Prices of Inorganic Acids Changes Differently      

Sulfuric Acid     

The price of sulfuric acid in domestic market further slumped in June 2009. The bulk trading price of 98% sulfuric acid in China dropped to around RMB100 per ton in June, a month-over-month decrease of 13% and a year-to-date drop of 66.6%, compared with RMB2 200 t/a in July 2008.
   In the first half of July, the trading price of sulfuric acid made from sulfur dropped to a new low of RMB90 per ton in Shandong province and some areas of central China, and even touched RMB40 per ton for flue gas based sulfuric acid in northwestern China, while the trading price slightly increased around RMB20 per ton in northern, eastern and southwestern China.
   Sulfuric acid price once leaped to RMB5 700/t in June 2008, but such boom seems to be far away from the 2009 domestic market.
   Demand for sulfuric acid in domestic downstream sectors will still be slack and large volume of low-price sulfuric acid will be imported, which will bring hard pressure on the sales of domestic enterprises. So the price of sulfuric acid will probably maintain at a low level for a long time.
   
Concentrated Nitric Acid    

Since late May, the domestic ex-factory price of concentrated nitric acid has been raising continually, up from RMB1 600-1 700/t in late May to RMB1 900-2200/t in mid July.
   Disasters caused by hail and rainstorm occurred in southern and eastern China in early and mid June forced lots of concentrated nitric acid enterprises in these regions to emergently shutdown their production. In addition, many enterprises had suspended or cut production affected by the financial crisis, concentrated nitric acid was badly needed in domestic market in mid June, and its price shot up to RMB1 850-1 900/t in early June from RMB1 600-1 700/t in late May.
   The price of concentrated nitric acid will probably rise slightly in a short term, for the supply insufficiency, low operating rate and the demand boom in downstream industries such as aniline, nitrochlorobenzene and dyes will give a good support.

Hydrofluoric acid    

China's hydrofluoric acid prices have been fluctuating at high level since the beginning of 2009.
   The price of hydrofluoric acid 40% in eastern China firstly fell to RMB4 250/t during the first ten days of March from RMB4 733/t in the end of February, and leaped to RMB4 500-4 800/t in mid April, then dropped to RMB4 400/t in late May due to the relative sufficient supply, and it has maintained at about RMB4 000/t during the period of late June and mid July. The bulk ex-factory prices in other areas in mid July were much higher, around RMB4 800-5 000/t.
   The demand and supply of hydrofluoric acid in domestic market are basically balanced, so the price of hydrofluoric acid will probably stay at high level with slight fluctuations in the short term.