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glues, sealants & adhesives
Extreme adhesive, tile silicone makeover
Sikaflex-118 Extreme Grab is Sika’s new solvent- free,“extreme grab” construction adhesive designed for indoor and outdoor bonding of various objects such as stone, bricks, window and door sills, mirrors, wood beams and heavy mouldings.
Odourless Extreme Grab has high initial grab which means no temporary mechanical fixings are required. And it’s flexible, not rigid, delivering useful elasticity in a long-lasting bond.
Other product news includes Sika’s universal tile silicone, Sikasil Color, which has just had a make-over.
The new-look cartridge encompasses changes
to make it easier for the customer to see what
the product is and does – incorporating a clear
product name and description, a colourful and realistic application rendering, and key product features highlighted using pictograms.
Four new colour options (Light Sand, Grey, Cedar, and Graphite) mean customers have more choice to match to their bathroomware, tiles and tile grouts.
https://nzl.sika.com/
production of adhesives and cement-based powders.
“We expect our localisation and investment strategy will have a two-fold effect of stabilising some costs and further improving
continuity of supply.
“We’re also targeting local supply of raw materials where
possible to reduce volatility although we’ve certainly benefitted from having good supply partners and the strength of the global Ardex network to support us.”
When we spoke at the beginning of October, Tony Smith said Sika was still dealing with the legacy effects of a product backlog that they were trying to get out the door from when Auckland was completely shut down.
“We applied to MBIE to continue to manufacture and despatch from Auckland, but exemptions were only granted to companies manufacturing plasterboard and plaster, coated roofing materials
and insulation.
“So, our South Island resources emptied out pretty quickly and
we were unable to restock them.”
Now, back operating at Level 3, Sika is manufacturing, packing
and despatching, but says Tony Smith: “It’s very different to normal because despatch teams are only working in split shifts and there’s less capacity with freight.
“So, some orders received in the past few days are waiting to go out the door. We would typically have them out the next day.”
Soudal imports its sealants and adhesives from Belgium and the shipping challenges out of Europe are well known.
“We’re having to plan and forecast a long way out with our customers,” explains Melanie Reid, “but currently have a full warehouse and are sitting on more stock than we would usually have.”
She says residential consent numbers point towards buoyancy continuing for some time, but it remains to be seen how supply and pricing will impact the market.
“We’ve experienced the odd interruption to supply but we’ve possibly been impacted more by the lack of supply of other building products, such as out-of-stocks with laminate flooring which impacts Gorilla Grip sales.
“Timber has been slowing the whole building process, causing a bit of a lag, but that’s been more of an ongoing issue.”
Tony Smith describes the supply challenges with glues and sealants as being completely different from those impacting timber framing, “but you know when you hear that timber’s short, it’s going to affect everyone else down the track.
“Raw material issues remain a big challenge going forward with extended lead times, and we’re monitoring talk of global disruption to silicone supply.
“Plus, strikes at Australian ports could affect Christmas stocks for New Zealand,” Tony warns, “and we don’t know what the impact of this might be.”
And while builders’ merchants are open in Auckland, it’s all click and collect which Tony Smith says makes forecasting a bit trickier.
“We’re always keeping an eye on possible out-of-stocks, but lockdown has actually helped us catch up on a few things.
“It’s fair to say volumes for Q3 will probably be less than the equivalent quarter last year but it’s hard not to remain upbeat when the building industry pipeline is full.”
CIRCUMSTANCES STYMIE ACTIVITY
On the new product front, Sika has just introduced a new extreme “high-grab” adhesive, but Tony Smith reports the launch being somewhat stifled with the first deliveries to customers being distributed in early October.
“We’ve also got some new technology that we were hoping to launch this year, but this has had to be delayed.
“There’s no less desire to have promotional activity but it’s really hard to plan for what might happen.
“Normally we’re talking to our merchant groups well in advance for promotional activities, but we can’t guarantee pricing and we can’t guarantee supply like we could a couple of years ago.”
Fortunately, he says, people understand that it doesn’t matter
38 NZHJ | OCTOBER 2021
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