ISGuides: Chemical and Process Engineering: Prices for commodities, products, etc.

Commodities, products, etc.

Resources covering all types of products

The cmdty Yearbook 2019 by Richard Asplund and Christopher Lown
Call Number: Edinburgh Campus: Quick Ref 332.632 COM
ISBN: 9780910418072
Publication Date: 2019
Covers commodities such as coal, ethanol, fertilizers, gasoline, etc. Available on paper at Edinburgh campus. This book is not available online.
Industrial Commodity Statistics Yearbook 2016 by United Nations Publications
ISBN: 9789211591194
Publication Date: 2019
This yearbook has data on around 600 industrial commodities produced by mining, manufacturing and electricity and gas units. Data are provided for 2007-2016 for approximately 200 countries and territories.

Volume I is about quantities and volume II gives monetary values.

Food

FAO Stats
Very detailed statistics about food and agriculture complied by the United Nations. Covers 245 countries.

Metals

London Metal Exchange
Has prices for people trading in these commodities (not the price you would pay to purchase them). The trends information can by useful for assignments.

Minerals

USGS Minerals Yearbook
The US Geological Survey Minerals Yearbook reviews the mineral and material industries, and includes information about production levels, key companies, exports and imports etc. Although this is a US government publication, it does include data about other countries (including the United Kingdom, Malaysia and the UAE). These are listed in "Volume III - Area Reports: International".

Oil and Gas

Oil and Gas Journal
Oil and Gas Journal is a news magazine for the petroleum refining and exploration industries. It contains statistical and trend information on number of oil rigs, refinery output, gas prices, etc. These statistics are mostly US, but some are global.

Plastics

The Plastics Exchange
US marketplace for commodity grade resins (HDPE, LDPE, LLDPE, GPPS, HIPS, HoPP, CoPP). Use their weekly report to get an indication of trends in prices.
Plastics Today
Website aimed at people working in the plastics industry. Has lots of up-to-date articles on plastic usage, market trends, new developments, etc.

Pharmaceutical Drugs

Scottish Drug Tariff
This webpage has a downloadable spreadsheet showing the amount NHS Scotland pays for drugs. NB this is the purchase price negotiated by the NHS. It includes the packaging of products into unit dosages and is not a raw ingredient price for use in calculations.

Trends in Prices

Producer price indexes track the changes in the payments producers receive for their output.

The UK Producer Price Index is produced by the Office of National Statistics. This index is based around prices in 2010 being set at "100" - if the current value is higher than 100, prices have gone up, if it is lower, prices have gone down. Monetary values are not available - the index can only be used to track trends in sectors.

The USA Producer Price Index is more detailed (and easier to use) than the UK version, but is based on output values from the United States.