Commodities - Stan Klos Website
Courtesy of The U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 01-006
Historical Statistics for Mineral and Material Commodities in the
United States
|
| By Thomas Kelly, David Buckingham, Carl DiFrancesco, Kenneth
Porter, Thomas Goonan, John Sznopek, Cyrus Berry, and Melissa Crane |
Version 8.7
Online Only
This digital database, a work in progress, by the U.
S. Geological Survey (USGS), is an on-line compilation of historical U.S.
statistics on mineral and material commodities. Each commodity is
added to the database upon its completion. When finished, the
database will contain data on mineral production, imports, exports, stocks;
reported and apparent consumption; and unit value (the value in dollars of a
metric ton of apparent consumption) for approximately 90 mineral commodities. World
production data are included when available. For material
commodities, only apparent consumption is reported, with the exception of wood
products for which U.S. production, imports, and exports are reported for the
years 1965–2000. For some of the commodities, data are reported as
far back as 1900. Each commodity file is accompanied by a Microsoft®
Word1 document embedded in the worksheet as an
icon that describes units of measure, defines terms, and lists USGS contacts for
additional information.
Once completed, the entire database will be updated
periodically. Plans include publication of a CD-ROM containing the
database of tables in Microsoft® Access1, also
periodically updated.
One of the responsibilities of the USGS is to
collect, analyze, and disseminate minerals information on most nonfuel mineral
commodities. These data include: U.S. production, imports,
exports, consumption, recycling, stocks, shipments, and prices.
The 47th Congress instituted the collection and
public distribution of these types of data by the U.S. Government in an
appropriations act of August 7, 1882 (22 Stat. 329), which placed the collection
of mineral statistics on an annual basis (Mlynarski, 1998). The
Federal agencies responsible for the collection of the data have changed through
time. For the years 1882-1924, the USGS collected and published this
data; the U.S. Bureau of Mines (USBM) performed these tasks from 1925-95; and in
1996, the responsibilities once again passed to the USGS (following the closure
of the USBM). The information is collected by the USGS on a monthly,
quarterly, semi-annual, and annual basis from more than 18,000 minerals-related
producer and consumer establishments that cooperate with the USGS. These
companies voluntarily complete about 40,000 canvass forms that survey
production, consumption, recycling, stocks, shipments, and other vital
information (Mlynarski, 1998). Data are also gathered from site
visits, memberships on domestic and international minerals related committees,
and coordination with other government organizations and trade associations.
Among the many users of the data are the following:
- Government agencies at the Federal, State, and local levels, which use the
data for a wide range of purposes, including estimation of national, State,
and local economic activity and development of trade and fiscal policies;
- International and U.S. trade organizations, including the International
Trade Commission, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the International
Copper Study Group, among others;
- International agencies and organizations, including the United Nations and
World Bank, which use the data in monitoring international mineral
production, trade, and economic activity, as well as for studying specific
mineral commodity issues that lead to enhanced international cooperation;
- Educational institutions, which use the information for studies on
minerals supply and demand, including studies on changes in raw materials
use in the United States;
- Environmental organizations seeking to understand interactions of minerals
with the environment, including the Council of Environmental Quality, and
the U.S. Interagency Working Group on Industrial Ecology, Material and
Energy Flows;
- Private companies that use the data for decision-making;
- The general public.
The USGS makes this information available through
published products, including monthly, quarterly, and annual Mineral Industry
Surveys, the annual Minerals Yearbook (MYB), the annual Mineral Commodity
Summaries (MCS), and special commodity studies, including the history of metal
prices and materials flow studies. The USGS has a minerals
information page on the World Wide Web detailing publications, information
products, and contacts for minerals information (http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/). The
page also provides links to other Internet sites.
Methodology
The data published in the following Microsoft® Excel1
worksheets were compiled from publications of the USGS and USBM. The
primary references for these data are the annual publications MYB and its
predecessor, Mineral Resources of the United States (MR). Other
publications of the USGS and USBM were used as references, when needed, to
simplify the collection of data or gather a datum, such as apparent consumption
or price, when it was available in this alternative source and not the MYB or
MR. These references are as follows: Statistical Compendium (SC), Metal Prices
in the United States Through 1991 (MP91), Metal Prices in the United States
Through 1998 (MP98), MCS and its predecessor Commodity Data Summaries (CDS),
Minerals Facts and Problems (MFP), and various USBM Information Circulars. USGS
mineral commodity specialists reviewed the compiled data and made minor
revisions based on errors in data compilation and revisions of past data that
have yet to be published.
The data in these worksheets are published in metric
tons (t), and dollars per metric ton ($/t) to allow for data comparison between
commodities through time. During the 20th century,
different units were used to quantify individual mineral commodities; units
varied between commodities and even within a commodity through time. Cement,
for example, was originally reported in barrels, the common industry unit in
1900. Cement went through a reporting period from 1972 to 1990 being
reported in short tons, and was switched to metric tons in 1991. In
the mid-1980's to early 1990's, most commodities switched to metric units. To
this day, however, some commodities are reported in units that represent the
physical state of the commodity (million cubic meters for helium, a gas) or an
industry market unit (carats for diamonds).
Data were recorded, as published (after the necessary
conversions), for production, shipments, imports, exports, reported and or
apparent consumption, and stocks. Blank cells indicate that data were
not available or were withheld for proprietary reasons. The worksheet
notes accompanying each table indicate whether data was withheld or not
available.
Apparent consumption is a derived datum; its value is
dependent on other fields. The general formula for apparent
consumption is:
Apparent Consumption = Production + Imports - Exports ± (Stock Change).
When apparent consumption was not published in MYB,
SC, or MCS, it was calculated by this formula or a variation of it. In
some instances, apparent consumption was not published, but reported consumption
(from industry sources) was recorded in MYB or MCS. If apparent
consumption is not available, reported consumption may be used as a surrogate
for apparent consumption. When apparent consumption could not be
calculated because of withheld data or unavailable data, it was estimated by
interpolation for a missing point or by linear regression for a series of
points. Fortunately, most of these interpolations and linear
regressions occurred in portions of the apparent consumption curves that are
relatively smooth, thereby increasing the confidence placed in the estimation.
Unit value is a measure of the value of a physical
unit of apparent consumption (in this case, a metric ton) in dollars. For
a commodity whose apparent consumption is measured in a single form, such as
copper metal, a price series may be used to estimate the unit value. For
many commodities, apparent consumption measures more than one form of the
commodity. The commodity chromium, for example, includes chromium
metal, chromium ferroalloys and chromite ore in its measurement of apparent
consumption. To estimate chromium unit value, weight averaging the
price of each form by the amount that each form contributes to apparent
consumption (measured as the amount imported) results in an estimate of unit
value. For many commodities, a price series was not available, but
total value of imports, exports, and production were reported. A
graphical analysis of these value series was used to derive the unit value. The
notes that accompany each mineral commodity worksheet discuss the source of
apparent consumption and unit value data, and the assumptions made in estimating
these data when they were not available from the references. Unit
values in these tables are converted to 1998 constant dollars using the Consumer
Price Index for All Urban Consumers, a widely used measure of overall inflation
in the United States. Constant dollars remove the effect of inflation
on the unit value.
Icons embedded in the commodity worksheets direct the
reader to notes that discuss sources of apparent consumption and unit value data
(in addition to the information mentioned previously in the first paragraph of
this document). Click on the following list of commodities to view
the data.
