Why is it that both oil and unleaded oil are both classified as commodities if the latter is a processed version of oil? Isn’t a commodity an unprocessed product by definition?

 
  • kartik_santhanam 1:00 pm on February 9, 2010

    The following are characteristics of a commodity
    - indifferentiable (cannot be distinguished)
    - reasonably high volume of trade
    - price driven primarily by demand and supply and not by value additions alone

    Hence, commodity need not always be unprocessed products.

    even value added products with
    -a significant amount of volume
    -& and not much value differences between competing products
    will be commodities

    Say for example, even unleaded oil or bulk drugs