Africa witnesses high Hydrogen Peroxide prices in March

In Africa cobalt, gold, copper, and diamonds are widely mined and are the dominant players in the international mining industry. Due to large numbers of mines, the environmental hazard is also high in those mining regions. To reduce the environmental impact, Hydrogen Peroxide (HP) is used for various activities like oxidizing, as a disinfectant chemical and as a bleaching agent in the mining industry. Recent discovery of medical uses of Hydrogen Peroxide, a ten-year-old study, states that Aerosolized Hydrogen Peroxide prevents C. difficile infection (CDI). Hydrogen Peroxide is also highly used in wastewater treatment plants and as Africa is urbanizing the need for HP increases. The usage of HP in Medical and Wastewater treatments increases the demand for HP in Africa and abets the current price hike.

The prices of Hydrogen Peroxide (HP) are soaring across the globe due to its multiple uses and its demand in various fields like (mining, pharma, bleaching agent in textile and paper industries, wastewater treatment plants), the shutdown of Chinese ports due to the recent outbreak of Covid in China has affected the global Hydrogen market since China exports around 60% of upstream Anthraquinone in the global market. This shortage of Anthraquinone drastically impacts the Hydrogen Peroxide production and abets in the rise of HP prices.

The increase in HP prices affects the mining operations in Africa as the HP prices are elevating because of limited export of Anthraquinone from China. To aggravate the situation, Palladium is a metal that plays a vital role in converting Anthraquinone to Hydrogen Peroxide and is primarily imported from Russia. The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has hampered Russian supplies of Palladium to Africa. Even though South Africa mines enough Palladium, other African countries are affected by higher prices of hydrogen peroxide prices due to low availability of palladium.

According to ChemAnalyst, the price trend may remain on an upward trend owing to its long term uses in Pharmaceuticals, wastewater treatment and mining sectors. The prices of HP may drop when the mining industry switches to more eco-friendly methods to do their operations and causing a downfall in HP demand in Africa