Commodity chemicals (or bulk commodities or bulk chemicals) are a group of chemicals that are made on a very large scale to satisfy global markets. The average prices of commodity chemicals are regularly published in the chemical trade magazines and web sites such as Chemical WeekThe magazine Chemical Week is published by, and the Chemical Week website is owned by, a parent company that has changed hands several times and was eventually re-named to "Accuris", after being bought by S&P Global, and then [circa 2023] sold to KKR & Co. For more details about that parent company, formerly known as "IHS Markit" -- (including some historical information about the companies "Information Handling Services (IHS)" and "Markit") -- one may click on the link to the article that is still named "Chemical Week", but which (as of January 2025) became a 'redirect' to [the article about] "Accuris". and ICIS. There have been several studies of the scale and complexity of this market for example in the USA.
Commodity chemicals are a sub-sector of the chemical industry (other sub sectors are fine chemicals, specialty chemicals, inorganic chemicals, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, renewable energy (e.g. biofuels) and materials (e.g. biopolymers)). Commodity chemicals are differentiated primarily by the bulk of their manufacture.
Types Chemical compounds are often classified into two classes, inorganic and organic. Inorganic chemicals
aluminium sulfate ammonia ammonium nitrate ammonium sulfate carbon black chlorine diammonium phosphate monoammonium phosphate hydrochloric acid hydrogen fluoride hydrogen peroxide nitric acid oxygen phosphoric acid sodium carbonate sodium chlorate sodium hydroxide sodium silicate sulfuric acid titanium dioxide
Organic chemicals Commonly traded commodity organic chemicals include:
acetic acid acetone acrylic acid acrylonitrile adipic acid benzene butadiene butanol caprolactam cumene cyclohexane dioctyl phthalate ethanol ethylene ethylene oxide ethylene glycol formaldehyde methanol octanol phenol phthalic anhydride polypropylene polystyrene polyvinyl chloride propylene polypropylene glycol propylene oxide styrene terephthalic acid toluene toluene diisocyanate urea vinyl chloride xylenes
Sectors Commodity chemicals are produced to supply diverse but usually well-defined industrial needs. Some major sectors and their components are: plastics, synthetic fibers, synthetic rubber dyes, pigments, paints, coatings fertilizers, agricultural chemicals, pesticides cosmetics, soaps, cleaning agent, detergents pharmaceuticals mining
See also Speciality chemicals Fine chemicals Chemical industry Petrochemical Chemical plant Organic chemistry Commercial classification of chemicals
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