The price of activated carbon is one of the most important factors affecting the purchase of using companies, and is a topic that customers cannot get around when purchasing. This detailed guide will introduce some factors affecting the purchase price or cost of activated carbon, as well as provide you with some purchasing suggestions that will hopefully help you in your procurement, so let's get started.
At present, there are many origins of activated carbon in the global market, and many factors such as different processes, raw materials and techniques can affect the price of activated carbon. The following are some of the factors that affect activated carbon:
1. Origin of activated carbon
The origin of activated carbon determines the cost of raw materials, labor cost and process level, which leads to the price difference of the same type of activated carbon. For example, as an important source of activated carbon in Asia, in countries such as Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka, where coconut shells are abundant, coconut shell activated carbon has an advantage in terms of cost, which is helpful to the procurement cost. But this is only one of the factors, production technology, equipment capacity also affects the price. In China, coal resources and wood resources are abundant, and coal or wood activated carbon accounts for a relatively large share of the global market.
Another factor that is affected by the origin of activated carbon is transportation. In recent years, shipping prices have continued to rise, which seriously affects the purchase of activated carbon buyers, and the different origins have a great impact on the purchase cost. The recent trend of lower shipping prices may help to ease the pressure of high activated carbon prices.
2. Activated carbon raw materials
There are many kinds of activated carbon, and the common raw materials include coal (bituminous coal, anthracite, lignite, etc.), coconut shell, fruit shell (peach shell, apricot shell, etc.), wood, etc. Different raw materials assume different process difficulty, ratio from raw materials to finished products, and different production costs. For many applications, coal or coconut shell has similar use effect, at this time, we can choose which activated carbon to use according to the price.
3. Activated carbon specification requirements
There are many performance indicators of activated carbon. In water treatment applications, iodine value, ash content and size are important indicators, and these indicators also mean different prices. The higher the iodine value, the more raw materials are needed to produce one ton of activated carbon, and the higher the process and living cost requirements. Ash, size, CTC, methylene blue value, molasses value, etc., all have fluctuating price ranges according to customer needs.
4. Special Types of Activated Carbon
For many applications where conventional activated carbon cannot be used satisfactorily, it will undergo in-process processing. For example, the common ones are water washing, acid washing, impregnation, etc., which greatly affect the price. For example, impregnation with metals, mercury, solutions, etc. is influenced by the price of these raw materials and also requires more technology, which makes a very big price difference.
5. Other factors affecting the price
In addition to these factors, there are many uncertain influences on the price of activated carbon.
a. Customization requirements
Customized packaging, customized size, etc., customized specifications of honeycomb activated carbon, etc., which will affect the price of activated carbon.
b. Material cost of each production process
The price of phosphoric acid in the production of wood activated carbon by phosphoric acid method, the price of coal tar in the production of columnar activated carbon, the price of raw material of coconut shell, etc.
c. Shipping Costs
The cost of sea transportation has increased significantly in recent years, which also affects the final purchase price.
d. Crude oil price
The increase in international oil prices since 2020 has also increased the fluctuation of activated carbon prices.
e. Market Demand
The change in demand within a certain period of time will have an impact on the production scale and capacity of manufacturers, and also affect the purchasing cost.
f. Technology Improvement
Improvements in production technology will reduce production costs. Our company has been investing efforts in production technology and is committed to providing customers with cost-effective activated carbon products, which can be obtained by contacting us for a quote.
Some suggestions for purchasing activated carbon?
Price is not the most important factor in purchasing activated carbon
We understand that customers want to purchase the right activated carbon at the lowest cost, but low price often means low quality, which will be a 100% loss if it results in these products not being used after receipt.
Choose a brand name or reliable supplier
Brand means quality. The price may not be friendly enough, but the quality is assured. Our company is always in rapid growth, quality and customer service are at the core of what we do, and we are happy to be your partner.
Keep communication with suppliers
As a supplier, we are happy to update our customers on prices, which may help them with their decision making.
