Method

Where every number comes from.

A should-cost is a recipe priced on public indexes. Here is the formula, what the library holds, where the indexes come from, how fresh they are, and the rules we hold ourselves to.

The formula

Every product card holds a recipe: cost lines, each tied to an index, with a weight. Your cost model prices that recipe from a starting price you set.

Then two adjustments: the Incoterm (Incoterms 2020, for landed cost) and the exchange rate (daily ECB reference rates) when a line or a price is in another currency.

The floor is the cost before the supplier's margin: a minimum, not a target. See it worked through on the homepage →

should-cost = starting price
              × Σ (weight × index ÷ index at start)
              + margin
            → then Incoterm adjustment and FX

floor       = should-cost − margin
gap         = your price − should-cost
exposure    = today's gap × volume on record

What the library holds

As of October 2026: 1,750 product cards in 25 chemical families and 800+ product lines, mapped to 900+ buying categories in 50 industries. The library grows with each research release; it is never the whole market.

Regions. Recipes are written per region: Europe, North America, China, Asia-Pacific, India, Middle East & Africa and Latin America. A card carries the regions it has been researched for; not every card covers all seven.

Sources

Built mostly on public statistics and exchange benchmarks: US BLS, World Bank, FRED, USGS, Eurostat, EIA, LME and others. Every series names its source where one is documented.

Public statistics agencies68
Exchanges and posted prices6
Other named sources5
Cost indexes with a documented source, by source group, October 2026.

Freshness

  • Monthly since January 2023. The current release runs to June 2026. Every chart shows its data date, so you always know how old a number is.
  • 97 of the 99 indexes have a six-month outlook: 53 modelled, 44 flat carry-forwards, each labelled. An outlook is a projection, never a promise.
  • Exchange rates update daily from ECB reference rates.
  • Updated with each research release. There is no fixed calendar.

How far each card is checked

Every card says how far its supply has been checked. We never show how many makers a product has.

Verified makers

Independent makers of this exact product are verified on their own pages. 935 cards carry this badge.

Concentrated supply

Supply is concentrated for a structural reason, and the reason is documented on the card.

Supply pending

The supply check for this card is under way.

Makers not yet verified

The card's makers have not been checked against their own pages yet. The cost recipe still works.

Five promises

  1. No invented numbers.
  2. No maker counts as headlines.
  3. An undisclosed share is never shown as zero.
  4. Demo data is always labelled illustrative.
  5. Forecasts are never presented as certain.

Your own data

Already pay for a price agency? Use your own index values in your workspace. Your prices, volumes and suppliers stay in your team's private workspace and never go into the library. How we keep them apart →

In one line

The library is the same for every buyer. Your workspace is yours alone.

Questions

How is this different from a price agency?

A price agency reports what a commodity costs. CostAdvisor turns index moves into your should-cost, your gap and your negotiation position, and you can feed it your agency's values.

How are recipes written?

By StaminaChem's research, region by region, with the source of each index named where one is documented. Your own models start from a library recipe, and you can edit or extend them.

What does "projection" mean?

The six months after the last data point. A modelled projection follows the index's own model; a flat carry-forward repeats the last value and is labelled as such. Neither is a forecast you should treat as certain.