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I would like to retrieve pricing information for specific chemicals. Is there a centralized resource for this?

Edit: I want to clarify that this type of data is to conduct a techno-economic study. I know that for certain markets there are centralized databases which collect prices, and report price statistics, I was wondering if there is something similar for the chemical industry.

Septimus G
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    https://www.sigmaaldrich.com/united-states.html – ringo Feb 14 '18 at 22:04
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    No, you should pick a supplier. How much something costs can be widely different depending on the supplier. – Zhe Feb 14 '18 at 22:17
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    You need to be specific when you look for a vendor. For example ,reagent grade Na Cl has a very different price from a box of salt from the grocery store, very different from a truck load of food grade salt. very different from a rail car of road salt ( Na Cl ). – blacksmith37 Feb 14 '18 at 22:21
  • I am thinking about the bulk market. If someone is to develop a new chemical synthesis process, which products should they target? The market value is an important consideration when answering that question. – Septimus G Feb 15 '18 at 19:26
  • Regarding the opinion based hold: I think my edit should clarify that this is not an opinion based question. Perhaps such market tracking system does not publicly exist (I am certain all the major chemical companies dedicate plenty of resources to study the market). – Septimus G Feb 15 '18 at 19:28

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Until 2005 or 2006 the best source was Chemical Market Reporter. It had the form of a newspaper and was edited once a week. The last pages listed market prices for commodities, some speciality chemicals and also agricultural products.

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Hundreds of products were listed and you had some idea of what were the options you had for designing an industrial process. You could easily decide which solvent to use for an extraction, which metal for a reduction or which raw material for a synthesis.

The publication was on subscription base but it was available in some University libraries or you could get an older copy from a contact in the big chemical industry.

Now this has been converted on a pay per product information scheme. You can enter in www.icis.com and ask a report for one product. If you want to compare prices you have to buy the information for every product. It is almost impossible to have a complete picture of the economic trend in the Chemical Industry.

Raoul Kessels
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Sigma Aldrich was mentioned, and is a very good source of relative pricing; it can help eliminate certain possibilities when you see compounds listed in 1 gram quantities vs 1 kg or more.

Another item is the intended size of purchase and perhaps continued purchases. Prices in bags, pallets (2000 lb.) or pails, drums, totes or truckload (20 tons) will vary widely due to bulk discounts, distributor markup and freight.

Another item to consider is purity: technical grades may have different degrees of purity or different contaminants depending on suppliers.

Another item is availability: overseas suppliers may have warehouses in the country, and may keep an item stocked. Or not, which requires careful planning and internal stocking, which costs money.

James Gaidis
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