Surfactants: Correlation
Prices it moves with, and why
Surfactants are the active cleaning ingredients in detergents, shampoos and industrial cleaners. The main types are LAS from linear alkylbenzene and ethoxylates or sulphates from fatty alcohols, so oil and palm kernel or coconut oil prices set costs.
Price index US PPI: surface active agents index (BLS base period =100) · monthly, Jan 2006 to Sep 2026What its price moves with
Selected linkSurfactants and Linear alkylbenzene
Monthly changes 0.24 weak correlation 12-month changes 0.73 strong correlation Last 5 years 0.43 monthly changes Lead or lag +1 mo Linear alkylbenzene tends to lead by 1 month (r 0.30) Price function, Jan 2006 to Sep 2026 Surfactants ≈ 2.18 × (Linear alkylbenzene)0.91 R² 0.82 On this fit, a 10% higher linear alkylbenzene price goes with a 9.1% higher surfactants price over the long run. Units: index (BLS base period =100) and index (BLS base period).Chart: Surfactants and Linear alkylbenzene 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: Surfactants price against Linear alkylbenzene 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.Linear alkylbenzene is sulphonated to LAS, the main surfactant in Indian washing powders. Against the cyclic intermediates proxy, monthly moves correlate at 0.24, yearly at 0.73 and 0.43 over the last five years.
weak co-movement month to month · 249 months Show chartsEthoxylates and ether sulphates, used in liquid detergents and shampoos, are made by adding ethylene oxide to fatty alcohols. Against the organic chemicals proxy, monthly moves correlate at 0.32 and yearly moves at 0.79.
weak co-movement month to month · 249 months Show chartsFatty alcohols from palm kernel or coconut oil are the backbone of sulphates and ethoxylates. The palm kernel oil proxy correlates poorly with the US index, at -0.13 monthly and 0.17 yearly, as that index carries many petrochemical surfactants.
little or none co-movement month to month · 249 months Show chartsPalm oil anchors the vegetable oil market that Asian oleochemical surfactant makers buy from. Monthly moves correlate at -0.10 and yearly at 0.25 with the US index, so the oleochemical link shows mainly in Asian prices, not US ones.
little or none co-movement month to month · 249 months Show chartsOil drives the costs of linear alkylbenzene, ethylene oxide and petrochemical alcohols. Monthly moves correlate at 0.00 but yearly moves at 0.46, and oil leads by about 2 months, showing pass-through on a slower contract cycle.
little or none co-movement month to month · 249 months Show chartsHow 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.