hydrochloric acid

The chemical compound hydrochloric acid is the aqueous (water-based) solution of hydrogen chloride gas (HCl). It is a strong acid, the major component of gastric acid and of wide industrial use. Hydrochloric acid should only be handled with appropriate safety precautions because it is a highly corrosive liquid. With the increase of China social demand and production cost of hydrochloric acid in the recent years, the market price of the product has also kept rising. The domestic market price has risen from around 510 RMB per ton in May last year to 730 RMB. Besides the increase of social demand, there are other factors causing the price rise. For example, Priority of chlorine consumption to production of high valued chemical products. As the market of high valued chemical products such as PVC, ethylene perchloride and carbon tetrachloride is promising and their prices keep rising. It is expected that the production of hydrochloric acid in 2007 will exceed 6 million tons, up 13 per cent year-on-year, the highest record for the past six years.