A rise of up to 343%! Vitamin prices are rapidly rising

On March 24, 2020, India announced that it the country would lockdown for 21 days starting at 0:00 on the 25th to curb the spread of the epidemic. Affected by India's "shutdown" and the outbreak of the epidemic in the world, the prices of APIs have shown a sharp increase.

 
Vitamins are the main varieties in bulk APIs. Global vitamin production capacity has been transferred to China. Currently, China is the world's largest vitamin exporter. Judging from the published price trends in early April, vitamin prices have increased significantly. Vitamins took the Lead in raising prices among various varieties of APIs.

The price of various vitamin products has increased in the past three months

Vitamins domestic sales prices have increased by more than 10% from January 2 to April 2, 2020

As a bulk API, vitamins' downstream demand is basically stable, and price fluctuations are mainly caused by supply-side changes. Affected by the cronavirus, the market prices of many vitamin products have soared recently. Since 2020, there have been 14 vitamin products whose price has increased by more than 10%. Among them, vitamin D3 rose by as much as 343.2%, and others rose by more than 50% including vitamin B1, vitamin A, biotin, vitamin K3, and vitamin E.
 

In the European market, affected by the spread of the COVID-19 and the suspension of production by some manufacturers, the price of vitamin products has also risen to a certain extent. The current price data of some vitamin products that can be queried show that the average price increase from January 2 to April 2 is still the largest increase in vitamin D3, up to 272.5%; followed by biotin, an increase of 141.2%; The increase of vitamin B2 also exceeded 20%.

Global production of various vitamins is concentrated in China
 
According to a report from the University of Minnesota, the production bases of the four major vitamin manufacturers in Europe, DSM, BASF, Adisseo and Lonza, are located in Germany, France, Switzerland and Sweden. This makes the output of vitamin A, vitamin E, and niacin reach 65%, 42%, and 43% in Europe, respectively, each exceeding 40%.

 
Currently, global biotin, Folic Acid and vitamin B12 are only produced in China. The output of vitamin B1, vitamin B6, vitamin C, vitamin D3 and Calcium Pantothenate all account for more than 80%. All vitamin products are produced in China.

Some vitamin products have seen significant price increases recently
 
Vitamin D3: The main production capacity is concentrated in the country. Garden Biology is a leading company in the industry with a production capacity of about 5,000 tons. There are also expansion projects of 3600 tons of feed-grade vitamin D3 powder, 540 tons of food-grade vitamin D3 powder, and 1200 tons of 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 powder The project provides considerable capacity. The overseas production companies are mainly DSM in Europe and Fermenta in India. The demand in the aquaculture industry is rigid, but due to many reasons such as tight raw materials, delayed domestic resumption of work, and the impact of the epidemic in Europe, the release of vitamin D3 production capacity has been limited. In the short term, the supply and demand contradictions have increased and prices have risen.

 
The price of vitamin D3 has risen by 343.2% in the past three months. Its increase was mainly concentrated in the past half month, from 137.5 yuan / kg on March 20 to 410 yuan / kg on April 2, an increase of 198.2% in the last half month.

Vitamin A: Except for China, vitamin A production enterprises are basically concentrated in Europe. DSM's vitamin A bases are located in Switzerland and Sweden, BASF is located in Ludwigshafen, Germany, and Adisseo is located in France. The three companies have a combined production capacity of more than 20,000 tons, accounting for more than 60% of the industry's total production capacity. At present, BASF is in a state of suspending production and waiting for work. Affected by the spread of the new coronary pneumonia epidemic, the uncertainty of BASF's resumption of production expansion has further increased. This has also led to recent increases in vitamin A prices.

 
The price of vitamin A has increased by 74% in the past three months. Since March 6, its price has increased significantly, from 340 yuan / kg to 535 yuan / kg on April 2, a price increase of 57.4% in the past month.