People We Serve

Is Intratec useful for procurement professionals?

Procurement and supply chain professionals are one of the primary audiences for Intratec data. The core challenge in this role is making sourcing and negotiation decisions without reliable, independent visibility into actual market prices and supplier cost structures — and that is exactly the gap our data addresses.

Two products are particularly relevant:

• Primary Commodity Prices provides independent price benchmarks grounded in official government trade data (actual closed transactions), not limited to specific spot or contract indices. This makes the data a credible additional reference when validating contract formulas or detecting when a contract price has drifted from market reality. Historical trends and rolling 6-month forecasts also support inventory planning and hedging strategy decisions.
• Commodity Production Costs provides transparent CAPEX and OPEX breakdowns across production technologies and countries. Procurement teams use this data to build clean-sheet cost models that reveal the underlying cost structure behind supplier quotes — making negotiations more fact-based. Standardized cost data across regions also helps identify which sourcing locations offer the most competitive cost environments.

Typical job titles in this persona include Procurement Specialist, Buyer, Category Manager, Strategic Sourcing Manager, and Supply Chain Analyst.

Can engineers use Intratec for cost modeling?

Cost engineers and investment analysts are core users of Intratec's Commodity Production Costs reports, which are specifically designed to support capital and operating cost estimation across industrial processes.

The reports provide detailed CAPEX and OPEX breakdowns organized by cost component — including inside battery limits (ISBL), outside battery limits (OSBL), contingencies, raw material costs, utility consumption, and fixed operating expenses. Three report editions are available to match different analysis requirements:

• Compact — overall cost structure suitable for preliminary screening and feasibility checks.
• Detailed — granular OPEX breakdown by section and raw material, the most widely used edition for project development.
• Premium — adds process flow diagrams, equipment lists, plant capacity assessment, and direct technical support, supporting detailed engineering estimates and scale-up studies.

Beyond Commodity Production Costs, two additional data sources support cost modeling work:

• Industry Economics Worldwide provides plant construction cost indexes and plant location factors for adjusting CAPEX estimates across geographies and time periods, along with industrial utility prices for accurate OPEX inputs.
• Primary Commodity Prices provides raw material price data for OPEX calculations and historical price series for sensitivity analysis.

Together, these products give cost engineers a connected data set for building and benchmarking financial models across technologies, geographies, and project stages.

Is Intratec relevant for R&D teams?

R&D engineers and researchers rely on Intratec data to ground their techno-economic analyses in realistic cost benchmarks — a critical input when evaluating whether an emerging technology or innovative process is commercially viable.

The primary product for this use case is Commodity Production Costs. Key capabilities for R&D work include:

• Benchmark data for comparing the economics of a new or developing process against established commercial technologies producing the same commodity.
• Multiple production routes per commodity, enabling side-by-side cost comparison across conventional and alternative pathways.
• Detailed process descriptions and flow diagrams that help researchers understand the manufacturing steps and cost drivers of technologies they are studying.
• Up-to-date cost data grounded in current market conditions, supporting credible techno-economic assessment (TEA) for grant applications, internal investment proposals, and academic publications.

For processes not yet covered in the standard report library — such as emerging or pre-commercial technologies — Bespoke Reports can be commissioned. These are custom analyses with flexible scope tailored to a specific process, plant location, or design basis, starting from $4,000 and delivered within approximately 15 business days.

Primary Commodity Prices also supports R&D work by providing raw material pricing data for process economics calculations and multi-location price series for assessing the regional viability of a new production route.

How do strategy teams use Intratec data?

Corporate strategy and planning professionals use Intratec data to support investment screening, market entry analysis, and competitive benchmarking — decisions that require consistent, cross-country cost and market intelligence.

All four Intratec product lines are relevant to this persona, each addressing a different dimension of strategic analysis:

• Commodity Production Costs — Detailed CAPEX and OPEX data for evaluating the economic viability of production technologies, and standardized cost structures across countries for identifying which regions offer the most competitive manufacturing environments.
• Primary Commodity Prices — Multi-year historical price trends and rolling 6-month forecasts for strategic planning scenarios, and multi-location pricing data for assessing market entry conditions in target geographies.
• Industry Economics Worldwide — Plant construction cost indexes for capital budgeting and cost benchmarking over time, and plant location factors for comparing the relative cost of building and operating an industrial facility across 33 countries.
• Energy Prices & Markets — Country-specific energy prices for operational cost planning, and trade dynamics and supply/demand analysis for evaluating energy availability and risk in different markets.

Typical roles include Strategy Analyst, Strategy Manager, Corporate Planning Manager, and Business Development Manager.

Can sales teams benefit from Intratec data?

Sales and commercial professionals use Intratec data to price confidently and negotiate from a position of credibility. The core challenge is that pricing decisions and contract negotiations require trusted, independent benchmarks — data that a counterpart cannot dismiss as internally generated.

Two products directly address this need:

• Primary Commodity Prices provides independent price benchmarks grounded in actual closed transactions across multiple global locations. This data supports the setting and defense of commercial prices, enables regional price comparisons to understand positioning across markets, and provides historical trend data to justify price adjustments to customers with objective, third-party evidence.
• Commodity Production Costs provides insights into the production cost structures of competing producers across different technologies and geographies. This helps commercial teams identify where they hold a cost advantage or where competitors operate at lower cost — supporting pricing strategy and competitive analysis in contract discussions.

Typical roles include Sales Manager, Commercial Manager, Key Account Manager, Business Development Manager, Pricing Analyst, and Revenue Manager.

Is Intratec used by government or policy organizations?

Policymakers and global strategists working in government ministries, development banks, and international organizations use Intratec data to design evidence-based policies and conduct cross-country economic analysis. The core requirement in this context is comparable, standardized data across geographies — which distinguishes Intratec's approach from fragmented national data sources.

Two products are most relevant, both available on the Ultimate plan:

• Energy Prices & Markets (Ultimate) — Comprehensive energy price data across 33 countries, covering 12 energy commodities including electricity, natural gas, crude oil, and refined products. Also includes trade dynamics and supply/demand analysis for understanding energy dependencies, electricity generation by energy source for policy-relevant energy mix analysis, and up to 15 years of monthly historical data accessible via API for long-term trend studies.
• Industry Economics Worldwide (Ultimate) — Industrial utility prices across 33 countries for assessing local cost environments, plant construction cost indexes for infrastructure and investment analysis, and plant location factors for comparing manufacturing cost competitiveness across regions.

These products give public sector analysts the standardized, multi-country data needed for cross-border policy evaluation, industrial development studies, and regulatory analysis.

Can data platforms integrate Intratec data?

Information service providers and data platform operators can integrate Intratec data into their own products and services through the Ultimate subscription plan. This plan is specifically designed to support this use case, including access rights and technical infrastructure for programmatic integration.

Key capabilities for this persona include:

• REST Web API with up to 20 API users and 500+ requests per industry (Primary Commodity Prices) or per country (Energy Prices & Markets), enabling automated data delivery into platform pipelines and downstream applications.
• Third-party sharing and integration rights included in the Ultimate plan license, allowing the data to be embedded in the subscriber's own platform and delivered to the subscriber's end users.
• Consistent methodology across all commodities and countries, which supports data quality standards required for commercial redistribution and platform credibility.

The Ultimate plan for data integration is available across Primary Commodity Prices and Energy Prices & Markets.