# Sodium silicate: Correlation Prices it moves with, and why Source page: https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/sodium_silicate/correlation/ Sodium silicate is made by melting silica sand with soda ash in a furnace, then dissolving the glass. It is used in detergents, paper, cements and to make precipitated silica for tyres. The series is a broad US inorganic chemicals index proxy. Proxy **US PPI: inorganic chemicals other than alkalies and chlorine** index (BLS base period) · monthly, Jan 2006 to Sep 2026 There is no free public price for sodium silicate itself, so this tab uses the closest public series as a stand-in. Read the numbers as an indication, not as the price of this exact item. #### What its price moves with Selected link ##### Sodium silicate and Soda ash Monthly changes 0.30 weak correlation 12-month changes 0.70 strong correlation Last 5 years 0.43 monthly changes Lead or lag none No clear lead or lag Price function, Jan 2006 to Sep 2026 Sodium silicate ≈ 3.94 × (Soda ash)^0.73 R² 0.64 On this fit, a 10% higher soda ash price goes with a 7.3% higher sodium silicate price over the long run. Units: index (BLS base period) and index, BLS base period. Chart: Sodium silicate and Soda ash prices rebased to 100 at Jan 2006, log scale Both prices rebased to 100 at Jan 2006, on a log scale so equal percentage moves look the same size. Chart: Sodium silicate price against Soda ash price, monthly, log scales, with fitted line Each dot is one month; paler dots are older (2006), darker dots recent (2026); the ringed dot is the latest month. The dashed line is the fitted price function. Both axes are logarithmic. Commodity [Sda Soda ash](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/soda_ash/)Feedstock 0.30 Soda ash is the main raw material cost. The soda ash series is a US alkalies index; it correlates with the proxy at 0.30 for monthly moves and 0.70 for yearly moves. weak co-movement month to month · 249 months Show charts Commodity [Qz Silica sand](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/industrial_sand/)Feedstock Pure silica sand is the other raw material, cheap but needing low iron content and often sourced close to the plant. Silica sand has no public price series here, so the link is shown as text only. Not enough overlapping price history to measure. Energy [Gas Natural gas](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/natural_gas/)Energy cost 0.10 Furnaces melt sand and soda ash at high temperatures, mostly with gas, so energy is a major cost. European gas correlates with the proxy at 0.10 for monthly moves and 0.43 for yearly moves, as contracts delay pass-through. little or none co-movement month to month · 249 months Show charts Chemical [Srf Surfactants](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/surfactants/)Shared use 0.14 Sodium silicate is used with surfactants in detergents, so detergent demand drives both. The surfactants index correlates at 0.14 for monthly moves and 0.68 for yearly moves, a shared US chemicals cycle. little or none co-movement month to month · 249 months Show charts Chemical [CB Carbon black](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/carbon_black/)Competing filler 0.12 Precipitated silica, made from sodium silicate, replaces carbon black in fuel-saving tyres. The two indices correlate at 0.12 for monthly moves and 0.51 for yearly moves, a shared tyre and chemicals cycle. little or none co-movement month to month · 249 months Show charts 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. ## Other sections - [Summary](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/sodium_silicate/index.md) - [Overview](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/sodium_silicate/overview/index.md) - [Production route](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/sodium_silicate/routes/index.md) - [Production](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/sodium_silicate/production/index.md) - [Feedstocks](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/sodium_silicate/feedstocks/index.md) - [Cycles](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/sodium_silicate/cycles/index.md) - [Trading](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/sodium_silicate/trading/index.md) - [Movement](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/sodium_silicate/movement/index.md) - [Regulation](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/sodium_silicate/regulation/index.md) - [Characteristics](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/sodium_silicate/characteristics/index.md) - [Emissions](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/sodium_silicate/emissions/index.md) - [Relationships](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/sodium_silicate/links/index.md)