Chemical prices
Chemical bulk/commodity prices, usually measured in tons, are very different than prices for laboratory quantities measured in grams or kilograms.
You may be able to find chemical bulk prices in some trade publications. However, this has become increasingly difficult due to reduced availability by publishers in the last few decades.
Two key trade publications
ICIS Chemical Business - Full text coverage until beginning of 2023 via ProQuest and Factiva. Search for "Chemical Profile" and the name of the chemical. Sort results by most recent articles. [Latest issues may be available in the database Nexis Uni, which isn't available at Concordia Library, but it is at McGill Library. If needed, Concordia students could go in-person to McGill Library to use the guest computers to access the database. See "Visitors to the Library" on Authentication and network access]
Chemical Week - Full text coverage until mid-2012 via ProQuest. Search for "Basic Chemicals & Plastics" and the name of the chemical. Sort results by most recent articles.
A free search tool (no full text)
Chemical Pricing Database - No full text. Coverage is 2015 - 2022. A free tool by Texas A&M University Libraries to make the searching of the chemical prices easier in the two trade publciations ICIS Chemical Business and Chemical Week. However, the platform has retired in Nov 2023.
Other trade publications
There may be discussions of chemical bulk prices in other trade publications. Here is a suggested search:
- In Materials Science Database, search for the name of the chemical and price or cost. For example, benzene AND (pric* OR cost*). Once on the result page, under "Source type", limit your results to "Trade Journals" and "Magazines".
Adjust older chemical prices based on a Producer Price Index
Adapted from Bulk Chemical Prices by Texas A&M University Libraries:
Current bulk chemical prices can be estimated by adjusting older chemical prices to current levels using a Producer Price Index (PPI):
Updated Price = Older Price x [(Cost Index at Newer Date) / (Cost Index at Older Date)
For example, Chemical Prices A-Z contains older chemical prices with data taken from the August 28, 2006 issue of Chemical Market Reporter (now ICIS Chemical Business).
The Federal Reserve Bank (FRED) of St. Louis lists a number of Producer Price Indices for Chemicals and Allied Products.
Resources for industries professionals and companies
The library cannot provide access to these as they are priced for industry subscribers. Nonetheless, they are listed here for information purposes:
Need help?
Contact the library for general help, or contact the subject librarian for subject-specific library help.