Commodity chemicals

Commodity chemicals (or bulk commodities or bulk chemicals) are a group of chemicals that are made on a very large scale to satisfy global markets. The average prices of commodity chemicals are regularly published in the chemical trade magazines and web sites such as Chemical Week and ICIS. There have been several studies of the scale and complexity of this market for example in the USA. Commodity chemicals are a sub-sector of the chemical industry (other sub sectors are fine chemicals, specialty chemicals, inorganic chemicals, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, renewable energy (e.g. biofuels) and materials (e.g. biopolymers)) Commodity chemicals are differentiated primarily by the bulk of their manufacture. Chemical compounds are often classified into two classes, inorganic and organic. aluminium sulfate ammonia ammonium nitrate ammonium sulfate carbon black chlorine diammonium phosphate monoammonium phosphate hydrochloric acid hydrogen fluoride hydrogen peroxide nitric acid oxygen phosphoric acid sodium carbonate sodium chlorate sodium hydroxide sodium silicate sulfuric acid titanium dioxide Commonly traded commodity organic chemicals include: acetic acid acetone acrylic acid acrylonitrile adipic acid benzene butadiene butanol caprolactam cumene cyclohexane dioctyl phthalate ethanol ethylene ethylene oxide ethylene glycol formaldehyde methanol octanol phenol phthalic anhydride polypropylene polystyrene polyvinyl chloride propylene polypropylene glycol propylene oxide styrene terephthalic acid toluene toluene diisocyanate urea vinyl chloride xylenes Commodity chemicals are produced to supply diverse but usually well-defined industrial needs.