DashboardHow it works / rebuildData sources
This tool watches the global supply situation for a traded commodity (propylene glycol by default) and tells a procurement team how exposed they are, why, and what to do about it — using only free public data, plus optionally the team's own numbers.
It does not tell you the market price of the chemical. It tells you about the pressure on that price and the risk to supply. A live price needs a paid data service (ICIS, Argus) that is not wired in. No price ticker — by design.
The summary cards
Five quick numbers at the top: which commodity is tracked, how many countries are flashing high risk, how much upstream cost pressure is building, the US Gulf Coast weather status, and which country is most exposed right now.
The main table
One row per importing country. The exposure score runs 0–100: under 35 is Low, 35+ Medium, 55+ High, 75+ Critical. The "drivers & recommendation" column is the important one — it lists exactly which factors built the score, then a plain-language suggested action.
Why the score can be trusted
The score is not a black box. It is ten factors added up, each capped, each shown. If a country scores 65 you can see it came from "import dependency +27, net import scale +20, tariff +6, news disruption +9, feedstock pressure +3." No AI guessing — just auditable arithmetic. One factor (chemical demand) can subtract, so the tool does not overstate risk when the market is soft.
The side panels — early warning
- Feedstock cost curve — natural gas and crude oil prices. When these rise, the chemical price tends to follow 30–60 days later.
- Macro context — overall factory demand for chemicals and a global shipping-stress index.
- Disruption monitor — recent news about plant fires, strikes, force majeure. A signal, not a confirmed fact.
- Gulf Coast weather — hurricanes and freezes in the US petrochemical heartland.
- USD strength & ports — currency shifts and port congestion.
The colour-coded tags — read these
Every figure carries a tag: measured (official statistics —
trust it), signal (news monitoring — a heads-up, not proof),
user (your own uploaded data), or sample (a
placeholder shown only if a feed is temporarily down). A measured alert and a
signal alert are not the same weight — read the tag before acting.
The upload box
If a team uploads a simple CSV of their own positions — stock on hand, usage rate, supplier lead times, next shipment date — the dashboard works out when they run dry and whether to reorder now. That file never leaves their own copy of the tool.