Phenolic resins are huge industrial materials today, but I don't know if any are being made into new beads. The Raschig company for example (see link) has production in Thailand for "original" formulas for Catalin and Faturan phenolic resin stock. The specific trade name Bakelite is now obsolete.

If I had to guess, I can imagine that somewhere where labor is cheap (China, India, etc.) there are new beads being made from new phenolic resin stock. I see a lot of prayer bead strands being sold as Bakelite, Catalin, Saturn, etc. and wonder if they are new or old, or maybe not even phenolic resin.

There are also sellers of old blocks of phenolic resin, dug up from industrial waste sites. Possibly these are being used for beads.

One thing mentioned by Floor in her research on agate beads previously made in Idar-Oberstein and now being made in Brazil - the market for beads going into Africa is declining, maybe rapidly. So, I suspect that any new work with phenolic resin would not find many buyers if the purpose was to reproduce old beads traded into Africa. Rather, I think the new work would reproduce items that are currently in demand - prayer beads, and also vintage Bakelite items like bangle bracelets. From what little I have read about the vintage Bakelite market - it is a hot area for collectors and reproductions are a big issue. Most of those are coming out of China.

See my reply below concerning other amber imitations.