Pull global scrap metal trade flow statistics (imports/exports by HS code and country) from the UN Comtrade API

domain: UN Comtrade API (comtradeplus.un.org, github.com/uncomtrade/comtradeapicall) · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
Sampled — shipped under file-level sampling, not individually fact-checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗

Steps

  1. Register a free UN Comtrade account and generate an API subscription key from the Comtrade Plus portal
  2. Identify the relevant HS codes for the scrap material — ferrous scrap generally falls under HS heading 7204, with copper/aluminum/nickel/lead/zinc scrap under their respective chapters' "waste and scrap" headings
  3. Query the trade-flow endpoint with typeCode, freqCode, clCode=HS, period, reporterCode, cmdCode, and flowCode parameters directly, or via the comtradeapicall Python/R helper library, to pull import/export value, net weight, and gross weight
  4. Page through results within the free-tier limits (roughly 500 API calls/day, up to 100K records per call), or upgrade for higher-volume/bulk historical downloads
  5. Reconcile reporter-country vs. partner-country figures for the same flow using Comtrade's reference tables, since mirror statistics frequently disagree

Known gotchas

Related routes

Classify scrap metal exports by Schedule B/HS code and pull U.S. export trade statistics using the Census Bureau's International Trade Data API
U.S. Census Bureau International Trade Data API (census.gov/data/developers, census.gov/scheduleb) · 5 steps · unrated
Query official US import/export trade statistics programmatically via the USITC DataWeb API
dataweb.usitc.gov · 6 steps · unrated
Classify goods with HS codes using an automated tariff classification API and validate classifications against destination-country duty rates
developers.avalara.com · 6 steps · unrated

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