Industry

The most sought-after chemical raw materials include natural gas, crude oil, rock salt, elemental sulfur, phosphorites, potassium chloride, sodium carbonate (soda ash), lime, copper ores, bauxite, and biomass-based intermediates such as ethanol and lactic acid. These natural resources are essential to the petrochemical, fertilizer, pharmaceutical, and plastics industries because they supply carbon, hydrogen, sulfur, nitrogen, and phosphorus – all necessary for the production of polymers, detergents, dyes, medicines, and hundreds of everyday products.

Raw materials are natural resources – mineral, plant-based, or animal – that are processed into semi-finished or finished products. Mineral raw materials include iron ore, hard coal, potassium salt, phosphorites, and silica; plant-based ones include wood, potato starch, and rapeseed oil; animal-based ones include wool and leather. Chemical raw materials are a subcategory including natural gas, sulfur, rock salt, and lime, all essential for the chemical industry, energy production, and manufacturing of cement, fertilizers, plastics, and detergents.

Poland is rich in various chemical raw materials such as rock salt (Kłodawa, Inowrocław), potash-magnesite salts (offshore near Puck and Łeba), elemental sulfur (Osiek), phosphorites (in the Świętokrzyskie Mountains), lacustrine chalk, Jurassic limestone, anhydrite gypsum, as well as natural gas and crude oil from the Polish Lowlands and Carpathians. Also notable are Triassic limestones near Opole and Devonian limestones in the Holy Cross Mountains. These mineral resources support fertilizer, cement, and soda industries. The availability of domestic chemical raw materials helps the Polish chemical sector reduce import dependency and strengthen its competitive edge within the EU.

Chemical raw materials are natural or industrially produced substances primarily intended for use in chemical reactions. They can be elements (sulfur, phosphorus, sodium), simple inorganic compounds (salt, lime, sulfuric acid), or organic compounds (crude oil, natural gas, biomethane, ethyl alcohol). They are in constant demand in the petrochemical, pharmaceutical, fertilizer, and plastics industries, where they serve as the base for synthesizing polyolefins, detergents, pigments, solvents, and pharmaceutical ingredients. Their availability, price, and purity directly influence the competitiveness of the entire value chain in modern knowledge-based and innovation-driven economies.