Chemical prices start '98 flat or softening

By Staff -- Purchasing, 2/12/1998

As 1998 began, Purchasing's Industrial Chemical Price Index dropped back 2.4 points to 103.6 in January. The reason for the decline is soft raw material prices, increasing capacity and/or slower demand, and these conditions will continue to prevail through the first half of the year. As a result, the index is forecast to inch up only 0.3 points to 103.9 in July.

A number of commodity chemical prices declined in January. Among them, chlor-alkali tags weakened significantly. U.S. bulk contracts for chlorine dropped an average of $25/ton to $233/ton. Caustic soda sank even further, plummeting $39/ton to an average of $215/ton. Ethylene glycol contracts dropped 5cents/lb to 30cents/lb. Methanol prices also crashed, falling 11cents/gal to an average of 63cents/gal.

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