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Kessler Chemical is excited to be attending Informex CPhI trade show on May 16-18, 2017.  We have reviewed the exhibitor list and have heard from business associates that they will be attending this event. We look forward to seeing existing customers and suppliers.  We also hope to meet new people and explore new business opportunities.

Meet with Kessler Chemical

We are interested in meeting existing and new business partners to explore sales and supply opportunities in the chemical industry.  If you are interested in discussing new business possibilities, please contact us below.

Let’s explore chemical opportunities

Please click here to contact us to let us know if you would like to meet!

Kessler Chemical is excited to be attending the 2016 Specialty & Agro Chemicals America trade show in Charleston, SC.The show runs September 7-9, 2016.  We have heard many positive endorsements of this event, and we think it will be a great place to find new business opportunities.

Kessler Chemical to attend

We are interested in meeting existing and new business partners to explore sales and supply opportunities in the chemical industry.  If you are interested in discussing new business possibilities, please contact us below.

Let’s explore chemical opportunities

Please click here to contact us to let us know if you would like to meet!

As a Chemical Supplier, Service is Our #1 Product

Asking myself this question has caused me to give it serious consideration.  After all, there are many companies that sell chemicals in the USA and other parts of North America.  I thought about what it is and has been that has allowed us to be a successful business since 1973.  We certainly have the highest quality, so I decided to observe how our company operates with respect to serving our customers.  What I noticed was that we put a great amount of attention on satisfying the customer’s needs.  This was evident in my observations not only in our desire and ability to do what the customer asked for, but also in our thoughtful approach to doing what the customer needs, but does not ask for.  From that moment I began to answer the question about what we do with, “we are a chemical distributor, but our #1 product is service.”  I won’t ask you to take my word for it.  Our customers tell us.

What Customers Say About Our Chemical Distribution Service

We are so serious about serving our customers well that we survey them on an annual basis as part of our quality management system.  We feel this is where the true measurement of success is found.  It is not enough to say you serve the customer’s needs.  Even the best intentions can fall short of expectations.  This is why we take this aspect very serious and consider it part of the quality of our products.  The following statements are from our recently completed survey.  For the sake of brevity, I have only included a few responses about us as a Carbolic Acid (Phenol) supplier.

“We are pleased with Kessler’s service and quality.” —Raw Material Manager for specialty resin manufacturer

“Kessler is a pleasure to work with in all aspects!!” — Purchasing Manager for international chemical supplier

[How can we better meet your needs?]  “You always do!  Wonderful company to work with!  — Supply Chain Manager for agricultural product manufacturer

“Everything is already excellent, no need for changing” —Purchasing Agent for performance resin producer

“It is always a pleasure working with your company.” —Purchasing Manager for specialty chemical supplier

We are humbled by these comments.  It indicates to us that we are not only saying that service is our #1 product, but that our commitment to it has made it a reality for our company.  We would like to thank our current customers for this feedback and we will continue to make your satisfaction with us as your phenol supplier a top priority.  We encourage others to contact us and let us provide you with the same quality, support and service you expect and should be receiving in a chemical supplier.

Let us work for you!

For those of you who might not be familiar with the term, “Green Chemistry” I will provide some definitions. According to the EPA website, “Green chemistry is the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the generation of hazardous substances.” The American Chemical Society website defines it as, “Sustainable and green chemistry in very simple terms is just a different way of thinking about how chemistry and chemical engineering can be done. Over the years different principles have been proposed that can be used when thinking about the design, development and implementation of chemical products and processes. These principles enable scientists and engineers to protect and benefit the economy, people and the planet by finding creative and innovative ways to reduce waste, conserve energy, and discover replacements for hazardous substances. It’s important to note that the scope of these of green chemistry and engineering principles go beyond concerns over hazards from chemical toxicity and include energy conservation, waste reduction, and life cycle considerations such as the use of more sustainable or renewable feedstocks and designing for end of life or the final disposition of the product.”

Challenges to Green Chemicals and Products

In other words, it takes a holistic approach to truly achieve “Green” or safer products. What do I mean by this last statement? Raw materials and products should not be considered isolated entities when trying to measure if something is Green or not. I often think of a consumer level example to illustrate this point.

I remember years ago when all there was at the grocery store were paper bags. Then, in a well-intentioned effort to improve the environment and to not deforest our open spaces, we moved to using plastic bags. This lasted for many years until some realized the landfills were getting cluttered with these plastic bags, because they are not biodegradable. These plastic bags were also found floating around the ocean, causing damage to marine life. There was then a brief push to go back to paper bags. However, upon further consideration many realized that it used a considerably greater amount of energy, water and other resources to recycle paper bags. I read a post titled, Myth: Paper Bags Are Greener Than Plastic, where according to Northwestern University’s Eric Masanet, PhD, [the key] is to consider the impact of each part of the product’s life cycle from cradle to grave. “The science shows that moving from plastic to paper is not necessarily ‘greener,’” he says. Instead, it may simply shift the environmental impact from decreasing litter to increasing resource use and greenhouse gas emissions. This is exactly the point I am trying to make in this blog.

Going Green Takes a Team Approach

When considering a change in chemical raw materials or end-use products, we should take a wide and far viewpoint. It is very easy to latch onto the latest idea, but as you see above the end result is not always what we hope for and intend. Sometimes, it will use more resources to recycle a product than is saved. Sometimes using less of a raw material that is less safe than a newer alternative will have a greater net benefit than simply focusing on one aspect of newer technology.

I encourage those in industry, those in a regulatory role and those in politics to seek the greatest net benefit for our planet and citizens. We all have families, and we want them to be safe a healthy. We all want the members of our family to enjoy prosperous lives, so the answer to moving toward “Green Products” is to consider the net affect and all of the outcomes of the decisions we make.

photo credit: http://www.nasdaq.com/markets/crude-oil.aspx?timeframe=10y

Were the benefits of low domestic US natural gas prices not boosting the future prospects for the US chemical industry? Were we chemical industry folks not getting downright giddy about the possibilities of actually entering a durable and sustainable period of time when we could increase and grow our level of exports? Well, it seems that just when things were getting going we are once again looking at a rapid erosion of the very fundamentals that created the expected good times.

I happened upon an article written in October 2015 by Clarksons Platou titled, What does the rise of the US Dollar mean for the Chemicals Markets? Where Platou states;

With suggestions that US monetary policy may tighten in the future along with other central banks across the globe loosening or sticking to their policies, investors can make higher returns from dollar denominated assets. Thus inducing capital investment and boosting the value of the dollar. However, while this may be the upshot for those with dollar assets, American firms that sell abroad are hit. According to the Economist, about one quarter of the profits in the S&P 500 are earned in foreign currencies. This is a fact that has not been lost on some chemical producers in recent results releases. Matters are complicated further when one considers the issue of oil prices and how the subsequent decline of commodities linked to oil have eroded profit margins.

Article source: https://blogclarksons.wordpress.com/2015/10/27/what-does-the-rise-of-the-us-dollar-mean-for-the-chemicals-markets/

Of course, we were in the midst of many of the issues I discuss in this article when it was written. But what I found interesting was that it acted like a short-term time capsule. What I mean is that the factors discussed in that article fall into one of two categories. The first are issues that existed when the article was written and are currently ongoing issues. An example of this is the decline in the price of a barrel of oil. The second category deals with factors that were expected to occur at some point in the future. An example of this was the anticipation of the Federal Reserve raising interest rates at some uncertain date in the future. Well, in a few short months things have definitely changed!

Where should we begin? How about the price of oil? I think we were still feeling pretty optimistic in 2014, right? Then, mid-year came. That is when the price of oil started its rapid decent over the past year and a half and it now stands at its lowest level in more than 10 years. In an environment of falling oil prices, and subsequently, the prices of the downstream chemical products, the expectation would be that chemical producers and suppliers would always benefit from this, as their costs of raw materials would go down. However, in practice a rapid and sustained decline in pricing fundamentals erodes profitability. Suppliers are expected to keep customers current on pricing, however when prices are falling faster than inventory replacement, suppliers end up selling at declining margins. This phenomenon affects the industry regardless of the other two factors discussed in this article.

The next factor is the rise in the value of the US Dollar compared to other currencies. As this chart from MarketWatch indicates the US Dollar index has been on a steady upward march over the past 2 years and it stands at its highest level in at least a decade.

photo credit: http://www.marketwatch.com

As I mentioned earlier in this article, the chemical industry was just starting to hit its stride with the fundamentals for exporting improving. The rapid increase in the value of the US Dollar has really slammed the brakes on this momentum. The US Dollar index has been rising for a couple of reasons. The first is that when the global economy is volatile and there is broad-based political instability, the safest investments are in US Dollar denominated assets. The US Federal Government is still the surest place to be certain you will be repaid, so this factor causes the US Dollar to strengthen. The second reason, and why I called the Clarksons Platou article a short term time capsule, is that it talked about the anticipated increase in interest rates by the Federal Reserve. Well, that has now happened. The affect is to further encourage investing in US Dollar related assets. The end result of this increase in the value of the US Dollar compared to other currencies is to make the products we produce in the US relatively more expensive to overseas customers. The reason is that they will need more of their currency to buy a dollars-worth of goods. In other words, there will be fewer overseas customers able to competitively buy US-produced products. Now, one might think that chemical suppliers will still be able to sell their products to their US customers. That is true to an extent, but the problem is that much of the domestic chemical supply is sold to companies in the US who produce products they hope to export. If these downstream manufacturers see a decline in orders from overseas customers, there will be a consequential decline in orders for chemical raw materials.

With these current factors and trends, in addition to so much turmoil across the globe, it is unclear when the favorable fundamentals of exporting will improve again. I have always found the key to maintaining success in the chemical industry is to not focus solely on the problems. Instead, with the negative influences factored into the calculus of business, refocus attention on what you do well and what has led to your company’s overall success. Just like when you are traveling, there is more than one way to get to a destination. The shortest or fastest might not always end up being the most efficient, when you consider all the criteria. Have a safe and successful business journey!

Major Improvement: Search For Chemicals

One of the main improvements is the ease of requesting the information you need. When you navigate to www.kesslerchemical.com the first thing you will notice at the top of the page is an area where you can simply type in the name of the chemical you are looking for and submit it to us. You will then receive an automatic email reply, so you can be confident your inquiry was received and will receive prompt attention. Additionally, in the right margin of each web page there is a contact form. This way no matter where you are on our website, you will be able to conveniently and easily contact us with your questions or need for information. Of course, our local and toll-free phone numbers are always visible on every web page, if it is easier for you to call us. We encourage you to call us if that is easier for you. We know that sometimes it is just easier to pick up the phone than to try to explain in writing what you need.

Another improvement to the website we are excited about is the Products pages. Many other chemical websites only have lists of chemical names. We were looking to be a more valuable resource than other sites. We did our homework and researched what chemical buyers are looking for in a website search for chemicals. On the newly redesigned Kessler Chemical site you will now be able to view chemicals by their application or end-use as well as by an alphabetical list. We know that purchasing managers, sourcing specialists and buyers in the chemical industry are buying chemicals to manufacturer products that will go into specific industries. If you navigate to our website from a search, we want to make sure you will be able to not only see the details on the chemical you searched for, but also see the other chemicals we offer that are used in your industry. Again, this is why we added this functionality to our website; to serve you, the buyers of chemicals. We have even gone further to make your time on our website as valuable as possible. For each chemical, you will be able to view detailed information such as the sales specifications, physical properties and a description of the chemical product. You will also be able to request additional information about the product such as the Safety Data Sheet (SDS), pricing, packing or anything else you need.

Finally, for those of you who are not familiar with Kessler Chemical, we have added a page with many topic-specific testimonials from our current customers. This will allow you to see the types of comments our current customers say about us to give you a clear understanding of what you can expect when you use Kessler Chemical as your trusted chemical supplier.
It is our hope that you will benefit from the changes we have made to our newly redesigned website. Let us work for you!