What your raw materials cost, against what they usually cost

The line is thirty-six months. Each price is measured two ways: against the twelve months before the latest, and against its 2024 average. The larger of the two is the headline figure, with both shown underneath. Click any card for a note on why that commodity matters here.

Two baselines are necessary because one is not enough during a shock. A twelve-month window eventually swallows the shock it is supposed to report: once a spike sits inside the window, a fall back from the peak reads as a discount even when the price is still far above where it used to be. The 2024 comparison keeps that visible. Read the twelve-month figure for what changed recently, and the 2024 figure for how far from normal the price still is.

Prices are monthly and published with a lag of a few weeks, so this is a trend instrument rather than a trading screen. What it is good for is noticing that an input has drifted well above its normal before your supplier tells you, which usually happens one quotation cycle later. A few series lag the others by a month; each card shows its own latest month when it differs.

These are world benchmark prices in US dollars. What you actually pay also carries the rupee, freight, duty and your supplier's margin, so treat the direction as the signal and the level as indicative.