Bearish Market Sentiments Lead to the Downward Price Trend For Caustic Potash

The Caustic Potash prices were low in the global market during March 2023, owing to soft demand from the end-use industries and ample stock availability. Recently, the market players mainly purchased the product on a need basis amidst the global economic slowdown and weighed on external inquiries impacting international discussions. Moreover, the Caustic Potash demand continued to plunge in Asian countries on subdued offers from the agrochemical and other competitive downstream sectors this month.

In India, the Caustic Potash prices remained downward, with a weekly drop of 3.6% in the last week of March 2023, owing to the high stock volumes and slowed-down offers in the downstream agrochemical and cleaning sector this week. This week, the recent unseasonal rains and uncertain international trading activities amidst ongoing climate-related disruptions caused a slump in domestic inquiries for Caustic Potash. Moreover, the market players are making overseas sales at lower costs amidst piled-up warehouse inventories and silent domestic offers in the face of a high level of stocks in the Indian market. Thus, the price of  Caustic Potash was assessed at USD 1305/MT Ex-Vadodara (India) in the fourth week of March 2023.

Similarly, the Caustic Potash price on a month-on-month basis settled at decreasing trend in the Chinese market, owing to the slowdown in the downstream operational activities in the face of ample stocks and bearish consumer sentiments in the market amidst an insufficient recovery in the economic growth of the country.

In the USA, the Caustic Potash prices saw a southward trajectory in the week ending March 31, 2023, owing to the slowness in the business activity towards the end of Q1 2023, and driven by the modest economic growth. As per the latest insights, the prices were impacted by the delays in cargo movement in the international market and rising volume at US ports in March 2023. Moreover, the volatility in the natural gas prices caused input cost pressure on the enterprises, and the slow follow-up of terminal offers amidst the low purchasing intention in the global market weakened the pricing dynamics of Caustic Potash.

As per ChemAnalyst, the Caustic Potash prices are expected to decline in the global market in April 2023, owing to the anticipated sluggish offers from the downstream industries and abundance of inventory availability amidst a slow recovery in the global economic outlook.