Salt: Trading
How road salt is bought by public tender
What this tab covers How and where it is bought and sold: who buys and sells, exchanges and benchmarks, contract types, the big trading houses and how prices are discovered.Salt has no exchange contract. Road salt is sold mainly through annual public tenders by state and local transport departments, priced delivered to depots. Chemical brine is often captive, produced by chlor-alkali firms from their own wells. Food and specialty salt are branded products. Morgan describes how Cargill filled returning grain barges with rock salt on the Mississippi in the 1950s, then developed its own mine at Belle Isle, Louisiana. That backhaul logic still shapes salt logistics.
Where it is bought (buyers)
- Chinese, Korean and Japanese chlor-alkali and soda ash plants buy Indian and Australian solar salt by the bulk cargo
- US state and local transport departments buy road salt through annual tenders
- Food companies buy refined salt under supply contracts
Where it is sold (sellers)
- India from Kandla (Deendayal), Mundra and Jakhau in Gujarat
- Australia from Western Australian solar fields
- Mexico, Chile and Canada into the US (26%, 23%, 21% of 2021-24 US imports)
- Germany and the Netherlands within Europe
Exchanges and benchmarks
| Venue | Contract | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| No exchange market | No futures; nothing on MCX or NCDEX | Prices from tenders, annual contracts and branded retail |
Contract types
- Annual or multi-year bulk supply contracts with chemical plants, FOB or CFR
- Public road-salt tenders priced delivered to depots
- Captive brine within integrated chemical groups
- Branded retail salt at fixed prices
Top trading houses
- Producers' own sales arms (Archean, K+S, Compass, Cargill)
- Gujarat salt merchants and exporters
How prices are discovered
- Tender results published by US states
- USGS unit values by salt type
- Indian export unit values (DGCIS)