Sulfates Price Trend and Forecast

Sulfates Regional Price Overview

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

Sulfates Price Trend for the Second Half of 2023

Different sulfates are obtained via the reaction of sulphuric acid with different metal oxides and hydroxides, the price trends usually closely align with each other. During the last two quarters of 2023, the sulfates market performance was mostly weak throughout. Quarter three began on a lower note as the suppliers were cautious with procurement observing the plummeting demands in the downstream consumption sectors.
 

Sulfates Price Chart

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These efforts temporarily helped stabilize the market at the beginning of the fourth quarter too, however, the prices started plunging again as the year-end approached. Lackluster demands from the consuming industries primarily drove the sulfates markets.

Analyst Insight

According to Procurement Resource, the Sulfates price trends are likely to continue to fluctuate at the lower levels in the coming months, since the demands are still dull and the inventories will take time to vacate.
 

Sulfates Price Trend for the First Half of 2023

As different Sulfates are obtained via the reaction of sulphuric acid with different metal oxides and hydroxides, the price trend for Sulfates vary primarily with sulfuric acid. The first quarter started with stable market sentiments, given the normalized supply-demand dynamics. Declining procurement and upstream prices didn’t provide much cost support as crude oil, energy prices, and transportation prices stabilized constantly.

The consuming cosmetic, detergents, and other personal care industries offered such feeble demands that could be easily supported by the existing inventories. Hence, all these factors constituted such mixed, fluctuating price patterns. The first quarter was still stable; however, declining demands pushed the prices further down in the second quarter. Sulfate prices mostly wavered at the lower end of the price curve.

Analyst insight

According to Procurement Resource, the Sulfates are expected to continue fluctuating low in the upcoming quarter as the downstream demands do not seem to be picking up anytime soon.
 

Sulfates Price Trend for the Second Half of 2022

The prices of sulfate salts depend upon various factors such as availability of feedstock, market dynamics of crude oil, and cost of energy production. The prices of various sulfate salts such as sodium sulfate, alkyl ether sulfates, and magnesium sulfate saw an inclining trend in the last two quarters of 2022. The rising inflation, and global energy crises due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine, rise in demand from the end-user detergents and paper industries, and a decline in stock availability globally contributed towards the rising price trend for sulfates.

The feedstock palm oil market was, however, unstable in the third and fourth quarters of 2022. The prices saw a dip as stocks piled up in the European and Asia Pacific regions. The North American region saw a decline in the demand from the end-user industries amid ample inventories. The rise in demand from end-user industries of sulfate salt and declining palm oil prices kept the price trend of sulfates moving globally.

Analyst Insight

According to Procurement Resource, the price trend for sulfates are expected to increase as the demand from detergents, cosmetics, and paper industries looks good and the operational costs also seem to favour the upward trajectory of the prices.
 

Sulfates Price Trend For the First Half of 2022

The salts, peroxides and acid derivatives of sulfates or sulfate ions are commonly used in the surfactant industries. The sulfates ions are obtained via sulfuric acid, metal oxide and even palm/coconut oil. Hence, the market prices of the above-mentioned feedstock govern the price trend for sulfates. The Russian invasion of Ukraine unleashed a staggering worldwide energy crisis.

The high crude oil prices, trade restrictions, heightened freight costs and journey time caused the prices of commodities to rise in the market giving way to double-digit inflation. In Europe, the price of feedstock sulfuric acid averaged 230 USD/MT FOB Hamburg while in the USA it averaged 264 USD/MT. These raised quotations were further supported by the strong downstream demand.

The prices of feedstock palm oil skyrocketed during the said period due to the absence of sunflower oil in the global market. With the Indonesian government announcing a ban on palm oil exports coupled with the floods in Malaysia, the supply lines for palm oil constricted further. The prices of the Bursa Malaysia derivative palm oil averaged a staggering 1942 USD/MT on March 1, 2022.

However, the prices relaxed towards the end of the second quarter with the removal of the export ban averaging 1554.50 USD/MT in June. Hence, owing to the inflated feedstock prices and robust demand from the personal and home-care industries the price trend for sulfates stood firm throughout the said period.

Procurement Resource provides latest prices of sulfates. 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.