LibGuides: Chemical Engineering: Chemical Industry & Business

Where Technology Meets Business...

Chemical engineers working in industry have to know about markets, capital investments, cost estimation, construction, transportation, budgeting, and more. Yet the tools used for finding business and market information are different from those used for technical information.

Information Sources

Here are the most important facts to know:

There is no single, authoritative source of prices for bulk chemicals.
The most reliable sources are generally not available to academic audiences and libraries.

The highest quality market analyses are compiled for industry subscribers and tend to be quite expensive, and are not available to an educational audience. Some trade publications (see Trade Magazines tab) offer subscription-based price tracking products to individuals and companies. Otherwise, students must gather pricing information piecemeal from various publications and web searches. Some other points to remember:

Some prices are volatile and change daily; others may be quite stable over long periods of time. For estimation purposes you should consider trends 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.
All published prices are estimates.
In many cases a direct quote from a supplier will be the only source of price information. However, suppliers generally won't provide quotes to students or for educational purposes, so contacting them probably won't work.
Don't use research-quantity (g/kg) prices for plant estimation purposes.

Chemical Pricing Database
A database that indexes pricing information for chemicals in the trade magazines IHS Chemical Week and ICIS Chemical Business. No links to full text, but you might be able to find full text in aggregator databases. (Texas A&M Libraries.)
Chemical Market Reporter - 2006 Indicative Prices
Static price list of about 200 chemicals and commodities captured from August 2006. You can use these historical prices coupled with an appropriate PPI to derive a rough current price estimate sufficient for student projects. (Internet Archive)
ChemAnalyst
Indian intelligence firm tracks 250 bulk chemicals. Overviews are free to view but premium services also available.
Plastics Exchange
Contract and spot prices for PP, LDPE, and HDPE.

Proprietary Sources

The library can't provide access to these sources, but we list them here for informational purposes.

Chemical Economics Handbook
Produced by S&P Global (formerly IHS Markit), the CEH is a source of commercial chemical market analysis for industry players. Its periodic reports on major commodity chemicals are thoroughly researched and very expensive, but abstracts are publicly available. CEH reports are not available through interlibrary loan.
ICIS
Offers market intellligence services by subscription.
Intratec
Cost reports and databases available by subscription.
S&P Global
S&P Global has acquired most of the major chemical market intelligence companies in recent years, including IHS Markit, Chemical Market Associates (CMAI), SRI Consulting, and the magazine Chemical Week.

Other Useful Guides

Chemical Prices Guide - Texas A&M

Cost indexes are used to estimate future construction costs, based on algorithms that track inflation/deflation applied to known past capital cost figures.

The principal indexes used to estimate plant construction costs are listed below. Personal subscriptions are generally required to view this information online.

CE Plant Cost Index
The CEPCI is published monthly in Chemical Engineering magazine. A personal subscription is required for the web version. Print issues are located in the PCL current periodicals Chemistry section (3rd floor).
Nelson-Farrar
Primarily for refineries and chemical plants. Published monthly in Oil & Gas Journal. Subscription required to view digital issues. Print issues located in the Geology Library.
ENR Construction Cost Index
Subscription required. Print issues located in Engineering Library. ENR content is also covered in ABI-INFORM and Ebscohost.
Intratec
Subscriptions required.
Wikipedia - Chemical Plant Cost Indexes
Cost Engineering Terminology
A dictionary from AACE International.

Note: The Marshall & Swift Equipment Cost Index was discontinued in 2012.

Producer Price Index - PPI
The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides interactive tables of Producer Price Index data for commodities including chemicals.
FRED Economic Data: PPI for Chemicals and Allied Products
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. (See this paper for more information.) (Federal Reserve of St Louis)
US Census Bureau: Current Industrial Reports
The CIR program reported data on production and shipments of selected products up until 2011, when the program ceased.
US Energy Information Administration : Petroleum and other Liquids
Current and historical prices for crude oil, gasoline, heating oil, diesel fuel, and propane, along with analysis and updates. EIA also maintains a daily price dashboard. [US EIA/DOE]
US Geological Survey: National Minerals Information Center
"Statistics and information on the worldwide supply of, demand for, and flow of minerals and materials essential to the U.S. economy, the national security, and protection of the environment." Includes annual reports on commodity minerals.

Trade publications report the news from the industry. With systematically collected chemical price data being increasingly unavailable to the general public, most price estimates must be gleaned from irregular journalistic reporting. The links here are to the public home pages of these publications. Some full text articles can be found via ABI INFORM or Business Source Complete. Otherwise personal subscriptions are required.

Chemical Engineering (New York)
The best known industry magazine, published monthly. CE publishes the monthly CEPCI cost index. Current print issues should be available in the Engineering Library. [Access Intelligence]
Chemical Week
Trade weekly with market and price coverage. Print issues to 2021 in PCL. Aggregator full text ended in 2012; otherwise no access. [S&P Global]
ICIS Chemical Business
Weekly online UK trade magazine that publishes chemical market profiles. Print issues to 2016 in PCL. Some historical aggregator content, no longer current.
Hydrocarbon Processing
News and research from the petroleum refining industry. The library no longer subscribes to print. Print issues to 2021 in PCL. [Gulf Publishing]
Chemical & Engineering News
Weekly news magazine of the American Chemical Society. C&EN does not cover pricing data, but it publishes occasional profiles of industry segments.
CEP Magazine
Formerly known as Chemical Engineering Progress, this is the membership magazine of AIChE. Older volumes are shelved in the Life Science Library.
ENR
Newsmagazine for the engineering and construction industries. Contains a construction cost index. Formerly known as Engineering News Record. Print issues in Engineering. [BNP Media]
Oil & Gas Journal
Newsmagazine for the petroleum refining and exploration industries. Contains the Nelson-Farrar Cost Index for petroleum refinery construction. Current and past issues are in the Geology Library. [Endeavor Business Media]

There are many books available on chemical process design and economics. Search the Library Catalog by keywords or by the subject heading Chemical plants -- Design and construction.

AccessEngineering This link opens in a new window
McGraw-Hill's book platform contains hundreds of digital reference and handbooks and other texts in engineering. Search in this for chapter-level content that may help you find information on chemical engineering economics and cost estimation.
Updated regularly. Provides access to hundreds of McGraw Hill handbooks, textbooks and monographs across all engineering fields, a materials properties visualization tool, downloadable spreadsheets, and instructional videos.

Handbook of chemical engineering calculations.
Publication Date: 4th ed., 2012
Section 18 covers cost engineering.
Process engineering economics.
Publication Date: 2003
Project and cost engineers' handbook.
Publication Date: 4th ed., 2005
Planning, Estimating, and Control of Chemical Construction Projects.
Publication Date: 2nd ed., 2001

Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology This link opens in a new window
Chapters on important industrial products usually contain an (outdated) section on economics, pricing, and production.
Contains authoritative articles on chemical substances—including their properties, manufacturing, and uses; industrial processes and unit operations in chemical engineering; fundamentals and scientific subjects related to the field; environmental and health issues concerning chemical technology. (Due to rising costs of scholarly information and a diminished collection budget, this resource was recently evaluated. We will continue to have access to this resource but articles that are updated after January 2018 will not be available to us.)

Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry
Publication Date: 2011, 7th ed.
Comprehensive coverage of industrial chemistry topics, with a more European focus. Complements Kirk-Othmer. Contains some (outdated) economic data in its articles.
Encyclopedia of Chemical Processing and Design
Publication Date: 1976-2002 (69 vol.)
The economic data provided in these articles are now only of historical interest.

BuyersGuideChem
Meta-site based in Germany.
ChemBuyersGuide.com
International meta-catalog site.
ChemicalBook
Chinese chemical product database with global supplier information.
Chemical Engineering Buyers' Guide
Search for products or companies, or browse by category.
Chemical Register
An international "yellow pages" site listing thousands of chemical products and producers.
Chemical Week Buyers' Guide
Browse by type of service/product, and search by supplier, product, trade names, etc.
London Metal Exchange
Current price and trading information for non-ferrous metals and plastics. Registration required to view some data.
LookChem
A trading site of chemicals from various suppliers, mostly in China.
Plastics Exchange
Weekly spot and contract prices for LDPE, HDPE, and polypropylene.
Plastics Insight - Resin Prices
Price data and trends for major plastic resins including PE, ABS, PVC, etc.
ThomasNet
ThomasNet (formerly the Thomas Register) profiles North American companies that manufacture various products and commodities. Search by product name or browse in the chemical categories. Includes a White Paper library of market analyses and case studies.

Searching Trade Literature

Business-focused databases, rather than technical databases such as SciFinder, are the best place to search for articles about chemical pricing and business.

To search for price information on a particular chemical, use an accepted trade/generic name or abbreviation for the chemical along with the keyword pric* (to include pricing, prices, and price), and apply a recent date limit. Ex.:
butadiene and pric*

ABI/INFORM Global This link opens in a new window
Extensive indexing of business, marketing, and financial publications and research. The best place to start a trade literature search.
Updated daily. In-depth coverage of business issues, management techniques, competitive information, and a variety of other topics.
Business Source Complete This link opens in a new window
Indexing and some full text to thousands of business and trade journals, magazines, newsletters, and reporting services. Many are foreign and/or obscure, however, and articles may be very brief or hard to obtain.
Updated monthly. A scholarly business database providing a collection of bibliographic and full text content in all disciplines of business, including marketing, management, MIS, POM, accounting, finance and economics. Indexing and abstracts for scholarly business journals back to 1886 are included.

Searchable cited references provided for more than 1,200 journals. Contains detailed author profiles for the 20,000 most-cited authors in the database.

Additional full text, non-journal content includes financial data, books, monographs, major reference works, book digests, conference proceedings, case studies, investment research reports, industry reports, market research reports, country reports, company profiles, and SWOT analyses.
Factiva This link opens in a new window
Updated daily. A global information resource, providing full-text access to top national and international newspapers (including full text of the Wall Street Journal), newswires, business journals, market research reports, analysts reports and web sites. Contains over 8000 publications, with some coverage of chemical trade publications.
Updated daily. A global information resource, providing full-text access to top national and international newspapers (including full text of the Wall Street Journal), newswires, business journals, market research reports, analysts reports and web sites. Contains over 8000 publications with content from 118 countries in 22 languages.
This database was formerly called Dow Jones Interactive.
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