Caustic Soda prices escalate across Middle Eastern markets

The price of Caustic Soda Flakes in Saudi Arabia have been averaged at $933/ton Ex-Jebel Ali with weekly offers hovering around USD 912-958 per MT in November. The prices showed a month-on-month increment of 8.7% after key producers of the Middle East raised their offered prices for both domestic as well as export markets.

As per market experts, maintenance turnaround at a production unit of SACHLO has affected the local production of Caustic soda and the tightness will continue unless the unit reopens in January 2022. The production capacity of SACHLO for its Chlor Alkali plant is around 120 TPD. The demand of Caustic soda is firm but the production from industries is insufficient to fulfil the market requirement. Surging freight cost has also affected import volumes from key European producers. While the demand in the European market is settling at high levels, the supply of NaOH from its key exporters appears to be unreasonably tight.

Sodium Hydroxide also known as Caustic Soda is usually available in two forms liquid (lye) and solid (flakes). Anhydrous (100%, solid) caustic soda has chemical formula of NaOH with the molecular weight of 40.00. The market of Caustic Soda is highly driven by the Asian consumers. China has the largest Caustic Soda market with 35% share while Saudi Arabia contributes 4% to the global Caustic export volume. The key producers are DowDuPont, OxyChem, Westlake Chemical, Olin Corporation, Formosa Plastics Corporation.

According to Chemanalyst, the prices of Caustic soda Flakes in Saudi will likely increase in the upcoming weeks due to tightness in the local market. However, the global market outlook seems uncertain as low demand and ample supply push down the price trend in Asian and European market.