Vet APIs and Vitamin Market

The current market for vet APIs is quiet, with the price of doxycycline hydrochloride, which was in the spotlight and leading the way, falling from its high level this month. There is a lack of popular products in this period, but it is just the stable price trend of regular products that are keeping the whole market stable.

With the arrival of the peak breeding season and the gradual end of high-temperature maintenance, the domestic market entered the so-called "Golden Nine and Silver Ten", the annual September-October short sales season, when the price of veterinary APIs often appears a wave of a pull-up. This year, coupled with limited growth in supply due to the continued restrictions on electricity and production throughout August, it may further push prices upwards. It now depends on the actual recovery of domestic and overseas demand.

Florfenicol has been performing steadily in the short term; this month's market transaction price maintained the same as last month, with high market attention and a wide price gap among brands. The reference transaction price is USD62-64/kg, FCA

In the previous period, the market price rose significantly as a result of the mainstream factory production maintenance and supply constraints. However, the volume under the high price declined significantly. The market price began to fall from a high level in mid-August.

Will the new capacity release and production restriction due to environmental protection and power rationing offset each other to some extent so that the overall supply availability remains stable? Will domestic and overseas rigid demand and long arbitrage demand be timely released? The game between supply and demand will continue, and the market prices are expected to consolidate.

Despite reports of a sharp increase in exports in the first half of the year, the market availability remains adequate, and the price is stable. For the rest of the year, we should keep an eye on the demand of the domestic pig market and the impact of the dual control policy on production in the northern provinces.

The overall price of the domestic vitamin market is weak, with individual variety calcium pantothenate prices being adjusted from last month. Many production enterprises are still amid summer shutdown and maintenance and are scheduled to resume production one after another in early September. The heatwave and power rationing in the Yangtze River Basin has little impact on their production. In the years since 2020, both domestic and international markets have been overbought at the start of the year, giving the supply side the illusion of buoyant demand. Demand lay flat in the year's second half, bringing about a sluggish market.

The market as a whole is weak. Despite the cost pressure on producers, there is no significant improvement in the demand at the breeding end and lower enthusiasm of middlemen in stocking up. The generally high inventory on the supply side forces the manufacturers not to raise the price. And even the price-for-volume strategy can hardly stimulate effective demand. Its market price may remain at the bottom for the rest of the year, providing no events that exceed market expectations occur.

Vitamin E is one of the largest vitamin varieties on the market. The supply is restricted with high technical barriers and an oligopolistic pattern. However, the demand is fragmented with a substantial overseas market. Vitamin E produced in China is mainly export-oriented.

As a result, the price of vitamin E is relatively more volatile, and the fluctuation factors are primarily the production suspensions caused by various incidents and force majeure. Generally speaking, the 4Q to 1Q is the peak demand season for vitamin E, and the price tends to rise briefly but often hardly lasts through the summer.

The high-temperature overhaul at NHU and ZMC is carried out in the off-season of demand, and the manufacturers have prepared adequate inventory. The power supply in the year's second half will continue to be somewhat restricted due to drought, and the overhaul period may be extended. In addition, we need to keep in mind that due to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the tight supply of energy and raw materials in Germany will definitely have an uncoordinated negative impact on winter production. BASF and other manufacturers have previously expressed serious concerns about this. The transport problems on the Rhine will be exacerbated this year by drought. Therefore, it is inevitable that the price of vitamin E will continue to rise in the 2H of this year.

Raw material prices have recently declined, and downstream demand was poor, with a cumulative 42% drop in exports from January to May 2022 (information from BOYAR news). The quotation has been adjusted this month compared to last month. The supply pattern of this product is fragmented, the new production capacity of new manufacturers will be gradually released, and the further decline of the price will be a matter of significant probability.

The price trend maintained the high level of last month. The cost increase driven by the higher price of imported chromium ore had not been effectively resolved in a short time. Summer maintenance in the leading producers is coming to an end.

Still, it is unclear whether Zhenhua Chem(Huangshi), Brother Technology, and Mianyang Vanetta will delay or partially resume production due to tight power supplies. How the market will interpret the situation, we will wait and see.

Restricting or banning antibiotics in feeds has brought tough challenges to the feed and farming industry. In recent years, potassium diformate has become a hot research topic and a concern for antibiotic substitutes.

We offer potassium diformate both in technical grade and premix:
TECHNICAL GRADE: 96-98%,
PREMIX : 60%

In July 2001, the EU approved potassium diformate as the first alternative to antibiotic growth promoters in pig feed.

In April 2003 and July 2005, the EU proposed directive regulations on this product's application and use limit.

On August 8, 2022, the European Commission issued Regulation (EU) 2022/1374, approving potassium diformate as a feed additive for weaned piglets, finishing pigs and sows. Potassium diformate is authorized as a "technical additive" and functions as a "preservative".

Based on our field practice, this product can also be used in poultry and aquatic (fish and shrimp) feed.