# Crushed stone: Correlation Prices it moves with, and why Source page: https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/crushed_stone/correlation/ Crushed stone is limestone, granite or basalt quarried and crushed into aggregate for concrete, asphalt and road bases. Heavy and cheap, it sells within a short truck haul, so prices follow local construction, quarry permits and explosives, fuel and labour costs. Proxy **US producer price index: construction sand, gravel and crushed stone** index, BLS base period · monthly, Jan 2006 to Sep 2026 There is no free public price for crushed stone 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 ##### Crushed stone and Sand & gravel Monthly changes 0.67 moderate correlation 12-month changes 0.90 strong correlation Last 5 years 0.70 monthly changes Lead or lag none No clear lead or lag Price function, Jan 2006 to Sep 2026 Crushed stone ≈ 1.24 × (Sand & gravel)^0.95 R² 1.00 On this fit, a 10% higher sand & gravel price goes with a 9.5% higher crushed stone price over the long run. Units: index, BLS base period and index, BLS base period. Chart: Crushed stone and Sand & gravel 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: Crushed stone price against Sand & gravel 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 [Agg Sand & gravel](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/sand_gravel/)Substitute 0.67 Crushed stone and natural sand and gravel compete for the same concrete and road uses. The proxy index includes sand and gravel, so the link is partly built in: monthly moves at 0.67, yearly moves at 0.90 and 0.70 in the last five years. moderate co-movement month to month · 249 months Show charts Commodity [Cem Cement](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/cement/)Used with 0.48 Aggregates and cement are mixed into concrete for the same projects, and limestone quarries often supply cement plants. The indexes move together, at 0.48 monthly, 0.60 yearly and 0.67 in the last five years. moderate co-movement month to month · 249 months Show charts Energy [Exp Explosives and propellants](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_propellants/)Blasting input 0.21 Quarries break rock with explosives, so explosives are a direct operating cost. The indexes share monthly moves at 0.21, yearly moves at 0.39 and 0.56 in the last five years, as both rose with US construction and mining demand. weak co-movement month to month · 249 months Show charts Commodity [CaO Lime](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/lime/)Same rock High-calcium limestone is quarried both for crushed stone and for burning into lime. Quarries grade their rock, sending the purest stone to lime and cement and the rest to aggregates, so the two markets share deposits. Not enough overlapping price history to measure. Commodity [St Steel](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/steel/)By-product substitute −0.04 Blast furnace and steel slag are crushed and sold as aggregate for roads and concrete. The index shows no link with steel mill prices, monthly moves at -0.04 and yearly moves at -0.16, since slag volumes, not steel prices, affect aggregates. little or none co-movement month to month · 249 months Show charts Energy [Agr Energy in farming](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_agri_energy/)Fuel cost −0.02 Quarry loaders, crushers and haul trucks burn diesel, which this proxy tracks. Monthly moves correlate at only -0.02 and yearly moves at -0.05, as fuel swings are handled through surcharges and annual price rises rather than base prices. 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/commodities/crushed_stone/index.md) - [Overview](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/crushed_stone/overview/index.md) - [Extraction](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/crushed_stone/extraction/index.md) - [Production](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/crushed_stone/production/index.md) - [Stocks](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/crushed_stone/stocks/index.md) - [Cycles](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/crushed_stone/cycles/index.md) - [Trading](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/crushed_stone/trading/index.md) - [Movement](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/crushed_stone/movement/index.md) - [Criticality](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/crushed_stone/criticality/index.md) - [Characteristics](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/crushed_stone/characteristics/index.md) - [Emissions](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/crushed_stone/emissions/index.md) - [Relationships](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/crushed_stone/links/index.md)