Important Notes on Chemical Pricing
Locating bulk pricing for chemicals can be difficult. Bulk chemical prices can be significantly different from lab chemical prices, so extrapolating from laboratory pricing won't yield accurate results. In addition, market analyses with detailed price information are often not available to educational institutions due to cost. Keep in mind that:
- Some prices change often, even daily, so the most accurate price information might be the average over a period of time.
- Prices for a commodity differ according to manufacturer, location, quantity, grade, delivery mode, time of year, and other variables. Long term contract prices are usually lower than spot prices.
- In many cases a direct quote from a supplier will be the only source of price information.
Laboratory Chemical Pricing
Many chemistry resources provide price and purity information on a variety of chemicals. This pricing information is geared toward supplying labs and may not hold for bulk or industrial purchases.
Laboratory Chemical Pricing Resources
- PubChem PubChem is an open chemistry database at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
- Sigma/Aldrich Chemical Prices Source for chemical pricing in the United States. Can be searched by product name, product number, CAS Registry number, safety data sheet number (SDS) and more - use advanced search.
Bulk Chemical Pricing
- Chemical & Engineering News
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Weekly news magazine of the American Chemical Society. C&EN does not cover pricing data, but publishes occasional profiles of industry segments and annual statistical features and employment and salary outlooks. - ICIS Chemical Business
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A trade magazine for the chemical industry. A "Chemical Profile" is published in most issues featuring a single chemical that focuses on uses, supply/demand, price, and markets.
How to search this publication: In the search bar at the top, enter ICIS Chemical News. It will then indicate that it is only searching that publication. Then add the keyword Acetone.
- Statista
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Statista integrates statistical data on over 80,000 topics from over 22,000, providing researchers direct access to quantitative data on media, business, finance, politics, and a wide variety of other areas. Searching by chemical name and price may provide bulk chemical information.
- Chemical Pricing Database
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This database (beta version) contains citations to chemical pricing from Chemical Week (2015-present): Basic Chemicals & Plastics section and ICIS Chemical Business (2015-present): Chemical Profiles and Price and Market Trends (In progress) sections.
- Factiva
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Access to full text of some ICIS Chemical Profiles that may include information about chemical uses, supply/demand, price, production technology, market outlook, production capacity, market share, and average price over time.
Note: Limited to three simultaneous users.
- EchemiProvides pricing for various grades and quantities - including bulk quantities
- Indicative Chemical Prices A-ZBroad list of chemical prices is taken from the 28 August 2006 issue of Chemical Market Reporter (now ICIS Chemical Business).
- ICIS OnlineProvides some chemical pricing information. Search for the chemical name and pricing to see what information is available.
- ChemAnalystPricing for more than 250 chemicals. Prices from this source may be higher than from others, so check multiple sources to compare.
- US Energy Information Administration
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Daily prices related to the petroleum industry - Mineral Commodity Summaries
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iIcludes prices and statistics for about 90 individual mineral commodities - FRED Economic Data: PPI for Chemicals and Allied Products
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Producer Price Index (PPI) trends for commodity chemicals and related products. A rough estimate of current price can sometimes be calculated from an older price using a relevant PPI. More information about calculating prices using PPI can be found in this conference paper.
Equipment Pricing
It is very difficult to find prices for equipment. Most sites require you to call for an estimate, which would be a waste of time for both you and the company!
Matches, an engineering firm, provides cost estimates for many pieces of equipment, but please note that these are 2014 prices, and you will need to use an inflation calculator to estimate 2023 prices.