Capitalism 2 and Capitalism Lab Forum

I'm confused by the maths on how you make money on products that use sub products like plastic. I'm currently having to drill for oil and having to sell it for about $50 a barrel to make money on the rig. One of my factories is turning that $50 oil into plastic that is only being sold for about 0.50cents so how is that factory making a profit when it bought the oil for $50?

Same with products that you make with that plastic. Lets assume you're not selling the plastic on, only using it for parts. Don't you then need to sell the finished product higher than the $50 you paid for the oil to make the plastic?

Or is it worked out as that $50 barrel of oil will make you enough plastic that even if sold at 0.50cents you'll still make your money back and some profit from the $50 barrel of oil?

You can make a lot of plastic with one unit of oil. Natural resource producers (oil, timber, etc.) are not very profitable if at all in this game because they require huge initial capital outlays. Semi-products like plastic can be profitable, but usually there isn't going to be enough demand for them.

The key is to use those products yourself for final products you can sell at retail. Like cosmetics which need plastic and chemical materials as inputs or drugs or electronics and so forth. It's best to buy natural resources from seaports and AI companies at the beginning of the game when you don't have very much money. You can also buy semi-products from AI or seaports, but they are profitable so you will be giving away some profit by doing that, still with limited money and if you're not going to use much of the finished sub-product, then that's a good way to go.

Later on in the game, it's crucial that you secure your own natural resources and sub-products because you'll find that there just isn't enough being produced by seaports or the AI. I always set those to "internal sale only" to prevent my supplies from being snatched by AI competitors. By securing your input supplies, you also eliminate the potential for supply interruptions. Starting out, look for seaports or AI that sell natural resources and semi-products. Start producing finished goods that use those available resources.

Thanks for tips.

I had to do the natural resources myself as the AI was placing any and I had set it to only 1 harbour per city