Polymer additives: Correlation
Prices it moves with, and why
Polymer additives, such as antioxidants, UV stabilisers, heat stabilisers and slip agents, are added in small amounts so plastics process well and last. Prices depend on petrochemical and metal inputs and on plastics output.
No public price Polymer additives has no public monthly price series: Many niche products sold on contracts; no single public price index.What its price moves with
Most organic additives, from antioxidants to slip agents, are made from petrochemicals or oleochemicals. Oil price changes reach additive costs slowly, because each product goes through several processing steps and is priced on contracts.
Not enough overlapping price history to measure.Hindered phenol antioxidants, the largest additive family for polyolefins, are built from phenol and isobutylene. A tight phenol market raises antioxidant costs, which suppliers pass on after a lag of a few months.
Not enough overlapping price history to measure.Organotin compounds stabilise rigid PVC against heat during processing, notably for pipes in some markets. Tin price spikes, driven by mine disruptions in Myanmar and Indonesia, raise their cost and push processors towards calcium-zinc alternatives.
Not enough overlapping price history to measure.Calcium-zinc stabilisers have largely replaced lead in PVC in Europe and are replacing it in India, and zinc stearate is a common lubricant. Zinc is a modest part of the cost, but its price feeds into these widely used stabilisers.
Not enough overlapping price history to measure.Polypropylene and polyethylene cannot be processed or used outdoors for long without antioxidants and UV stabilisers. Additive demand therefore follows polyolefin output, which is dominated by packaging and consumer goods.
Not enough overlapping price history to measure.PVC needs heat stabilisers, lubricants and impact modifiers before it can be processed at all. Construction-led PVC demand, strong in India for pipes and profiles, sets volumes for these additives.
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.