Chemical product classification commodities

A key product classification scheme in the chemical industry is the differentiation of specialty and commodity products. Kline (1976) provides a segmentation of the chemical industry into commodities, specialties and fine chemicals shown in fig. 28. 

There are other methods of classifying the products of the CPI. Frequently combinations of classifications are used to give insights into various aspects of the industry. One of the more useful of these is a classification obtained by combining production volume and differentiation to yield the four product classifications shown in Table 5.6. This separation into commodity, pseudocommodity, fine, and specialty chemicals is particularly useful in examining differences in research and development, manufacturing methods, marketing, and finance for... 

The classification of products of Chapter 5 designating products as commodities, pseudo-commodities, fine chemicals, and specialty chemicals provides... 

This classification correlates with the chemical value chain and the product tree. Products produced in early stages of the product value chain are rather commodity-type products, while products produced in the very late stage of the value chain are rather specialty-type products. Commodity and specialty classification is often not straight-forward and can depend on a set of characteristics as shown in table 6 ... 

Note "Photographic or Cinematographic Goods" refers to HS (Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System) Code 37. Products in this classification include "photo plates and film, flat, sensitized, unexposed photo film in rolls sensitized, unexposed photo paper, paperboard and textiles, sens, unexposed photo plates, film, paper, etc, exposed, not developed photo plates and still film, exposed developed motion-picture film, exposed and developed photographic chemicals, unmixed products retail packed."... 

Class I Railroads, 1947 to Present. Freight traffic during the years 1941 to 1945 reflected the effect of wartime production with its varying degrees of influence on certain particular commodities, as a result of which a revision of the commodity classification was again desirable. Effective with the January 1, 1947 revision, the number of commodity classes was increased again—this time from 157 to 262 classes. The data reported for each of the 262 classes are the same as shown for the period 1928 to 1946. Of the 105 new classes, some 17 additional classes are of interest to the chemical and allied products industry (Table III). 

Cl) Association of American Railroads, Washington 6, D. C., Commodity Classification, 1947. (2) Manufacturing Chemists Association, Washington, D. C., Chemical Facts and Figures. Useful Information and Statistics Relating to the Chemical and Allied Products Industries, 3rd ed.,pp. 1,290,1950. 

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