Producer Price Index for the full Chemicals and allied products commodity group, the broadest WPU aggregate in the chemicals group, covering industrial chemicals, resins, paints, fertilizers, and pharmaceuticals together. Index base: 1982 = 100.
Latest value
373.609
Index · as of Aug 2026
Year-over-year change
+6.6%
BLS
Month-over-month change
+0.0%
Latest value is 1 month old. Next update expected around Sep 2026.
Calculate your adjustment
Free, no account needed. Nothing you enter here leaves your browser.
Enter a base value, a current value, and a contract amount to see the adjustment.
Price history
Data & insights
Key figures
From Jan 2024 to Aug 2026 the index went from 341.8 to 373.6, a change of +9.3%.
Highest reading in that period: 379.6 in Jun 2026. Lowest: 341.8 in Jan 2024.
Largest one-month rise: +3.4% in May 2026. Largest one-month fall: -1.6% in Jul 2026.
The year-over-year change stayed within 10% either way in each of the last 20 months, so a 10% annual cap or floor would not have been reached.
Volatility (12mo)
±1.39%
Std. dev. of month-over-month change
Strongest average month-over-month move historically: April (+1.2% avg).
What this means for your clause
Used as a fallback escalator in general commercial agreements that touch chemicals broadly, such as a distribution contract with no single dominant input. It is too broad for a contract built around one specific chemical, where a narrower series for that chemical prices the actual product being bought.
Draft a clause
A starting point citing this series by name and code. Replace the bracketed terms with your contract's actual scope before use.
The [affected portion] of the Contract Price shall be adjusted using US PPI — Chemicals and Allied Products (BLS series WPU06), published by BLS.
Base Period: the index value published for August 2026 (or the month of contract signing, if different) is the Base Value.
Adjustment: at each Adjustment Date, the Current Value is the most recently published three-month average of the index (the Averaging Window). The Escalation Factor equals Current Value divided by Base Value.
Cap: the Escalation Factor applied under this clause shall not exceed 1.10 or fall below 0.90 (a 10% cap and floor) in any single Adjustment Date, regardless of the index's actual movement.
[Replace bracketed terms with your contract's actual affected-portion definition and adjustment-date schedule before use. This is a drafting starting point, not legal advice.]
PPI measures what producers receive for an input, close to the actual production cost of a purchased material or component. CPI measures what consumers pay at retail, which layers on distribution and retail markup that has nothing to do with the underlying production cost of the input. Most B2B materials and component contracts should index PPI. CPI fits labor-adjacent cost-of-living escalators and consumer-facing service contracts.
Base oils have two real named benchmarks, Argus Base Oils and ICIS Base Oils-Lubes, both weekly, both subscription-only. A domestic BLS proxy exists as a free fallback, PCU324191324191 for lubricating oil and grease. There is no confirmed standalone "Argus Additives" product, despite that name circulating informally, so verify the exact report name before citing one in a contract.
We use cookies to run Escalake and to understand site traffic. Choose Accept Minimum for essential cookies plus anonymous visit counting only, or Accept All to also let us link activity to your account. Read our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.