In an earlier blog (Chemical Elements’ Revenues – Part 1;
click here to go to that blog), I provided estimated global revenues generated
in 2018 by many of the chemical elements.
The revenues were obtained from market research reports and other sources
found on the Internet. Doing the research
for this earlier blog, I discovered that the United States Geological Survey
(USGS) provides data on many elements’ 2018 prices and global production quantities. (For example, click here to go to a USGS site
from which such data can obtained.)
In this blog, I present element 2018 price and global production
data I found at USGS sites in the table below.
Also provided in the table are estimated 2018 global revenues generated for
each element (2018 price times 2018 production quantity). And I also present in the table the estimated
revenues for each element that I found from market research reports, which are
also presented in the earlier blog referenced in paragraph 1 above.
|
table
|
2018 average price in usd per metric tons
(mt) - using USGS website data
|
2018 global production
quantity in mt from USGS website
|
2018 revenues based on
USGS price and production quantity rounded to billions usd
|
2018 revenues from
market reports and other sources on Internet rounded to billions usd
|
% difference between revenues
based on USGS data and market reports, etc., data
|
|
Aluminum
|
$ 2,535
|
60,000,000
|
$ 152.12
|
$ 150.85
|
-1%
|
|
Gold
|
$ 44,606,619
|
3,260
|
$ 145.40
|
$ 128.00
|
-12%
|
|
Copper
|
$ 6,614
|
21,000,000
|
$ 138.90
|
$ 151.00
|
9%
|
|
Zinc
|
$ 3,109
|
13,000,000
|
$ 40.40
|
$ 52.10
|
29%
|
|
Nickel
|
$ 14,000
|
2,300,000
|
$ 32.20
|
$ 27.50
|
-15%
|
|
Potassium
|
$ 740
|
42,000,000
|
$ 31.08
|
$ 28.00
|
-10%
|
|
Silicon
|
$ 2,293
|
6,700,000
|
$ 15.36
|
$ 13.70
|
-11%
|
|
Silver
|
$ 537,810
|
27,000
|
$ 14.50
|
$ 14.00
|
-3%
|
|
Chromium
|
$ 280
|
40,000,000
|
$ 11.20
|
$ 14.50
|
29%
|
|
Lead
|
$ 2,535
|
4,400,000
|
$ 11.20
|
$ 10.90
|
-3%
|
|
Cobalt
|
$ 72,752
|
140,000
|
$ 10.20
|
$ 8.80
|
-14%
|
|
Molybdenum
|
$ 27,000
|
300,000
|
$ 8.10
|
$ 7.50
|
-7%
|
|
Titanium
|
$ 624
|
11,840,000
|
$ 7.39
|
$ 9.60
|
30%
|
|
Palladium
|
$ 34,799,490
|
210
|
$ 7.31
|
$ 8.00
|
9%
|
|
Tin
|
$ 20,503
|
310,000
|
$ 6.36
|
$ 7.00
|
10%
|
|
Sulfur
|
$ 70
|
80,000,000
|
$ 5.60
|
$ 6.20
|
11%
|
|
Vanadium
|
$ 72,752
|
73,000
|
$ 5.30
|
$ 9.70
|
83%
|
|
Platinum
|
$ 31,635,900
|
160
|
$ 5.10
|
$ 6.30
|
24%
|
|
Tungsten
|
$ 42,150
|
82,000
|
$ 3.50
|
$ 3.10
|
-11%
|
|
Zirconium
|
$ 1,500
|
1,500,000
|
$ 2.30
|
$ 5.24
|
128%
|
|
Scandium
|
$
132,000,000
|
15
|
$ 1.98
|
$ 1.84
|
-7%
|
|
Niobium
|
$ 21,000
|
78,000
|
$ 1.64
|
$ 2.90
|
77%
|
|
Lithium
|
$ 17,000
|
85,000
|
$ 1.45
|
$ 1.63
|
12%
|
|
Antimony
|
$ 8,598
|
140,000
|
$ 1.20
|
$ 2.00
|
67%
|
|
Iodine
|
$ 22,000
|
29,000
|
$ 0.64
|
$ 0.86
|
35%
|
|
Tantalum
|
$ 218,000
|
1,800
|
$ 0.39
|
$ 0.42
|
7%
|
|
Indium
|
$ 380,000
|
750
|
$ 0.29
|
$ 0.45
|
56%
|
|
Bismuth
|
$ 10,803
|
16,000
|
$ 0.17
|
$ 0.10
|
-40%
|
|
Germanium
|
$ 1,300,000
|
120
|
$ 0.16
|
$ 0.19
|
24%
|
|
Gallium
|
$ 350,000
|
410
|
$ 0.14
|
$ 0.16
|
14%
|
|
Manganese
|
$ 7
|
18,000,000
|
$ 0.13
|
$ 0.06
|
-52%
|
|
Selenium
|
$ 44,092
|
2,800
|
$ 0.12
|
$ 0.08
|
-33%
|
|
Beryllium
|
$ 500,000
|
230
|
$ 0.12
|
$ 0.13
|
16%
|
|
Cadmium
|
$ 2,900
|
26,000
|
$ 0.08
|
$ 0.04
|
-47%
|
|
Rhenium
|
$ 1,500,000
|
49
|
$ 0.07
|
$ 0.09
|
16%
|
|
Tellurium
|
$ 79,000
|
440
|
$ 0.04
|
$ 0.02
|
-57%
|
|
Thallium
|
$ 4,000,000
|
8
|
$ 0.03
|
$ 0.07
|
103%
|
|
Arsenic
|
$ 750
|
35,000
|
$ 0.03
|
$ 0.03
|
14%
|
|
|
|
|
|
average
|
30%
|
Most of the estimated revenues from USGS data agree reasonably
well with the revenue data based primarily on market research reports. This agreement is shown in the last column
of the table above where approximately three-fourths of the percentage differences
between the two-revenue data sets are less than 25% and the average difference
between the two sets of revenues for all elements is 30%. (The market research reports could rely a
lot on USGS data, but I have seen no indication that this is so.)
This series of blogs on chemical element revenues is met to investigate
what reasonably reliable economic data (i.e., estimated generated revenues) can
easily be found about chemical elements using the Internet as a research tool. It seems to me that the revenue data
presented in this series likely provides a good estimation of the approximate revenues
generated by elements. Considering what
I perceive as the challenges of estimating element prices and production – consumption
data, being able to find such data should be useful in decision making.
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