Fatty Alcohol prices slide again this week in North America and Asia

Fatty Alcohol prices have continued to rally downwards since the start of April in Asia and North America regions despite strong feedstock value. In the previous month, many countries have made higher purchases of Palm Oil, leading to declining demand fundamentals from the downstream surfactant and cosmetic players weekly with adequate inventories.

Fatty Alcohols are the oleochemicals present in most products consumed in our everyday life. Rising inflation amid increasing economic concerns has affected consumer spending habits. Their movement diverted towards the lower-price brands in choosing soaps, toothpaste, shampoos, cosmetics, and other cleaning products. Hence the worsening end-used consumption has brought about this declining pricing trend for Fatty Alcohol, with a fall of nearly 3% in India, 1% in China, and more than 1% in the United States, according to the ChemAnalyst database.

Meanwhile, the Global prices of Palm Oil have been increasing for a year now. This hike is due to several factors, including a combinational mix of labor shortages, unfavorable weather, transportation constraints due to Covid-19, export restrictions, and deforestation in the world’s largest Palm Oil exporting countries, Indonesia and Malaysia. The two nations accounted for around 85 percent of the global Palm oil production, with prices more than USD 1500/MT last week. Since late February, the intensifying Russia-Ukrainian war has been the primary reason for the worldwide price increases. Also, the production declined in most of the plants due to bad weather in the first ten days of April. Moving on to the United States, Cargill Inc., one of the world's largest agricultural traders, has announced the suspension of Palm oil and derivative products' purchasing activity from a key plantation, Sime Darby Bhd. in Malaysia, as it found indications of forced labor in the plantation.

As per ChemAnalyst, “The prices of Fatty Alcohol will continue to stay down for the coming weeks with sluggish demand fundamentals from the downstream market, sufficient inventory levels, and weak consumer spending patterns across the regions. However, the Palm Oil pricing will stay buoyant in the global market with no sign of decline in the near-term.”