China witnesses a consistent rise in Calcium Powder prices on the back of the increased raw material costs

The nutraceutical industry in China is witnessing a consistent rise in the prices of its several products, including Calcium Powder, on the back of the increasing demand from downstream manufacturers. Due to the country’s zero-tolerance covid policy, several producers have been worried about another round of shutdowns at Chinese factories and ports lately due to the rising delta variant cases in China. As a result of the sudden outbreak of Omicron, the leading feed grade manufacturers, including Zhejiang Medicine Co., Ltd. and Zhejiang NHU Co., Ltd., have declared a forced closure in the Zhejiang Province of East China in order to contain the spread of the virus, causing the domestic market to exhibit raised sentiments since December. This unprecedented wave of coronavirus infection around the globe has resulted in the mass absences of staff in multiple industries.

As per ChemAnalyst, the prices of Calcium Powder are rapidly increasing in the domestic market as the Chinese companies are struggling with soaring raw material prices and high shipping costs along with extended delivery times and worker shortages. Calcium Carbonate prices witnessed a hike of 5.5% in the second week of January as the prices for food-grade CaCO3 escalated from USD 610/tonne to USD 645/tonne from January 7th to January 14th FOB Qingdao. The prices of food-grade Calcium Citrate followed the same pattern and increased from USD 2195/tonne to USD 2235/tonne FOB Shanghai, showcasing a hike of 1.8% on January 14th. As for the USP grade, the FOB Shanghai discussions for Calcium Citrate and Calcium Carbonate were settled at USD 4218/t and USD 9745/t, respectively. This price adjustment is a result of the extraordinary upsurge of raw material, chemical, energy, packaging, services, and logistics costs, as well as general inflation across China.

The Chinese authorities have implemented an Emission Trading System (ETS) to combat climate change and reduce its ever-increasing greenhouse gas emissions while maintaining economic growth, which has been slowed down in the past year. This implementation of ETS is likely to affect the carbon prices in China in the forthcoming period, along with becoming an effective approach for climate mitigation. The slowing Chinese economy poses a dilemma for manufactures and private companies as they are the backbone of its economy. As per ChemAnalyst, the pricing trend of Calcium Powder is anticipated to mimic the current market scenario until the end week of January.