Titanium: Correlation
Prices it moves with, and why
Titanium metal is made from ilmenite or rutile via titanium tetrachloride and the Kroll process, mostly in China, Japan, Russia and Kazakhstan. Aircraft, defence, chemical plant and medical uses drive demand, often under long-term contracts.
Proxy US producer price index: titanium mill shapes index, BLS base period · monthly, Jan 2006 to Sep 2026There is no free public price for titanium 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 linkTitanium and Titanium dioxide
Monthly changes 0.05 little or none correlation 12-month changes 0.57 moderate correlation Last 5 years 0.07 monthly changes Lead or lag −2 mo Titanium tends to lead by 2 months (r 0.15) Price function, Dec 2011 to Sep 2026 Titanium ≈ 6.34 × (Titanium dioxide)0.73 R² 0.76 On this fit, a 10% higher titanium dioxide price goes with a 7.2% higher titanium price over the long run. Units: index, BLS base period and index (BLS base period).Chart: Titanium and Titanium dioxide prices rebased to 100 at Dec 2011, log scale
Both prices rebased to 100 at Dec 2011, on a log scale so equal percentage moves look the same size.Chart: Titanium price against Titanium dioxide price, monthly, log scales, with fitted line
Each dot is one month; paler dots are older (2011), darker dots recent (2026); the ringed dot is the latest month. The dashed line is the fitted price function. Both axes are logarithmic.Most titanium minerals become titanium dioxide pigment, not metal, so pigment demand sets the feedstock prices that metal makers also pay. The two indexes barely move together monthly (0.05), though yearly changes correlate at 0.57.
little or none co-movement month to month · 178 months Show chartsTitanium ores are chlorinated to titanium tetrachloride before reduction, and the chlorine is recycled along with the magnesium. The alkalis and chlorine index correlates with the titanium proxy at 0.17 monthly and 0.42 in the last five years.
little or none co-movement month to month · 249 months Show chartsMagnesium reduces titanium tetrachloride to sponge in the Kroll process, so magnesium costs and Chinese magnesium supply affect sponge makers. Magnesium has no free price series here, so this link is text only.
Not enough overlapping price history to measure.Jet engines and airframes are the largest premium market for titanium, bought on long contracts tied to aircraft build rates. The engine price index shows almost no monthly link (0.05), though 0.23 in the last five years.
little or none co-movement month to month · 249 months Show chartsThe standard aerospace alloy contains aluminium and vanadium, so vanadium is a necessary input for most titanium aircraft parts. It is a small cost relative to sponge and processing, but supply security matters.
Not enough overlapping price history to measure.Ilmenite, rutile and zircon come from the same mineral sand deposits in Australia, South Africa and Mozambique, so mine decisions shape the supply of both. Zirconium has no free price series here.
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.