Gypsum: Correlation
Prices it moves with, and why
Gypsum is quarried or captured as synthetic gypsum from coal power plant flue gas scrubbers. Most goes into wallboard, dried with gas, and into cement. Housing demand and the shrinking supply of synthetic gypsum as coal plants close set prices.
Proxy US producer price index: gypsum products index, BLS base period · monthly, Jan 2006 to Sep 2026There is no free public price for gypsum 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 linkGypsum and Cement
Monthly changes 0.19 little or none correlation 12-month changes 0.29 weak correlation Last 5 years 0.17 monthly changes Lead or lag −3 mo Gypsum tends to lead by 3 months (r 0.27) Price function, Jan 2006 to Sep 2026 Gypsum ≈ 0.267 × (Cement)1.28 R² 0.89 On this fit, a 10% higher cement price goes with a 13.0% higher gypsum price over the long run. Units: index, BLS base period and index, BLS base period.Chart: Gypsum and Cement 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: Gypsum price against Cement 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.Cement makers grind a little gypsum into clinker to control setting, and both serve construction. The indexes show a modest link, monthly moves at 0.19 and yearly moves at 0.29, as the gypsum proxy tracks wallboard products, which follow housing rather than all construction.
little or none co-movement month to month · 249 months Show chartsFlue gas desulphurisation at coal power plants produces synthetic gypsum, a large share of wallboard feed. The link is about volumes, not coal prices: monthly moves at 0.03, yearly moves at 0.11, rising to 0.27 in the last five years.
little or none co-movement month to month · 249 months Show chartsWallboard plants burn natural gas to calcine gypsum and dry the boards, making delivered gas a major cost. Monthly moves barely correlate, at 0.03, but yearly moves reach 0.35 as gas cost changes feed into wallboard prices over time.
little or none co-movement month to month · 249 months Show chartsWet-process phosphoric acid leaves large stacks of phosphogypsum, mostly unused because of impurities and slight radioactivity. Its link with the gypsum index is weak, monthly moves at 0.01 and yearly moves at 0.27, since little phosphogypsum reaches wallboard or cement.
little or none co-movement month to month · 202 months Show chartsWallboard and paint are both building finishes bought for new homes and renovation. The indexes share monthly moves at 0.22, yearly moves at 0.39 and 0.38 in the last five years, reflecting common US housing demand and producer cost trends.
weak co-movement month to month · 249 months Show chartsExpanded perlite is added to gypsum plasters and some wallboard and ceiling products to cut weight and improve fire resistance. Builders buying gypsum products therefore also create demand for perlite.
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.