Chemical process catalysts: Correlation
Prices it moves with, and why
Chemical process catalysts, from nickel reforming catalysts to silver ethylene oxide catalysts and platinum-rhodium gauzes, speed up industrial reactions. Their price is driven by the metals they contain, often leased or recycled, plus the know-how in each formulation.
No public price Chemical process catalysts has no public monthly price series: Custom catalysts sold on bespoke contracts; no public price index.What its price moves with
Nickel catalysts are used in steam reforming to make hydrogen and in hydrogenating edible oils and chemicals. Nickel price swings change the cost of new catalyst charges, though spent nickel is usually recovered.
Not enough overlapping price history to measure.Ethylene oxide is made over silver catalysts, which hold large amounts of silver in each plant. Producers often lease or recycle the silver, so the metal price affects financing costs more than the fee for the catalyst.
Not enough overlapping price history to measure.Platinum, with rhodium, forms the gauzes used to oxidise ammonia to nitric acid, and is used in naphtha reforming. Some metal is lost in operation, so higher platinum prices raise operating costs for these plants.
Not enough overlapping price history to measure.Every ethylene oxide plant depends on its silver catalyst, whose selectivity decides how much ethylene becomes product rather than carbon dioxide. Better catalysts therefore directly lower ethylene oxide production cost.
Not enough overlapping price history to measure.Nitric acid plants burn ammonia over platinum-rhodium gauzes, which are replaced every few months. Gauze metal losses are a notable cost for nitric acid and for the ammonium nitrate made from it.
Not enough overlapping price history to measure.Ammonia synthesis uses iron-based catalysts, and its hydrogen comes from nickel-catalysed steam reforming. Catalysts are a small part of ammonia cost, but their performance sets plant energy use, which is the largest cost.
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.