Calcium Chloride Market Faces Downward Pressure in India Amidst Weak Monsoon Demand

During August, the Indian Calcium Chloride market remained rangebound, following a significant decline in recent weeks. The ongoing challenges in the real estate market, where home sales have seen a substantial drop, have contributed to the persistent weakness in demand for Calcium Chloride. Despite sluggish demand, the Feedstock Calcium Carbonate market remained stable with minimal improvement observed in the downstream construction sector.

The domestic market for Calcium Chloride experienced a slight decline, with limited guidance from actual orders. Market fundamentals were mixed, with a prevailing bearish sentiment surrounding Calcium Chloride, and most transactions focused on shipments, leading to insufficient market activity. The volume of actual orders for Calcium Chloride remained low, with a weak focus on the product. Additionally, weak cost support from feedstock Calcium Carbonate further contributed to low Calcium Chloride prices, although stable methanol prices due to concentrated maintenance of Calcium Carbonate units in July did help industry profits turn positive.

Overall, these factors have led to a subdued market sentiment for Calcium Carbonate. Weak coal prices have continued to reduce production costs, further impacting the Calcium Chloride market. Meanwhile, the domestic trading volumes for Calcium Carbonate remained poor, with bearish sentiment prevailing, limited downstream procurement, and hindered shipments from traders. The Calcium Carbonate market continues to face downward pressure, driven by declining demand from key sectors, limited cost support from feedstocks, and broader economic challenges affecting both manufacturing and housing markets.  

In August, the ongoing rainy season added further pressure to the Calcium Chloride market, dampening demand even further. Despite these challenges, the supply of Calcium Chloride remained sufficient to meet downstream needs. According to Dow's Q2 results, the Construction Chemicals business saw a decline in net sales compared to the same period last year. Weak cost support from feedstock methanol has continued to pressure traders to ship Calcium Chloride, often resulting in frequent low-price offers and prompting downstream factories to purchase only as needed. Meanwhile, coal prices remained largely steady at northern transfer ports in India, even with the scorching weather in some eastern and southern provinces, adding further complexity to the Calcium Chloride market. Thus, the overall market of Calcium Chloride was on the decline amid lower demand from the downstream industry and lower prices of Feedstock Calcium Carbonate.

According to the ChemAnalyst Database, Calcium Chloride prices are anticipated to rise in the coming weeks due to growing demand from the downstream paints and coatings industry and rising prices of imports. Additionally, an expected increase in coal prices will likely drive-up production costs.