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 Week and ICIS. There have been several studies of the scale and complexity of this market for example in the USA.[1] [2]
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.
Chemical compounds are often classified into two classes, inorganic and organic.[3]
Commonly traded commodity organic chemicals include:[4]
Commodity chemicals are produced to supply diverse but usually well-defined industrial needs. Some major sectors and their components are: