What does the Cost Index in the Index Builder represent?

The Cost Index indicates the evolution of the cash (production) cost of the packaging product based on the cost to produce the base paper(board) material used for the packaging. It shows how a contract with a packaging supplier should have evolved if it was fixed to the cost of the raw material (paper) only, while keeping the % breakdown between material, converting and overhead/profit identical over the time period selected. 

The Cost Index illustrates the cost of the different cash cost groupings (chemicals/other, labor, energy, and fiber). It is easy to identify the highest cost factors and follow how they changed over the quarters/years. The cost data is pulled from Fastmarkets' cost benchmarking for the grade selected, by region and country, by company or by mill as selected in the REGION filter in the Index Builder:

Specificity regarding the company and mills producing the base paper facilitates the estimation of cash costs for paper packaging at the point of production:

N.B. Converting and Profit/Overhead/Other costs are fixed values, as Fastmarkets RISI does not have any insight into their evolution.

Expanding Energy or Fiber sections will allow you to see details on different fuels or fiber raw materials by scrolling further down on the page: