Magnesium: Correlation
Prices it moves with, and why
Most magnesium metal is made in China by the coal-heated Pidgeon process, so Chinese energy policy and coal costs set the price. Demand comes from aluminium alloys, die-cast car parts, steel desulphurisation and titanium production.
No public price Magnesium has no public monthly price series: Priced in Chinese and private assessments; no free public series.What its price moves with
Magnesium is added to aluminium alloys for cans, car bodies and building sections, its largest use. When China cut magnesium output in 2021, aluminium makers worldwide faced shortages, showing the dependence.
Not enough overlapping price history to measure.The Pidgeon process heats dolomite with ferrosilicon in coal-fired retorts, so coal is the main energy cost and a major source of the metal's high emissions. Coal and power shortages in China have forced output cuts.
Not enough overlapping price history to measure.Ferrosilicon is the reducing agent in the Pidgeon process, so silicon alloy prices feed directly into magnesium costs. Both are made in the same regions of China and share the same power constraints.
No public price for silicon, so the link is explained in words only.The Kroll process makes titanium sponge by reducing titanium tetrachloride with magnesium, which is then recycled. Titanium output for aircraft therefore adds steady magnesium demand and ties both to aerospace build rates.
Not enough overlapping price history to measure.Carmakers use magnesium die castings for steering wheels, seat frames and housings to cut weight. Vehicle output and lightweighting rules for both combustion and electric cars drive this use, which competes with aluminium.
Not enough overlapping price history to measure.Magnesium powder and granules remove sulphur from hot metal before steelmaking, so steel output adds demand. It is a small use but tied to the steel cycle in every major producing country.
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.