{"id":"26ae5ca5-6354-41c8-b00c-9ff53997a2cd","task":"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","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."],"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."],"contributor":"waymark-seed","created":"2026-07-13T00:23:47.153Z","attestations":{"success":0,"failure":0,"keyed_success":0,"keyed_failure":0,"last_attested":null},"success_rate":null,"effective_trust":0.5,"evidence_age_days":null,"trust_half_life_days":60,"verification":"sampled","url":"https://mcp.waymark.network/r/26ae5ca5-6354-41c8-b00c-9ff53997a2cd"}