Effective immediately or as contracts permit, ASHTA Chemicals Inc. is increasing both list and off-list prices for Potassium Hydroxide Liquid and Potassium Carbonate Liquid as follows:
• Potassium Hydroxide (KOH), 45% Liquid : $3.00/cwt
• Potassium Hydroxide (KOH), 50% Liquid : $3.33/cwt
• Potassium Carbonate (LPC), 47% Liquid: $3.00/cwt
The above price changes will be enacted by combined change in prevailing invoice price and/or removal of prevailing Temporary Voluntary Allowances (“TVA’s”) if in existence, up to he prescribed price changes enumerated above.
This price change is necessitated by several convergent factors:
• Industrial demand for KOH continues to rebound as the general economy recovers. The ISM Purchasing Manager Index, a bellwether for the manufacturing economy, has been over 50, indicating expansion, for the past eight months, and near 60 for the past two months.
• De-icing uptake for KOH is at record levels owing to cold temperatures and persistent measurable snowfall events which have occurred across nearly all major metropolitan areas.
• Demand for “K” into agricultural formulations is seeing accelerating seasonal uptake, which is further exacerbated by strong restocking of distribution channels. Fertilizer demand is high owing to improving crop prices, firm export commodity sales, soil enrichment initiatives to improve depleted nutrient levels resulting from several years of conservative application, and low inventories. This is evidenced by muriate of potash (a.k.a. potassium chloride, KCl) pricing into the fertilizer market which has undergone well-documented major price increases over the past several months.
• Manufacturing costs for KOH are escalating given the fact that KCl is the main input cost for KOH and derivative production.
• Regional KOH supply imbalances have resulted from operational and logistical interruptions driven by the historic arctic freeze that reportedly has idled over 70% of North American chlor-alkali capacity.
In addition to the above-referenced price changes, ASHTA is instituting order lead times for KOH shipments as follows, and will implement a 100% order management program for contract customers:
Rail Cars: 3 weeks
Trucks: 7 days
If you have any questions or need any further information about this price adjustment, please contact your ASHTA Sales Representative. Thank you for your continued business.
