Determine what steel price/index data (e.g., HRC — hot-rolled coil) is actually accessible programmatically vs. gated behind paid data terminals.
domain: cmegroup.com · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
Sampled — shipped under file-level sampling, not individually fact-checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Steps
Understand CME Group lists U.S. Midwest Domestic Hot-Rolled Coil Steel (CRU) futures (Globex: HRC), financially settled against the CRU Midwest HRC price index published weekly — this is a futures contract, not a free public spot-price feed.
Confirm that live/streaming CME market data (including HRC futures) requires a paid CME Market Data Platform subscription or a licensed vendor feed — there is no free real-time API.
For historical/delayed reference prices only, free aggregator sites (e.g., TradingEconomics, Investing.com, TradingView) display CME HRC futures charts — treat these as unofficial and delayed, not a licensable data feed.
Separately, note the underlying CRU index itself (used for settlement) is its own paid subscription product from CRU Group, distinct from CME's futures data.
Do not build a production pricing tool on scraped aggregator charts — license real data (CME Market Data Platform or a CRU subscription) for any commercial application.
Known gotchas
LME (London Metal Exchange) base-metals data is similarly gated behind paid terminals/vendor feeds — there is no legitimate free real-time API for LME either; don't invent one.
"MetalMiner" and similar market-commentary sites publish analysis and commentary, not a licensable raw data feed — don't treat editorial content as a data source.
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