Look for a better pharmaceutical glass bottle market in 2009

1. The major raw material of pharmaceutical glass bottle is soda ash, then the minerals such as quartz sand. So far, market prices of some soda ash products have dropped by about 30% from the peak in 2008.

2. Raw materials of butyl rubber stopper are mainly halogenated butyl rubber, china clay and a few chemical auxiliaries, among which butyl rubber is very expensive, accounting more than 85% of the cost. The upstream product of butyl rubber is naphtha. So, it is directly affected by the crude oil price. As there are very few pharmaceutical butyl rubber makers in the world, Pharmaceutical Glass mainly imports butyl rubber from United States (Exxon Mobil) and Russia.

In 2006, the price of butyl rubber from EXXON kept at 38,000-39,000 yuan/ton and the price of butyl rubber from Russia was about 32,000 yuan/ton, while during 2007-2008, the price of EXXON butyl rubber amounted to 100,000 yuan/ton. At present, the price has dropped to 30,000-40,000 yuan/ton as the crude oil price slumps. However, butyl rubber stored during 08Q4 needs a quarter to be used up. Therefore, the gross profit ratio of butyl rubber in 08Q4~09Q1 will not increase greatly till 09Q2.