Sodium bicarbonate prices fell substantially in global markets during February 2025 due to post-Lunar New Year production rebound and softened demand. The ubiquitous chemical compound, a vital ingredient for many industries, saw one of its most precipitous price falls in years.

Key producers increased output shortly after the Lunar New Year holiday, building significant oversupply. China's key production centers resumed full operations after their usual 1–2-week close, inundating the market with new sodium bicarbonate supplies.

Based on market analysis Sodium bicarbonate manufacturers evidently overestimated demand in the market for the first half of 2025. The simultaneous return to full capacity production while retaining pre-holiday inventory set ideal conditions for a price correction.

The price correction is seen in sodium bicarbonate in all grades, from pharmaceutical, food, and technical grades. Manufacturers now find it difficult to sell excess inventory, resorting to deep discounting to entice buyers.

Singapore, a key regional trading center for sodium bicarbonate, experienced especially spectacular price drops. The city-state's status as an import-export hub magnified the global oversupply impact, with higher volumes from China and India looking for buyers in Southeast Asian markets.

The Singapore sodium bicarbonate market mirrors the wider regional pattern as lower freight costs from key exporting nations to Singapore further fueled the price drop.

Sodium bicarbonate plays vital roles in various industrial uses. The chemical continues to play a crucial role in food processing as a leavening agent, in medicine for antacid medications, in animal feed supplements, in textile production, and in environmental services such as flue gas treatment and water treatment.

Although it is industrially significant, product experiences seasonally lower demand from major industries. Food processing plants, textile mills, and drug manufacturers—all heavy users of sodium bicarbonate—run at lower capacity after the Lunar New Year holiday as workforces return in a gradual manner.

The economics of manufacturing also helped pull prices down. Stable or falling prices of soda ash, used as a main raw material in sodium bicarbonate production, enabled manufacturers to reduce prices while sustaining reasonable profit margins.

Supply chain enhancements contributed significantly too. Normalization of logistics activities post-pre-holiday peak led to reduced transportation expenditures and streamlined distribution channels for sodium bicarbonate. These enhancements abolished the supply chain bottlenecks that had before contributed to the maintenance of prices at higher levels.

Downstream buyers' just-in-time procurement strategies also dented sodium bicarbonate market conditions. Instead of bulk buying, industrial customers now place orders for sodium bicarbonate as required, lowering overall demand quantity.

It has been forecasting sodium bicarbonate prices to stabilize around late March as producers modify production schedules according to prevailing demand realities. In the meantime, perceptive industrial customers take advantage of the lower prices to stock sodium bicarbonate at good rates.