Iron Oxide Pigments: Red, Yellow and Black

Synthetic and natural red, yellow and black iron oxide for concrete, coatings and plastics

Iron oxide pigments are the colours of concrete, brick, roof tile and primer, and the buyer's first choice is synthetic or natural. Synthetic iron oxides are precipitated or calcined in a plant and give a consistent, high-strength colour; natural oxides are mined and milled earths, cheaper and duller, used where colour tolerance is wide. ISO 1248:2006 is the specification for both, covering Colour Index Pigment Red 101 and 102, Yellow 42 and 43, Brown 6 and 7 and Black 11, and it tests total iron expressed as Fe2O3 alongside the properties buyers read on the certificate: tinting strength and colour against an agreed reference, oil absorption, water-soluble salts, sieve residue, moisture and pH. Yellow is iron oxide hydroxide and turns red when heated, so yellow grades are not used in high-temperature processes; black is magnetite. Micaceous, transparent and magnetic oxides sit outside ISO 1248 and are separate enquiries. Iron oxides and hydroxides are HS 2821.10; prepared colouring matter may be declared under 3206.49, a code that also holds non-iron pigments. UN Comtrade 2024 export declarations under 2821.10 sum to about USD 709 million across 85 reporters: China USD 324 million and 339,000 MT (45.7%), the USA USD 49 million and 46,000 MT, Italy USD 38 million and 12,000 MT, India USD 31 million and 40,000 MT, Brazil USD 29 million and 21,000 MT, Japan USD 25 million and Spain USD 23 million. Those are declared values for the code, not offers.

The buyer is a concrete block, paver and roof tile plant, a ready-mix or colour admixture supplier, a paint and primer maker, a plastics or rubber compounder, or a distributor to the building trade. Construction buyers take large tonnages of red, yellow and black in bags or jumbo bags on a colour tolerance; coatings and plastics buyers pay for strength, low soluble salts and dispersion. CBIL is a commodity brokerage company and brokers iron oxide pigments from producers and trader positions in China, the USA, Italy, India, Brazil, Japan and Spain against a certificate of analysis per lot to ISO 1248 test methods, the technical data sheet, a safety data sheet, a certificate of origin and, for EU imports, the REACH registration held by the importer or only representative. Pigments ship in 25 kg paper or PE bags on pallets or 500-1,000 kg jumbo bags in dry containers on FOB, CFR and CIF terms, priced per MT on colour, grade and origin; store dry, because moisture causes caking and colour drift in the mix. Send the colour, Colour Index number, synthetic or natural, the use, tonnage and discharge port, and the enquiry is screened and worked against it.

Excluded origins are not offered, including product re-exported, blended or re-processed through a third country. Every lot moves with a certificate of origin naming the producing plant, mine or grower country, and nothing is quoted before the seller and loading point are known.