“During 24-25 April, 2015, China Feed Industry Exhibition was held in Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, attracting over 500 enterprises from over 20 countries and regions to attend. Vitamin enterprise, as upstream industry of feed, also attend the Exhibition, covering DSM, BASF, Zhejiang Medicine Co., Ltd., Hubei Guangji Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., etc. China’s economy entered the “”new normal””, presenting a slowdown in consumers’ demand growth. The feed industry is also under slow development along with the outbreak of Avian influenza, and its demand for vitamins maintains a stable trend. This poses a challenge for the domestic vitamin enterprises. VC and VE enterprises face intense competition: serious overcapacity, the prices remaining low. It’s forecasted that enterprises, who are fully comprehend the market conditions, boast cost and quality advantages, extend downstream industry chains, develop the added value products, would remain competitive and profitable in the competition.
In April, VE price still kept at low level. VA presented a downward price trend, due to the weak demand from downstream industries. VC price rebounded slightly, driven by the large-sized enterprises taking the initiative to raise prices. At end of March, DSM had acquired Aland Jiangsu Nutraceutical Co., Ltd., this acquisition will consolidate the former’s pricing powder. VB12 continued its price uptrend, ending downtrend for the past few years. It’s a good opportunity for the domestic manufacturers, Hebei Yuxing Bio-Engineering Co., Ltd., Hebei Huarong Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. Besides, the price of vitamin B9 (folic acid) kept increasing since Jan. 2015, mainly due to the short supply. In 2014, the domestic enterprises reduced production under the impact of environmental protection burden.
The USD/RMB exchange rate in this report is USD1.00=RMB6.1434 on 1 April, 2015, sourced from the People’s Bank of China. All the prices mentioned in this report will include the VAT unless otherwise specified.”
“On 16 April, 2015, the Action Plan on Water Pollution Prevention and Control was officially introduced by the State Council. Accordingly, it lists 35 specific measures for the treatment of waste water to strengthen supervision on industrial waste water and grantee water safety. Under the influence of the new policy, the environment protection burden on the API enterprises will consequently increase.
The performance in API represented a slowdown in 2014. Accordingly, the burden on the vitamin industry has consequently increased.
Some API manufacturers are making losses because of heavier environment protection pressure and decreasing profit. As a result, some API manufacturers are seeking transformation for further development. The way towards transformation has bright prospects while risks still exists.
On 31 March, 2015, DSM announced that it had acquired Aland Nutraceutical. For one thing, the acquisition will help Aland Nutraceutical to upgrade its existing business. For another, it will also strengthen DSM’ s leading position in the global VC market.
In 2014, Guangji Pharmaceutical suffered losses, because of decreased revenue from leading product VB2 and increased environmental protection cost. The company takes actions to overcome difficulties in 2015.
In 2014, CSPC’s vitamin business was losing money; while its finished medicine business grew rapidly, becoming the major impetus for the company’s development. It is estimated that the revenue from finished medicine business would take up a greater proportion in the company’s total.
On 2 April, 2015, Garden Bio-chemical held 2014 full-year financial result briefing. Accordingly, it will extend VD3 industrial chain to enhance its core competitiveness.
On 26 March, 2015, Brother Enterprises issued an annual report of 2014. Accordingly, it achieved YoY increase in net profit, driven by the rising prices of vitamins during the report period.
Chinese Vitamins Imp. & Exp., Feb. 2015
According to China Customs, the total export volume of China’s VB1 from Jan. to Feb. was almost identical to the same period last year. The value of these exports had increased by 41%, driven by the rising VB1 export price.
From Jan. to Feb. 2015, the export volume of VC increased year on year, but its price decreased year on year. It’s estimated that the average export price of VC will maintain low level in a short term.
Market prices of vitamins in China, April 2015
In Q1 2015, the domestic market price of VA presented a downtrend, due to the weak demand from downstream industries. It’s estimated that its price will go up in a short term.
The domestic market price of VB5 showed a downtrend from July 2014 to March 2015. Along with the changes between supply and demand, the VB5 price is expected to remain stable in a short period.”
