Commodity chemicals sector

The existing thermodynamic database focuses on the commodity chemicals sector. Only limited information is available for the ingredients in... 

Determining the full cost of the type of capacity needed to meet demand growth is the cornerstone enabling managers to assess how attractive the returns are likely to be for their business in a given commodity chemical sector. However, it is also possible to dig deeper into the circumstances of individual plants and product lines, production sites, and geographic regions to build up a more detailed picture of the prospects for a business. Here are a number of key drivers that need to be taken into account. 

The industrial gases industry routinely manages to earn attractive return rates. From 1992 to 2004, the average annual return on invested capital (ROIC) before tax was 13.6 percent. The industry s profitability was thus between that of specialty chemicals (17.8%) and commodities (12%), but more stable. In 2004, industrial gases almost came out on top of specialties, due to the latter s declining profitability in the second half of the 90s (Fig. 11.2).3) Air, its main raw material, is free , and its products are probably the purest commodities from a chemical point of view. In any case, the industrial gases industry has managed to deliver better and less volatile returns than the commodity chemicals sector. 

Competition in Commodity Chemicals Sector. Domestic players in the Commodity Chemicals sector are not as competitive as North American or European players, particularly in the more complex downstream intermediates. The biggest players in the commodity chemicals market in Chitra are the three main oil and gas companies, China Natiotral Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), China Natiorral Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec) and China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), all of which are still prinrarily owned by the Chinese government. 

Applying the techniques that have worked so well in commodity chemicals to the higher value sectors will reduce environmental impact and improve the economics, but the gains wiU be smaller. In particular, the economic benefits may not justify the investment in improvement. Further reduction in environmental footprint will require a new way of looking at the problem. 

Plastics additives now constitute a highly successful and essential sector of the chemical industry. Polymer additives are a growing sector of the specialty chemical industry. Some materials that have been sold for over 20 years are regarded today as commodity chemicals, particularly when patents covering their use have expired. Others, however, have a shorter life or have even disappeared almost without trace, e.g. when the production process cannot be made suitably economic, when unforeseen toxicity problems occur or when a new generation of additive renders them technically obsolete. 

I. Product Attributes in Different Industrial / Product Sectors As demonstrated by the case studies on food [see chapter 6], and cosmetics and toiletries [see chapter 9] products, the desired product attributes are very different from those of commodity chemicals. The key requirement for simple molecules is purity. For functional molecules such as those used as in hair conditioner, the functional groups of the molecule, be it cationic, anionic or nonionic, and the flexibility of the molecular backbone have to be tailored to meet the needs. By and large, the number of requirements increases with the... 

Chemical engineering has traditionally focused on commodity chemicals in its research and education. Most of its teaching materials are related to the design of chemical plants and petroleum refineries. Although much has been achieved by Cussler and Moggridge, and Seider, Seader and Lewin in their books to fill this void, more needs to be done to cover the numerous product areas. Most importantly, we have to clearly identify, and to develop if necessary, all the principles, skills and tools that the chemical engineers should know in order to perform on their job in various product sectors. 

However, if chemicals are irredeemably cyclical, does that make commodity chemicals an unattractive business In our view, the key is to look beyond individual cycles, at the long-term profitability of the sector. This reveals a perhaps surprising judgment, in view of conventional wisdom about the sector s unattractiveness commodity chemicals have earned returns above their weighted average cost of capital (WACC) across a number of cycles, making it very different and a much better performer than most other commodity sectors. 

Linked to the oil industry, to petrochemicals, and to the large commodity chemicals, the catalyst industry can hardly escape the economic ups and downs affecting these three large sectors. Its clients are understandably both demanding and prudent, for the catalytic system is basic to the good running of production units. This explains why it is an area of business that is so difficult to penetrate and run profitably. Its structure should therefore remain rather stable even with the development of catalytic exhaust systems. Introduction... 

The manufacture of pharmaceutical chemicals in some ways resembles a scaled-up version of the organic chemical syntheses carried out in the laboratory and, in others, a scaled down version of the processes used in the heavy chemicals industry. The heavy chemicals industry manufactures commodity chemicals that are largely undifferentiated and have to be sold at the ruling market price. The individual company, having little control over prices, is therefore preoccupied with reducing costs. A major source of cost reduction is economies of scale, and those in turn are related to the use of continuous rather than batch processes. The former are well-nigh universal in the heavy chemicals sector. 

We are not advocating inflation. Commodity chemical prices, with few exceptions have fallen or at best remained level during a long period of rising prices elsewhere in the economy. We are simply advocating a common-sense pricing philosophy that will conserve the financial health of all sectors of the chemical industry. 

Although it may be unhelpful to push the distinction too far, there are noticeable differences in terms of process wastes between the commodity/ bulk/heavy chemical sector and fine chemicals. The former are generally much more efficient at putting atoms of reagent into product [21] which is just as well bearing in mind the scale on which they operate In most cases the product is the desired one although in some, for example cracking of hydrocarbons such as naphtha to produce ethylene, the yield of ethylene leaves room for improvement, and it has been said by some in the industry that operation of ethylene crackers takes one into businesses, due to the coproducts, which one has no wish to be in. 

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