China’s
B1 vitamin price was witnessing a significant growth in the first half year of
2017. According to market intelligence firm CCM, the trend is likely to go on
in the second half, backed up by the environmental policies and tightened
supply.
Source: Shutterstock
In
China, the production of vitamin B1, or thiamine is highly concentrated, as
three enterprises are controlling the market, even accounting for about 85% of
the worldwide supply. These three companies are Hubei Huazhong, Zhejiang Tianxin,
and Brother Enterprises. All three companies have the same annual production
compacity.
According
to CCM’s price monitoring, the price of vitamin B1 98% feed grade,
99% food grade, and 99% pharmaceutical grade all have experienced a growth in
July compared to the previous month. The price of vitamin B1 feed grade at this
moment experienced a growth by more than USD1,700 per tonne. Vitamin B1 food
grade and pharmaceutical grade witnessed an increase of USD276 per tonne and
USD1,772 per tonne respectively.
The
price of all vitamin B1 grades was continually rising from January 2016 to
July. In January, the price for vitamin B1 feed grade was USD41,723 per tonne,
rising to more than USD49,933 per tonne in June already. The other vitamin B1
grades have undergone a similar price development in this period.
China
is facing stricter environmental policies since the end of 2016 when the
government started to carry out inspections and shut down or limit the
production of highly polluting industries. These measurements pushed up the
price of vitamin B1 in China.
As
the result of the inspections and production suspensions, some producers
suffered from limited productions, and thus the total supply of vitamin B1
tightened in China. Moreover, the stretched situation was supported by the
increase in China’s total vitamin B1 export volume from Jan. to May 2017.
According to the data of China Customs, the total export volume was 2,667.64
tonnes, up by 8.73% YoY.
Also,
the prices of raw materials including aceto butyrolactone and
acetamidine hydrochloride increased. Due to environmental pressure, some
producers of them suspended production and thus resulted in a tightened supply.
Therefore, the production costs increased and naturally pushed up the price of
VB1.
Since
the situation of the environmental policy in China as well as the high export
volume is not changing anytime soon, the price of vitamin B1 is expected to
increase further in the second half of 2017. Zhejiang Tianxin, one of the main
suppliers, is expected by industry insiders to raise price quotations to more
than USD59,000 per tonne soon.
Always
be fully informed about China’s vitamins market. Subscribe to CCM’s vitamins
newsletter for premium insights in the market:
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About CCM
CCM
is the leading market intelligence provider for China’s agriculture, chemicals,
food & ingredients and life science markets.
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