After the 2016 Spring Festival (8 Feb.-22 Feb.), the domestic vitamin price took turns to rise, showing a butterfly effect. Amongst them, the price of vitamin A (VA) increased the most. In early March, the market price of feed grade VA reached USD39.91/kg (RMB260/kg), almost 2.5 times of the average price in Dec., 2015.

Besides, the price of vitamin B1 (VB1), vitamin B2 (VB2), vitamin B5 (VB5), vitamin B6 (VB6), vitamin B12 (VB12), vitamin E (VE), and vitamin D3 (VD3) etc. also increased, for instance:
During Dec., 2015 – Feb., 2016, the price of 80% feed grade VB2 has increased from USD27.63/kg (RMB180/kg) to USD36.84 (RMB240/kg) while that of calcium pantothenate (VB5), a 98% feed grade product, has increased from USD16.12/kg (RMB105/kg) to USD38.38 (RMB250/kg).

In early March this year, the price of VE, which has sustained downturn for long, increased from last year’s USD6.3/kg (RMB41/kg) to more than USD6.6/kg (RMB43/kg).

CCM believes that the rises of price of vitamins were caused by the following factors.
1. Stricter environmental protection policies have led to production suspension and limitation as well as high cost of environmental protection.
2. As the price of some vitamins, such as VA and VE, has maintained low for so long, producers determined to raise the products price so as to reverse their poor business performance.
3. Dominant enterprises tended to manipulate the price of some vitamins which is highly concentrated in a few producers, for example, DSM, a leading producer of vitamin, took the first lead to raise the price of VA, and followed by domestic producers. Similarly, the rise in the price of VB1, VB2 and VB5 was also manipulated by producers.
4. Short supply of some raw materials and intermediates, such as citral, a key intermediate of VA.
5. Driven by high profits, dealers followed producers to raise products price.
6. Downstream feed industry was insensitive to the rise in vitamin prices, which accounts for a small proportion of the raw materials cost of feed.

The rise in price of vitamins has caught the attention of investors, who later pushed up the stock price of vitamin enterprises. For example, Zhejiang NHU Co., Ltd. (NHU)’s closing price on 25 Feb., 26 Feb., and 29 Feb., 2016 has increased by 22.47% cumulatively. During the same period, Zhejiang Garden Biochemical High-Tech Co., Ltd. (Garden Biochemical), a leading domestic vitamin producer, also witnessed abnormal rise in its stock price.

 
On 1 March, stock price of domestic vitamin companies rose greatly. Specifically:

Obviously, at present, domestic investors are optimistic about the vitamin stock market.

About CCM:

CCM is the leading market intelligence provider for China’s agriculture, chemicals, food & ingredients and life science markets. Founded in 2001, CCM offers a range of data and content solutions, from price and trade data to industry newsletters and customized market research reports. Our clients include Monsanto, DuPont, Shell, Bayer, and Syngenta. CCM is a brand of Kcomber Inc. More about CCM, please visit www.cnchemicals.com.

Tag: vitamin

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