Industrial enzymes: Correlation
Prices it moves with, and why
Industrial enzymes are proteins grown by fermentation on sugar or starch, sold under long contracts by a handful of firms. Their price reflects research, formulation and service more than inputs, with demand from detergents, ethanol, feed and baking.
No public price Industrial enzymes has no public monthly price series: Sold by a few firms on private contracts; no public price.What its price moves with
Amylase enzymes break maize starch into sugar in ethanol plants, making fuel ethanol one of the largest enzyme markets. Ethanol output, set by blending mandates, drives volumes, and plant margins shape what enzyme makers can charge.
Not enough overlapping price history to measure.Laundry and dish detergents combine surfactants with protease, amylase and lipase enzymes. Enzymes let washing work at low temperature with fewer surfactants, so detergent makers weigh the cost of one against the other.
Not enough overlapping price history to measure.Enzyme fermentation feeds on glucose and other carbon sources usually made from maize. Feedstock is a small part of the price, so corn moves affect margins more than the selling price.
Not enough overlapping price history to measure.Phytase enzymes added to pig and poultry feed release phosphorus already in grain, so less mined feed phosphate is needed. High phosphate prices make phytase more valuable to feed makers.
Not enough overlapping price history to measure.Baking and flour milling use enzymes to improve dough and keep bread fresh, while starch processors use them to turn wheat and maize starch into syrups. Grain processing volumes therefore drive part of demand.
Not enough overlapping price history to measure.How to read these numbers
Correlation of monthly changes (the number in the coloured pill) compares how much each price moved, month by month, since 2006 or the first month both series exist. It runs from −1 to +1: near +1 the two usually rise and fall in the same months, near 0 there is no link, and a negative number means they tend to move in opposite directions. Above 0.7 is strong, 0.4 to 0.7 moderate, 0.2 to 0.4 weak.
12-month changes compare year-on-year moves, which shows whether two prices share the same cycles even when the month-to-month noise differs.
Price function is a straight-line fit of the two prices on logarithmic scales: price ≈ k × (partner price)β. β is how much this price moves, in per cent, for a 1% move in the partner over the whole period, and R² is the share of the variation the fit explains. Two prices that both drift up with inflation can fit well without any real link, so read it together with the monthly correlation.
Lead or lag checks whether the monthly correlation is clearly higher when one price is shifted by 1 to 6 months.
Correlation is not cause. The reasons on each card explain the economic link; the numbers show how strongly it has shown up in prices. Proxy series are US producer price indexes or related prices and can blur the real link.
Data: World Bank Commodity Price Data (Pink Sheet), October 2026; US Bureau of Labor Statistics producer price indexes, IMF primary commodity prices and US EIA prices via FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, retrieved November 2026. Calculations by this site.