# Lime: Correlation Prices it moves with, and why Source page: https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/lime/correlation/ Lime is limestone burned in kilns to quicklime, then sometimes hydrated. It is heavy and traded locally. Price depends on kiln fuel, limestone quality and carbon costs, with demand from steelmaking, water treatment, flue gas cleaning, mining, sugar and chemicals. No public price Lime has no public monthly price series: Local, freight-bound markets; no public monthly price series. #### What its price moves with Commodity [Stn Crushed stone](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/crushed_stone/)Feedstock Lime plants quarry high-calcium limestone, the same rock that is crushed for aggregates. Quarries often sell both, and the best purity stone is kept for lime, so aggregate demand competes for some deposits. Not enough overlapping price history to measure. Commodity [St Steel](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/steel/)Main use Steelmakers add lime as a flux in blast furnaces and steel converters to remove sulphur and phosphorus. Steel output is the largest driver of lime demand, so lime plants are often built beside steel works. Not enough overlapping price history to measure. Energy [Tc Thermal coal](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/thermal_coal/)Kiln fuel Many lime kilns, including most in India and China, burn coal or petroleum coke to reach calcining temperatures. Fuel is one of the largest costs of lime, so coal prices feed into contract prices with a lag. Not enough overlapping price history to measure. Energy [Gas Natural gas](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/natural_gas/)Kiln fuel In Europe and North America many lime kilns burn natural gas. The gas price spike that followed Russia's invasion of Ukraine forced some European lime and calcium producers to raise prices or cut output. Not enough overlapping price history to measure. Chemical [CO2 Carbon dioxide](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/carbon_dioxide/)By-product Calcining limestone releases carbon dioxide from the rock itself, on top of fuel emissions. Carbon prices therefore raise lime costs, and some plants sell captured carbon dioxide to food and beverage users. Not enough overlapping price history to measure. Chemical [WT Water treatment chemicals](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/water_treatment/)Main use Lime softens drinking water, adjusts acidity and treats sewage sludge and industrial effluent. These steady municipal uses give lime a demand base that does not follow the steel cycle, which helps lime plants keep running in downturns. 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. ## Other sections - [Summary](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/lime/index.md) - [Overview](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/lime/overview/index.md) - [Extraction](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/lime/extraction/index.md) - [Production](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/lime/production/index.md) - [Stocks](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/lime/stocks/index.md) - [Cycles](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/lime/cycles/index.md) - [Trading](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/lime/trading/index.md) - [Movement](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/lime/movement/index.md) - [Criticality](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/lime/criticality/index.md) - [Characteristics](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/lime/characteristics/index.md) - [Emissions](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/lime/emissions/index.md) - [Relationships](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/lime/links/index.md)