Titanium dioxide: Correlation
Prices it moves with, and why
Titanium dioxide is the main white pigment in paint, plastics and paper. It is made from titanium ores by the chloride or sulphate process. China is the largest producer. The series is a US dyes and pigments index proxy.
Proxy US PPI: synthetic dye and pigment manufacturing index (BLS base period) · monthly, Dec 2011 to Sep 2026There is no free public price for titanium dioxide 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 linkTitanium dioxide and Titanium
Monthly changes 0.05 little or none correlation 12-month changes 0.57 moderate correlation Last 5 years 0.07 monthly changes Lead or lag +2 mo Titanium tends to lead by 2 months (r 0.15) Price function, Dec 2011 to Sep 2026 Titanium dioxide ≈ 0.436 × (Titanium)1.04 R² 0.76 On this fit, a 10% higher titanium price goes with a 10.4% higher titanium dioxide price over the long run. Units: index (BLS base period) and index, BLS base period.Chart: Titanium dioxide and Titanium prices rebased to 100 at Dec 2011, log scale
Both prices rebased to 100 at Dec 2011, on a log scale so equal percentage moves look the same size.Chart: Titanium dioxide price against Titanium price, monthly, log scales, with fitted line
Each dot is one month; paler dots are older (2011), darker dots recent (2026); the ringed dot is the latest month. The dashed line is the fitted price function. Both axes are logarithmic.Titanium metal and pigment come from the same ilmenite and rutile ores, though pigment uses most of the ore. The titanium mill index correlates with the proxy at 0.05 for monthly moves and 0.57 for yearly moves.
little or none co-movement month to month · 178 months Show chartsThe sulphate process dissolves ilmenite in sulphuric acid, a large cost for Chinese plants, which mostly use this route. Monthly moves correlate at 0.13 and yearly moves at 0.40, as acid costs pass into pigment prices slowly.
little or none co-movement month to month · 178 months Show chartsThe chloride process turns ore into titanium tetrachloride with chlorine, then burns it back to pigment. The chlorine proxy correlates at 0.09 for monthly moves and 0.68 for yearly moves.
little or none co-movement month to month · 178 months Show chartsPaints use most of the pigment, so construction and housing drive demand. The paints index correlates at 0.15 for monthly moves and 0.74 for yearly moves, as pigment costs flow into paint prices.
little or none co-movement month to month · 178 months Show chartsBoth processes need a lot of heat for calcining and burning, so gas prices affect costs, especially in Europe. Monthly moves correlate at 0.05 and yearly moves at 0.37, a slow cost link through long supply contracts.
little or none co-movement month to month · 178 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.