflex® polyvinyl butyral (PVB) products, effective December 15, 2010. Company officials say the price increase "will support investments in the business and ... allow [it] to continue to provide industry-leading support for its customers." The price increase will range from 6 to 10 percent among the company's Saflex PVB products. Prices for currently contracted business will be adjusted as individual contracts come due, according to the company.

"As a leading supplier of PVB interlayer and [ethylene vinyl acetate] for solar applications, we are fully committed to meeting the current and future needs of our customers," says Rick Calk, vice president of commercial operations for Solutia's Advanced Interlayers division. "We have recently made several significant investments in this business to ensure stable supply of quality, high-performance products around the world and we will continue to do so in the future."

Dirk Duquet, vice president of operations for the St. Louis-based company, says the price increase is "minimal" despite increased production costs.

"Despite facing increases in both energy and processing materials costs, I am proud of Solutia's efforts to improve production efficiency and boost capacity," says Duquet. "These investments have partially offset increased production costs and have allowed us to keep this price increase to a minimum."

In mid-2007 many sources had advised glassBYTEs.com™ there was a shortage in the raw materials needed to make PVB. While Solutia officials say they've not seen a shortage, Eric Nichols, vice president of business management, advised glassBYTEs.com™/AGRR magazine during an interview this afternoon that while there might not be a shortage, demand is up.

"We're not seeing a shortage, but clearly the underlying commodities that drive our raw materials are getting back to the levels they were in 2008," he said. "Those prices went down in '09 when the economic crisis happened and then people projected they would come back slowly over time and they've come back a lot more quickly than expected."

Nichols said PVB customers shouldn't experience any immediate changes.

Solutia manufactures PVB interlayers at facilities in Ghent, Belgium; Santo Toribio, Mexico; San Jose Dos Campos, Brazil; Springfield, Mass.; and Suzhou, China. It also operates a PVB finishing center in Singapore, and a distribution center and regional customer service center in Shanghai.

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