Kodak Chemistry disruption

[NB23]

From the mouth of the Owner of my local dealer “buy all the Kodak chems you can afford, they announced me that they won’t produce any for the foreseeable future”.

We can speculate, or it is maybe old news. But now is your chance to buy XTOL, D76, HC110... who knows what’s happening.

 

[mshchem]

I wouldn't be surprised if the color chemistry is FUBAR. Coming from China as it has for years. I'm not stocking up on Kodak black and white, too much chaos. I have plenty of stock, and I have a nice new package of Adox XT-3.
Where is your photo shop located??

 

[mshchem]

May be that it's all moving to China???

 

[Doremus Scudder]

It's really a pity (and a lesson in how to ruin a prosperous business) what Kodak has done with their entire photo division. I use almost nothing from Kodak any longer. I've got a couple of bottles of KRST that I'll use up, and some Indicator Stop that I'll use too, but after that I'll likely go with other brands. I'll keep on using Kodak films as long as they are still performing well. Who knows how long that'll be.

Doremus

 

[NB23]

I’m in Canada... been waiting for BH to receive some Hypo Clear but after a few months still nothing. I bought the last 4 bags of it locally.

As Doremus said, let’s hope the film doesn’t get touched.

My personal theory is that all the production is transfered to China and it will be a few months before the new ball starts rolling. Nothing before February/March, but that’s only my wild guess which is worth absolutely nothing, really.

 

[NB23]

May be that it's all moving to China???

surely

 

[BrianShaw]

Moving production to China while we are having shipping disruptions is an odd choice it seems to me.

 

[MattKing]

Production of most of the black and white photo chemistry was moved to the US after Tetenal went into receivership. And then Covid happened. And at the same time, all the Kodak photo chemistry and colour paper business was sold to Sino Promise Holdings.
And the entire shipping industry is still in a mess.
Who knows how everything will shake out.

 

[cmacd123]

May yet have to use that Bottle of Russian Metol I have in my freezer.

 

[MattKing]

From a reliable and completely informed but necessarily anonymous source about Kodak branded photo chemicals (now part of Sino Promise Holdings):
1) manufacturing is ongoing;
2) for US manufactured product, there are shipping delays impacting the sourcing of components that must be imported to the US;
3) for photo chemical products manufactured outside the US - particularly colour chemicals - there are shipping delays impacting availability;
4) they expect the situation will improve over the next 6-8 weeks; and
5) they are hopeful that the shipping industry will recover in 2022.

 

[MattKing]

And with respect to Canada, the shipping challenges also impact cross-border distribution.

 

[pentaxuser]

From the mouth of the Owner of my local dealer “buy all the Kodak chems you can afford, they announced me that they won’t produce any for the foreseeable future”.

We can speculate, or it is maybe old news. But now is your chance to buy XTOL, D76, HC110... who knows what’s happening.

So are you saying that this owner of your local dealer is saying that he has an official announcement that all Kodak chemicals are disappearing completely? Did he show you the doc and if so can you say who sent it to him Was it Kodak or SinoPromise who I understand have been the owners for some time now ?

Was he really saying that what we know as Xtol etc will cease to exist completely i.e. Matt's posts explaining the position about ownership etc are untrue. Chemicals with the Kodak names of Xtol HC110 will cease due to a Kodak decision and the only chemicals resembling anything like Xtol, HC110 D76 will only be made by Adox, Foma and Ilford? .

I had always thought that Kodak chemicals as such were not in fact Kodak's to sell as per previous threads and Matt's summary. Either your report based on this owner is truly devastating news or it is for the reasons Matt gave a non event

So in real terms what do you understand this owner to mean?

Thanks

pentaxuser

 

[NB23]

So are you saying that this owner of your local dealer is saying that he has an official announcement that all Kodak chemicals are disappearing completely? Did he show you the doc and if so can you say who sent it to him Was it Kodak or SinoPromise who I understand have been the owners for some time now ?

Was he really saying that what we know as Xtol etc will cease to exist completely i.e. Matt's posts explaining the position about ownership etc are untrue. Chemicals with the Kodak names of Xtol HC110 will cease due to a Kodak decision and the only chemicals resembling anything like Xtol, HC110 D76 will only be made by Adox, Foma and Ilford? .

I had always thought that Kodak chemicals as such were not in fact Kodak's to sell as per previous threads and Matt's summary. Either your report based on this owner is truly devastating news or it is for the reasons Matt gave a non event

So in real terms what do you understand this owner to mean?

Thanks

pentaxuser

You are putting a lot of words into my mouth. Please refer to my quote in post #1 and make up your own mind.

I made up my own mind, which was to buy the 4 remaining bags of Hypo Clearing agent, and I don’t expect to see new stocks any time soon.

 

[NB23]

From a reliable and completely informed but necessarily anonymous source about Kodak branded photo chemicals (now part of Sino Promise Holdings):
1) manufacturing is ongoing;
2) for US manufactured product, there are shipping delays impacting the sourcing of components that must be imported to the US;
3) for photo chemical products manufactured outside the US - particularly colour chemicals - there are shipping delays impacting availability;
4) they expect the situation will improve over the next 6-8 weeks; and
5) they are hopeful that the shipping industry will recover in 2022.

Good to know! So let’s hope for the best.

 

[pentaxuser]

You are putting a lot of words into my mouth. Please refer to my quote in post #1 and make up your own mind.

I made up my own mind, which was to buy the 4 remaining bags of Hypo Clearing agent, and I don’t expect to see new stocks any time soon.

No I was not trying to put words in your mouth but was trying to find what facts surrounding his utterance that you may have found as you did say the owner had an announcement as follows : “buy all the Kodak chems you can afford, they announced me that they won’t produce any for the foreseeable future”.

I was hoping that you might have asked the owner to flesh out whether this was a general stoppage of production plus the reasons and possible "the why" for those reasons and what, if any, timescale surrounded the "foreseeable future"

Otherwise it is one person, the owner of a local dealer, giving you what is very concerning news but without any substance.

pentaxuser

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

I've got heaps of Xtol to get me over this setback. No worries.

 

[markjwyatt]

For B&W chemistry it would not be that difficult to formulate your own if needed. We do need the film though (unless you want to shoot wet or dry plates).

 

[MattKing]

If you are in the retail photographic business, the "foreseeable future" may be three months, if you are fortunate.

 

[grat]

I would imagine the absolute chaos at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports isn't helping.

 

[Cholentpot]

I would imagine the absolute chaos at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports isn't helping.

Local port at Lake Erie said 'Come on down, we got all the workers, space and infrastructure to unload everything and more.'

It's only a short 'round about trip through Panama and up the St. Lawrence. But 3 month detour or waiting another 6 to unload?

 

[mshchem]

The EU and UK should step up.

 

[MattKing]

The EU and UK should step up.

A lot of the disruption arises from global shipping shortages - particularly of containers and container ships.

 

[gone]

From the mouth of the Owner of my local dealer

That's a tiny bit skimpy on the market research protocols, lol. I've been hearing that film and chemistry were doomed for 30 years. Just buy it, shoot it, and enjoy it.

 

[mshchem]

A lot of the disruption arises from global shipping shortages - particularly of containers and container ships.

Yes, I agree. Still in the case of something like Adox XT-3, they could use air freight. I suspect in that case wouldn't do any good if Freestyle is the distributor and trucks are tied up.

The point I was trying to make is this could be a opportunity to gain a share of the market. I think I'm pretty much done with Kodak chemistry, at least the black and white. Ilford and Adox going forward.
Best Regards, Mike

 

[halfaman]

Maritime freight cost has skyrocketed in the 2021 up to 5 times depending on the port of origin. It is one of the reasons why the company I work for stop last month all US business and focus only in domestic EU customers from now on. We are a very small player in the market but just to give you an idea how things are going.

LA port was not the only one colapsing, just the most important in that situation. Seatle port was even worse, some freight companies even refused to accept any delivery to that destination.