This year, the US chlor-alkali industry has a weak demand and a relatively high operating rate. It is expected that the price of caustic soda in the United States will steadily decline this year, and manufacturers’ desire to push up prices of caustic soda and chlorine will be difficult to achieve. According to statistics from the American Chlor-Alkali Industry Association, the utilization rate of chlor-alkali capacity in the United States continued to be maintained at 84% in April. UBS analyst Andrew Casey stated in a report in mid-May that due to the good market demand for bleach and hydrochloric acid, the US chlor-alkali utilization rate increased by about 10 percentage points compared to the fourth quarter of 2011. Manufacturers have been trying to raise the price of caustic soda products but have not succeeded, and the price of chlorine has also been sideways. Merrill Lynch analyst Kevin McCarthy said in a subsequent report that in late February and early March, some US caustic soda producers announced that they would raise the price of dry caustic soda by 5 tons per short ton (1 short ton = 0.9 tons). It took effect on April 1, but it was strongly opposed by downstream users. In addition, the manufacturer had announced that the price of chlorine was pushed up by $40/dry short ton in the first quarter. McCarthy also said that he is still sceptical about the price increase of caustic soda manufacturers because the latest operating rate figures cannot support the increase in chlor-alkali prices. In fact, the US base caustic soda price may fall by 20 to 30 US dollars/dry short ton in the second quarter compared to the first quarter of this year, and the price of chlorine may fall by 20 US dollars/ton. According to the analysis, the main reason for the weaker price of caustic soda is that the demand for caustic soda in the downstream alumina industry is decreasing. For example, Alcoa has announced that it will reduce annual production capacity of alumina by 390,000 tons in April. In fact, as early as January of this year, the company announced that the factories in Tennessee and Texas in the United States, as well as in Italy and Spain, reduced the amount of alumina smelting by 511,000 tons. Other alumina producers also said that they began to cut production due to reduced demand for their products. McCarthy finally pointed out that the flat or declining price of caustic soda will cause negative profits for chlor-alkali producers including Olin, PPG Industries, Dow Chemical, and Westlake Chemical. Given current production and price trends, it is expected that the chlor-alkali profitability of the United States will shift from flat to falling in the second quarter. Deutsche Bank analyst Dai Weier Belgrant also believes that the downstream demand for caustic soda has been stable, not enough to cause tight market supply, and it is expected that the price of caustic soda in the United States will steadily weaken in the coming months. Gravity Casting,Casting Part,Aluminum Casting Hengtai Auto Parts Co., Ltd. , http://www.czdiecasting.com