Sodium Sulphate Market Faces Bearish Trend Amid High Inventory and Weak Demand

In August 2024, the Sodium Sulphate market experienced a bearish trend, driven by weak terminal market consumption and lower enthusiasm from downstream buyers. Despite efforts by factories to stimulate procurements by lowering prices, weak downstream consumption persisted, keeping orders subdued.

The market for Sodium Sulphate was impacted by several factors, including fluctuations in Sodium Sulphate’s raw material availability. Production and logistics challenges also contributed to moderate adjustments in supply levels. Additionally, rising energy prices, particularly natural gas, led to increased production costs, further compounding the market's difficulties.

The broader economic context shows a challenging environment for Sodium Sulphate manufacturing, as evidenced by the manufacturing activities, which fell in August from the previous month. The decrease in manufacturing activities was primarily driven by a continued decline in new work inflows, which fell at the fastest rate since December. This trend highlights the significant impact of restrictive interest rates on factory performance. Employment levels in the manufacturing sector also nearly stalled, recording the smallest gain since January.

The reduction in Sodium Sulphate factory demand has eased capacity pressures on raw material deliveries, leading to reduced supplier delivery times. However, Sodium Sulphate input costs have accelerated the most since May, and producers have struggled to pass these costs onto consumers.

In the detergent industry, Procter & Gamble (P&G) reported that its fourth-quarter sales remained unchanged compared to the previous year. Sales volumes increased by 1%, but this was offset by a 2% decline due to adverse foreign exchange impacts. Consequently, the Sodium Sulphate market performance for the downstream detergent industry remained on the lower side.

US retail services sales showed a modest increase in July 2024. The advance estimate of sales was $709.7 billion, up 1.0% from the previous month and 2.7% from July 2023. Total sales for the period from May to July 2024 were up 2.4% compared to the same period a year ago. Retail trade sales rose by 1.1% from June 2024 and 2.6% from the previous year, with non-store retailers experiencing a notable 6.7% increase from last year.

On the export front, US Sodium Sulphate downstream textiles and apparel exports declined by 3.1% to $11.5 billion in the first half of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. While exports to Mexico increased by 3.6%, shipments to key markets such as Guatemala, Canada, and China saw declines. Apparel exports decreased by 2.96%, fabric exports by 4.27%, and yarn exports by 4.19%.

As per ChemAnalyst Database ‘The prices of Sodium Sulphate are likely to rise amid higher production cost and anticipated reduced Sodium Sulphate supply to meet downstream demand in the September.