Strengthening Cooperation in the Polyurethane Foam Supply Chain: APBA

Reporting: Murat Soygür

The Asian Polyurethane Business Association (APBA) serves as an Asia-based platform for the polyurethane industry, working in close cooperation with country-specific polyurethane associations. In our interview, APBA President Stefan Hermes answered our questions.

How did you enter the polyurethane sector? Can you briefly tell us about yourself and your professional background?
My entry into the polyurethane sector dates back to 1990. In my first project, I worked with Recticel Technical Foams. At that time, it had not yet turned into a continuous career path, but it gave me early experience about the material, its application areas, and how the sector operates.

Following that, I worked in the transportation and logistics sector for approximately ten years. Looking back, I consider that period quite valuable. It gave me a strong operational foundation, particularly in supply chain management, process discipline, and running operations under pressure. These are, while not always explicitly stated, extremely important elements in polyurethane production.

From 2010 onwards, I became more active in the polyurethane sector again through projects, typically lasting six to eighteen months, in different companies and regions. In 2013, I made a conscious decision to focus entirely on the polyurethane sector, and all my work has been shaped around this field since then.

My career has been largely international in nature. I have lived and worked in the United States, China, India, Thailand, Switzerland, and the Netherlands; I have also been involved in projects across Europe and Russia. Being able to communicate in multiple languages helped me develop closer relationships within the sector. This enables more direct communication, better understanding of local dynamics, and ultimately more productive collaborations.

Today, my work is structured around two main pillars. Through HTC Global, I provide consulting, training, market and industrial intelligence support to companies. The focus here is not only in understanding markets; it is also in understanding how operations actually perform and how decisions translate into results. Beyond that, I am one of the founding partners of the Asian Polyurethane Business Association (APBA). The fundamental idea behind APBA is to create a platform that connects stakeholders across the value chain and enables more structured collaborations within the sector.

In addition, I am working on various initiatives that reflect the same fundamental approach. Whether it is expert alignment, supply structures, or integrated collaboration models, the goal is always to create more value by connecting competencies across the value chain rather than pursuing isolated optimization.

Can you explain APBA's founding story and the core objectives and mission that guide the organization today?
APBA was founded in June 2024 as a result of observations made over many years in the polyurethane sector.

Asia has strong growth, extensive production infrastructure, and increasingly advanced technical competencies. However, at the same time, knowledge and experience often show a fragmented structure. Companies face similar challenges such as process management, supply chain stability, quality, and regulations, but structured knowledge sharing across the value chain and between countries remains quite limited.

Therefore, the idea behind APBA was to create a platform that brings together different components of the sector in a more structured manner with a single focus: promoting the use of polyurethane materials.

APBA was not designed as a formal institution in the traditional sense. Instead, it is structured as a working platform where professionals at different points in the polyurethane value chain can interact, share information, and develop collaborations.

The objectives are clearly defined. These include promoting the use of polyurethane in areas where it adds value, developing collaboration across the entire supply chain, supporting the sharing of non-competitive information, and contributing to environmental responsibility, health, and safety matters. Additionally, APBA aims to be a dialogue partner on regulatory developments and to serve as a source of information on technologies, standards, and market developments.

An important element is that APBA creates both vertical and geographic connections. While bringing together raw material suppliers, system houses, converters, and end users, it also builds bridges between different countries in Asia. The purpose is not merely to bring people together, but to improve how the sector operates by making information more accessible and collaboration more efficient.

How does APBA strengthen collaboration among polyurethane sector stakeholders across Asia?
We do this by creating a structure for continuous interaction and information sharing. In many sectors, collaborations are often limited to events or bilateral relationships. What is missing is a structure that allows for continuous sharing of insights, experiences, and developments. APBA focuses precisely on this point.

The association has launched various initiatives that create a continuous flow of information and interaction together. These include the APBA Weekly Newsletter, the PU Review magazine containing the Global Polyurethane Directory, and a structured webinar program where sector professionals share their perspectives on specific topics. In addition, an online forum called Polyurethane X is being developed to provide more direct interaction among members. With the support of Polyurethane Academy, a structured training program is being created that can be delivered online or in classroom settings. Beyond all these initiatives, articles are regularly published to share perspectives on sector developments. The purpose of all these activities is not merely to produce content. The real goal is to create a continuous rhythm of information sharing that helps professionals stay current and learn from each other.

Beyond these structures, APBA promotes a practical approach to collaboration. Discussions are built on real operational challenges rather than abstract theories. The purpose is to shorten learning cycles and improve alignment between different parts of the value chain.
In this sense, APBA takes on a bridging role. It brings people together; but more importantly, it creates a structure that will allow collaborations to develop over time rather than remain coincidental.

In which application areas do you expect the fastest growth in polyurethane materials in the coming years?
When growth in polyurethane is discussed, the initial reflex is usually to point to application areas such as construction, insulation, automotive, or furniture. Each of these segments will continue to grow with its own dynamics. Construction is linked to energy efficiency and urbanization, furniture to rising living standards, and automotive to performance requirements such as weight and comfort.

However, looking at growth this way shows only part of the picture. What I see in practice is that the real growth potential in polyurethane is determined not only by areas where demand exists, but also by how effectively companies can convert this demand into production, profitability, and sustainable performance.

In many polyurethane operations, there is still significant untapped potential in areas such as productivity gains, waste reduction, and process stability. These are not marginal gains. In some cases, achieving a few percentage points of improvement in efficiency can have the same effect as adding new capacity without major investment.

This changes the perspective on growth. Companies now need to ask not only where the market will grow, but also how much of that growth they can actually capture with their current operations. In this sense, operational performance becomes a direct driver of growth.

At the same time, supply chain resilience is playing an increasingly important role. Recent years have shown how vulnerable polyurethane production can be to disruptions stemming from raw materials, logistics, and pricing. Companies that are dependent on a single supply structure or have limited visibility in the supply chain face serious risks.

Therefore, growth becomes directly linked to resilience. Companies that have built stronger supply strategies, achieved better alignment with suppliers, and have greater transparency across the supply chain are in a more advantageous position in terms of maintaining production and responding to market opportunities. Companies that fail to achieve this will struggle even if demand is present.

Another important development is the need for greater alignment across the value chain. Optimizing only one part of the chain is no longer sufficient. When raw material suppliers, system houses, converters, and end users are better aligned, it becomes possible to improve overall performance, reduce inefficiencies, and accelerate the implementation of improvements. This is where more structured collaboration models come into play. By connecting competencies across the value chain, companies can create value that they could not reach when working in silos.

Therefore, while application areas such as construction, furniture, and automotive will continue to grow, the element that will make the real difference is how companies manage operational performance, resilience, and collaboration. In practice, this is exactly where growth will take place.

What are the major trends shaping the Asian polyurethane sector today?
One of the fundamental trends is Asia's transformation from being purely a manufacturing hub into becoming a competency-focused region. Technical knowledge is accumulating, local expertise is developing, and companies are becoming more sophisticated in their approaches to both operations and markets. This is changing the balance in the global polyurethane sector.

At the same time, the operating environment has become more volatile. Raw material prices fluctuate, supply chains become more unpredictable, and external factors can have rapid impacts on operations. This requires more structured decision-making processes and stronger internal systems.
For this reason, resilience becomes a central theme. In the past, efficiency was often the main focus. Today, companies also need to be able to continue their operations under changing conditions. This involves having alternative supply options, providing greater visibility across the supply chain, and being able to adapt quickly when disruptions occur.

Another important element is the diversity within Asia itself. Markets show significant differences in terms of maturity level, regulations, and customer expectations. A strategy that works in one country may not produce the same results in another. Companies that can understand these differences and adapt to them are more successful.

In addition, there is a gradual shift towards greater collaboration across the value chain. As complexity increases, isolated optimization becomes difficult. Companies are beginning to see that working with partners, sharing information where possible, and aligning competencies to improve overall performance creates more value.

This process does not happen spontaneously. It requires a platform that enables structure, trust, and interaction. Initiatives like APBA can play a role precisely in this area.

Sustainability has become a major focus across the chemical sector. How is this transformation affecting the polyurethane sector?
Sustainability is clearly affecting the polyurethane sector, but this development is not progressing the same way in every region. Currently, we see distinct regional differences in how sustainability is being addressed and implemented.

In Europe, sustainability is largely driven by regulations. Continuous new initiatives, frameworks, and reporting requirements emerge in areas such as carbon footprint tracking, circularity, and extended producer responsibility. While these initiatives aim to accelerate the transformation, they also bring significant complexity and administrative burden. For many companies, a significant portion of time and resources is devoted to compliance processes, documentation, and interpreting regulations.

In the United States, the situation is different. The focus on sustainability at the federal level is more limited and policy direction is more variable. Developments such as withdrawal from the Paris Agreement or rollback of certain environmental regulations reflect an approach that prioritizes cost, competitiveness, and energy independence. Therefore, sustainability is shaped more by market dynamics, corporate strategies, and state-level initiatives; not by a single, consistent federal framework.

In Asia, sustainability is increasingly gaining importance, but the fundamental drivers remain cost and growth. As long as sustainable alternatives come with higher costs or operational complexity, adoption rates advance more slowly unless there are economic or regulatory incentives.

This creates a global imbalance. Companies operating across different regions face different expectations, cost structures, and regulatory pressures. Achieving strategy alignment across these environments becomes increasingly difficult.

At the same time, there is a risk that sustainability is becoming more of a positioning issue than an implementation one. In practice, the fastest and most measurable impact often comes from operational improvements. Reducing waste, increasing efficiency, stabilizing processes, and improving energy efficiency both reduce environmental impact and improve cost performance. These are concrete steps that can be implemented and verified in daily operations.

Beyond this, the sector continues to work on recycling technologies and alternative raw materials. While these developments are important, they need to work reliably at industrial scale. Performance, safety, and consistency remain fundamental elements, and solutions must meet these requirements in real operating conditions. Therefore, the fundamental challenge for the polyurethane sector is to balance ambitions with feasibility. Progress will depend not only on what is technically possible, but also on solutions that are economically viable and operationally sound.