Summary: China's vitamin exports ticked up in Jan.–Feb. when its export
volume reached 58,029.15 tonnes, up 40.61% YoY and its value came to
USD481,046,620, up 46.27% YoY.
According to China Customs, domestic vitamin exports improved in Jan.–Feb.
2021, with
· volume: 58,029.15 tonnes, up 40.61% YoY over the
41,269.72 tonnes in Jan.–Feb. 2020;
· value: USD481,046,620, up 46.27% YoY over the
USD328,877,121 in Jan.–Feb. 2020.
In Jan.–Feb. 2020, domestic vitamin producers delayed production
resumption affected by COVID-19, leading to falling output and blocked
transport. This had an adverse effect on China's vitamin exports. As the
producers resumed production gradually since March 2020, vitamin operations and
exports have recovered. In Jan.–Feb. 2021, China's vitamin export experienced
an upturn with production and supply, transport and exports being normal.
In addition, vitamin exports during the period mainly focused on delivery
of previous orders placed in Q4 2020, when domestic vitamin lowered their
prices for destocking. In Jan. 2021, overseas customers worried about vitamin
shortages after the Chinese Spring Festival resulted from rising production
costs affected by price hikes of downstream chemical intermediates, cornstarch
and other vitamin raw materials. Therefore, they continued to imported products
at low prices from China, further pushing up the domestic vitamin exports.
Among the eight vitamin varieties followed by CCM, seven of them,
including VA, VB1, VB5, VB6, VB12, VC and VE, enjoyed YoY growth in export
volume in Jan.–Feb.; while VB2 suffered decrease in export volume. VB12
witnessed the largest growth in volume with 62.72 tonnes, up 92.90% over the
32.51 tonnes in Jan.–Feb. 2020. VA came second with a volume of 1,076.13
tonnes, up 85.95% YoY vs. the 578.73 tonnes over last year. And VB1 followed
with a growth rate of 71.43% YoY, its volume increased to 1,510.51 tonnes from
the 881.10 tonnes in the previous year.
Figure Growth ranking of China's vitamin export volume in Jan.–Feb. 2021
(by variety)
![](http://www.cnchemicals.com/Webdata/WebResources/image/20210512/20210512105947_7068.jpg)
Source: CCM & China Customs
In terms of export price, prices of VA, VB2, VC and VE increased while
that of VB1, VB5, VB6 and VB12 decreased on a YoY basis. VC led the largest
growth of 57.19% YoY with the USD4,557.10/t price over the USD2,899.12/t price
a year ago. In contrast, VB5's export price fell to USD8,427.66/t from the
previous USD33,907.02/t, a decrease of 75.14% YoY.
Figure Growth ranking of China's vitamin export price in Jan.–Feb. 2021
(by variety)
![](http://www.cnchemicals.com/Webdata/WebResources/image/20210512/20210512110001_9496.jpg)
Source: CCM & China Customs
Attention should be paid to VA and VC. The two varieties enjoyed sharper
decreases in both export price and volume.
VA:
· Volume: up 85.95% YoY;
· Price: up 21.19% YoY.
VC:
· Volume: up 32.15% YoY;
· Price: up 57.19% YoY.
BASF SE stopped offer quotations for its VA (1,000,000 IU) since March
2020. According to the company, it will not put the VA in normal sales in H1
2021. Meanwhile, its VA production line expansion project will be carried out
in H1 this year as scheduled. Therefore, it's VA cannot be in normal supply. In
Jan.–Feb. 2021, VA was poorly supplied in the European markets and its market
price hit USD92,246/t (EUR77,000/t, USD/EUR exchange rate @1.2043 on 15 April)
in Feb., an increase of 1.32% over the USD91,048/t (EUR76,000/t) in Jan. 2021.
BASF SE's tight supply of VA urged overseas customers to purchase from China,
making domestic producers and traders raise their vitamin prices.
The top five destinations of the domestic VA export volume in Jan.–Feb.
and export values to them were:
· Germany: 391.41 tonnes; export value: USD21,475,614;
· The US: 248.30 tonnes, USD13,508,573;
· Vietnam: 44.87 tonnes, USD2,983,324;
· South Africa: 40.85 tonnes, USD1,494,743;
· Singapore: 38.71 tonnes, USD2,187,780.
Among them, China's export price to Vietnam was the highest, at
USD66,486.68/t; while the USD36,589.22/t export price to South Africa became
the lowest.
Figure China's VA export volume by destination, Jan.–Feb. 2021
![](http://www.cnchemicals.com/Webdata/WebResources/image/20210512/20210512110024_8660.jpg)
Source: CCM & China Customs
VC is the global largest vitamin variety by output and sales; and VC's
export volume from China is the largest. The growth of China's VC export volume
and price was affected by commissioning of domestic new projects and stronger
demand for VC caused by COVID-19 as well as price hikes of its raw material,
cornstarch. On 15 Oct., 2020, Zhejiang NHU Co., Ltd. made an announcement that
its first phase of the Heilongjiang biological fermentation project had been
put into production. The project has a capacity of 30,000 t/a VC. Approximately
95% of VC is applied in food and pharmaceuticals. Amid the pandemic in 2020,
people pay more attention to VC's immunity function, increasing demand for VC
health-care products. Meanwhile, VC has been used for prevention and treatment
of COVID-19 in overseas medical institutions. Therefore, demand for VC was on
the rise. Cornstarch is an upstream raw material in the production of VC.
Cornstarch price in domestic market started to rise since Q2 2020, and it
averaged at USD573.33/t in Feb. 2021, up 65.43% YoY over the USD346.58/t a year
ago. The rising production cost has increased price of domestic VC.
The top five destinations of the domestic VC export volume in Jan.–Feb.
were:
· The US: 9,589.68 tonnes, export value: USD45,380,002;
· The Netherlands: 3,649.17 tonnes, USD16,083,424;
· Germany: 3,488.28 tonnes; USD14,604,142;
· Japan: 1,588.80 tonnes, USD7,832,168;
· Indonesia: 1,316.08 tonnes, USD6,609,577.
Among the five countries, export price to Indonesia came to USD5,022.17/t,
the highest price and export price to Germany was USD4,186.63/t, the lowest.
Figure China's VC export volume by destination, Jan.–Feb. 2021
![](http://www.cnchemicals.com/Webdata/WebResources/image/20210512/20210512110042_5409.jpg)
Source: CCM & China Customs
More information about China Vitamin Market you
can find at CCM Vitamin China monthly Newsletter.
About CCM:
CCM
is the leading market intelligence provider for China's agriculture,
chemicals, food & ingredients and life science markets. Founded
in 2001, CCM offers a range of data and content solutions, from price
and trade data to industry newsletters and customized market research
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