☏ +1 650 501 5505 ✉ [email protected]
Methodology Contact

Production Cost Analysis by Country

The direct cash cost of making a tonne: raw materials, packaging, energy, water and the crew on the line, priced in the United States, Germany, China, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and South Africa from customs and production statistics, tariff schedules and statistics offices. Every input on the page carries its source and year; the arithmetic ships in the report and its Excel data pack.

Published reports

33 production cost reports

What is a production cost report?

A Douglas Insights production cost report gives the direct cash cost of one tonne of a product in six lead countries: the raw materials and packaging from the process route and material balance, energy and water from published norms and the tariff of each country, and the crew on the line at the wage of each country. It stops at the tonne: no capital, maintenance, overhead or financing, which belong to the manufacturing plant project report.

The page of every report shows each input price with its publisher and year and the traded price of the product; the report and its Excel data pack add the consumption per tonne, the cost of a tonne in each country, the margin at the traded price, the sensitivity and the feedstock ledger.

Which products and countries are covered?

24 products are priced today; a country is dropped rather than priced with a proxy when one of its inputs is still being sourced, so the count of countries differs by product.

ProductCountries pricedInputsTraded price, USD per tPrice basis
Malt, Not Roasted525582–793CY2022–2026
Ferro-Manganese4201,129–1,477CY2024–2025
Refined Coconut Oil4281,339–2,272CY2022–2025
Calcined Petroleum Coke636234–483CY2022–2026
Liquefied Natural Gas510576–679CY2022–2025
Ethyl Acetate535749–1,200CY2022–2026
Sodium Bicarbonate530226–735CY2022–2025
Ferro-Chromium420812–2,291CY2022–2025
Ammonium Sulphate636149–266CY2022–2026
Silicon4322,492–8,754CY2022–2025
Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET)420897–1,364CY2022–2025
Roasted Coffee5256,123–9,919CY2022–2026
Viscose Staple Fibre4321,745–2,757CY2022–2025
Milk Powder5252,762–3,583CY2022–2025
Crude Soybean Oil424924–1,105CY2022–2026
Soybean Meal530419–488CY2022–2026
Methanol525296–566CY2022–2025
Malt525582–799CY2022–2026
Potato flakes5251,385–2,462CY2022–2025
Refined palm oil424923–1,239CY2022–2026
Cheese5254,137–4,973CY2022–2025
Butter4163,403–6,581CY2022–2025
Refined corn oil5351,211–2,382CY2022–2025
Refined canola oil5351,100–1,600CY2022–2025

How is a production cost report built?

  1. Process route and material balance. The process steps in order from a published norm, with the yield and loss of each, so the inputs for every tonne of product close.
  2. Input prices. Raw material and packaging prices from customs and production statistics, utility tariffs from regulators and utilities, wages from statistics offices, each dated and attributed.
  3. Cost of a tonne. Consumption times price for every input, labour over steady-state output, in each country; nothing typed, nothing filled in from a neighbour.
  4. Check against the traded price. A cost far above the traded price holds the country until the input is re-checked; a cost somewhat above it is published as a finding.

The Douglas Insights research methodology explains how the Research Desk reviews every edition.

What does a production cost report cost?

USD 1,499, one edition, single user: the PDF report and the Excel data pack, delivered within 48 hours of the order. A buyer who needs the whole plant within 90 days pays only the difference to the Professional (USD 2,999) or Enterprise (USD 3,999) edition of the manufacturing plant project report.

Ask for a product or another country Manufacturing plant project reports

Questions buyers ask

What is a production cost report?

The direct cash cost of making one tonne of a product: raw materials, packaging, energy and water, and the crew on the line, priced in each lead country from customs and production statistics, tariff schedules and statistics offices, with the consumption of every input per tonne from published process norms.

Which countries are covered?

One lead country per region, United States, Germany, China, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, South Africa. A country is dropped rather than priced with a proxy when an input is missing, so some products show fewer.

What is on the page and what is in the report?

The page shows every input price with its publisher and year, the process route with its sources and the traded price of the product. The report adds the consumption per tonne, the cost of a tonne in every country, the margin at the traded price, the sensitivity and the feedstock ledger, as a PDF and an Excel data pack.

How is this different from the manufacturing plant project report?

The plant report costs the whole plant: capital investment, land, buildings, equipment, financing, IRR, payback and three capacities. The production cost report stops at the tonne. A production cost buyer who upgrades within 90 days has the full price credited against the Professional or Enterprise edition of the plant report.

How fast is a report delivered?

48 hours from a paid order, prepared on the current edition of every input and sent to the order email.

Can another country or route be priced?

Yes. Any country in the model and any process route can be quoted through the Research Desk; the lead countries are the standard edition.