The chlor-alkali industry is used to imbalances between caustic soda and chlorine, but the divergences have never been more marked than recently.

The Asian Chlor-alkali conference, co-organised by ICIS and Tecnon OrbiChem, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from June 25-26, will explore the recent developments in this delicate world balance, and look ahead to see what the remainder of 2009 and 2010 has in store.

During 2008 and into early 2009, caustic soda prices were experiencing large price disparities between regions, with the US Gulf recording prices over $1,000 per metric ton in January, in sharp contrast to the low prices of $400/ton fob in Asia. Good news for traders if they could arrange shipping and terminalling!  It was not that caustic soda demand had been so strong, it was the fact that chlorine demand, and therefore chlor-alkali plant operating rates, was falling faster than caustic soda demand, not only in the USA but in many parts of the world. During Q1 2009 however, demand for caustic soda started to slide dramatically and the industry is now seeing increasing inventory and falling prices and the gap in caustic soda pricing between the regions is closing.  Chlor-alkali producers are therefore currently faced with low returns from both caustic soda and chlorine.

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