Caustic soda manufacturers aim at charging more for their products in Q1 contracts. Some contracts have already been signed at higher prices but most players will finalise them by the middle of January.
Talks to hammer out conditions for caustic soda (NaOH) shipments in the first quarter have gained fresh impetus since the start of the New Year. The majority of businesses will put pen to paper by mid-January after the first deals were done before Christmas.
Market players told EUWID that manufacturers were pushing for higher prices but added that suppliers appeared to becoming more and more flexible. Bigger mark-ups had typically been announced in the run-up to talks. The majority of suppliers were singing from the same hymn sheet, insiders said, citing the poor chlorine derivatives business as the main factor. Orders for PVC and plastic manufacturing had been low for some time now.
⇒ This article is an excerpt from EUWID's report on the caustic soda market. The EUWID Price Watch caustic soda for 2012 will be published in EUWID Pulp and Paper no. 3 on 16 January.
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