Perlite: Correlation
Prices it moves with, and why
Perlite is a volcanic glass mined in Turkey, Greece, the United States and China, then heated so it puffs up into a light, white granule. It goes into plasters, ceiling tiles, horticulture, filter aids and cryogenic insulation, priced locally.
No public price Perlite has no public monthly price series: Priced locally by grade and freight; no public monthly price series.What its price moves with
Expanded perlite and diatomite are the two main mineral filter aids for beer, juice, oils and chemicals. Perlite is cheaper but filters less finely, so users switch between them on cost, which keeps their prices loosely tied.
No public price for diatomite, so the link is explained in words only.Both minerals are expanded by heat and used in growing media, loose-fill insulation and fire-resistant products. Gardeners and builders treat them as partial substitutes, so a supply problem in one shifts demand to the other.
No public price for vermiculite, so the link is explained in words only.Perlite is mixed into gypsum plasters and some wallboard and ceiling products to make them lighter and more fire resistant. Building activity therefore drives demand for both materials through the same construction products.
Not enough overlapping price history to measure.Crude perlite is shipped to expansion plants near customers and flash-heated in gas-fired furnaces. Fuel is a large share of the cost of expanded perlite, so higher gas prices raise the delivered price of the light product.
Not enough overlapping price history to measure.Expanded perlite fills the walls of LNG storage tanks and cryogenic vessels because it insulates well at very low temperatures. New LNG import and export terminals therefore create bursts of demand for high-grade perlite.
Not enough overlapping price history to measure.Horticultural growers blend perlite with peat to keep potting mixes airy and well drained. Rules that reduce peat use in Europe change growing media recipes and can raise demand for perlite and other mineral additives.
No public price for peat, so the link is explained in words only.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.