Fatty Acid - C14 Price Trend and Forecast

Regional Price Overview

Get the latest insights on price movement and trend analysis of Fatty Acid C14 in different regions across the world (Asia, Europe, North America, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa).

For the First Half of 2022

Asia

Fatty acids are imported globally mostly from Indonesia and Malaysia, hence pricing dynamics in Asia impact the international supply. In Asia, the price of fatty acid C14 reached record highs during the first quarter. The market fundamentals were strong in comparison to the region's soaring demand for personal care products and cleaning products due to worries about the omicron variant.

Fatty acid C14 or myristic acid prices continued the upward trend in the Asia-Pacific region during the second quarter of 2022. Due to supply shortages in their home markets, Indonesia and Malaysia prohibited the export of palm oil. Moreover, China was subject to shutdown regulations that halted the manufacture of fatty acids for the local market.

Europe

In Q1, the price trends of fatty acid C14 in Europe continued to rise, benefiting greatly from the rising cost of the feedstock palm oil on the international market. As a result of the severe energy crisis in the area and the geopolitical tension between Russia and Ukraine, high freight charges on raw material deliveries were increased due to logistical constraints.

This made things worse for market actors. Due to rising feedstock, palm oil, and coconut oil costs in the local market, the price of fatty acids in the European market significantly increased in the second quarter of 2022.

North America

Due to the domino effect of a constrained supply of feedstock palm oil in the international market, fatty acid C14 prices in North America skyrocketed in Q1 of 2022. Prices for Fatty Acids tripled due to increased demand from the downstream personal care, cosmetic, and detergent industries.

As palm oil and coconut oil prices rose at the beginning of Q2, the cost of fatty acids remained high. Feedstock price growth resulted in high manufacturing costs for fatty acids in the local market. As manufacturers had enough feed to supply the local market, prices started to fall in the North American market at the end of the quarter.

For the Fourth Quarter of 2021

Asia

Fatty acids from palm oil feedstock had been rising in the Asian market due to lower production in Indonesia and Malaysia. Due to logistical constraints and rising fatty acid prices, Indian trading offers remained stable. Due to the government's Dual Control Policy and the consequent shortage of feedstock, factories like Jiangsu Shengtai (capable of 80 KTPA) and Deyuan Gaoke (capable of 100 KTPA) were forced to temporarily shut down.

In the first three months of the year, the country's demand for mid-cut fatty alcohols surged due to a lack of production capacity. Detergent and personal care product demand were affected by the market's optimism, despite downstream buyers making acceptable requests for the goods. In India, the cost of fatty acids per metric tonne was 3130 USD. In December, fatty acid prices for ex-Ahmedabad were 3440 USD/MT on a FOB basis, while in China they were 3440 USD/MT.

Europe

The European fatty acid market remained bullish in Q4-2021 in response to the surprisingly high input costs. Increasing input costs were exacerbated by a global scarcity of palm oil feedstock, delivery delays, and skyrocketing energy prices. A lack of port containers and movement limitations brought on by the increase in Omicron cases in the region restricted spot trading even further.

There was an uptick in downstream sector queries for Fatty Acid in Germany, which increased manufacturers' confidence in providing steady contract rates after the country was hit hard by the recurrence of Covid instances. It was a rough conclusion to a difficult quarter for downstream Fatty Acid supply dynamics, with prices rising to their highest level of the year in December at 4080 USD/MT FOB. The demand for personal care products was also a factor in the rise in prices.

North America

In October, the prices of fatty acids hit their highest level, backed by rising palm oil feedstock prices in the worldwide market and a lack of supply from Asian countries due to vessel delays. In addition to the high input prices, the shortage of trucks for delivering consignments to downstream businesses exacerbated the despair of manufacturers in the early weeks of the quarter.

As a result, demand in the downstream personal care and detergents sectors was predicted to outpace supply. Due to increased port movement and decreased freight rates in late 2013, palm oil prices dropped slightly in the last months of the year. Fatty acid prices fell to 1760 USD/MT DEL in the final days of December as a result of lower demand due to a lack of downstream activity over the Christmas and New Year holidays.

Procurement Resource provides latest prices of Fatty Acid- C14. Each price database is tied to a user-friendly graphing tool dating back to 2014, which provides a range of functionalities: configuration of price series over user defined time period; comparison of product movements across countries; customisation of price currencies and unit; extraction of price data as excel files to be used offline.