If you're building software that needs scrap metal pricing data, you've probably discovered that getting this data programmatically is surprisingly difficult. Most metal pricing APIs focus on precious metals (gold, silver) or exchange-traded base metals (LME copper, aluminum). None of them cover the actual scrap grades that recyclers and manufacturers trade daily.
The Data Landscape
Scrap metal pricing data comes from several types of sources, each with different strengths:
Government Sources (Free, Public Domain)
The Federal Reserve's FRED API provides Producer Price Index (PPI) data for iron and steel scrap. This data is free, well-structured, and goes back decades. The downside is that PPI indices are monthly aggregates, not daily spot prices, and they cover broad categories rather than specific scrap grades.
The USGS publishes annual mineral commodity summaries including scrap metal production and trade data. Great for long-term analysis, but too infrequent for daily pricing needs.
Exchange Data (Free Delayed, Paid Real-Time)
CME Group lists Busheling Steel Scrap futures, the most liquid scrap-specific futures contract. Delayed settlement prices are available for free. Copper and aluminum futures on COMEX provide reference prices for non-ferrous scrap.
The London Metal Exchange (LME) provides delayed end-of-day prices for base metals. These are reference points rather than scrap-specific prices, but they're widely used as benchmarks.
Trade Publications (Expensive)
Fastmarkets (formerly American Metal Market) is the gold standard for scrap pricing, covering 1,500+ metals prices. But subscriptions start at $5,000+/year and go much higher. Argus and RMDAS offer similar premium data.
The Gap in the Market
Here's the problem: there's no affordable, developer-friendly API that provides scrap-grade-specific pricing. You can get gold prices from a dozen APIs for $10/month. But try to get the price of #1 Copper Tubing or HMS 1 steel scrap, and you're either scraping websites manually or paying enterprise rates.
The ScrapMetal API Approach
ScrapMetal API fills this gap by aggregating data from free and public sources into a single, clean REST API. We normalize prices across sources so you can query by metal, grade, or ISRI code and get back consistent JSON.
Getting Started
Sign up for a free API key at scrapmetal.dev and make your first request:
curl -H "X-API-Key: your_key" https://scrapmetal-api.onrender.com/v1/prices/current?metal=copper
The response includes the metal name, grade, ISRI code, price, unit, source, region, and timestamp. You can filter by metal, query historical data (on paid plans), and list all supported grades.
What's Covered
The API currently covers 4 metal categories and 14 scrap grades:
- **Copper**: Bare Bright, #1 Tubing, #2 Copper, Insulated Wire - **Aluminum**: Cans (UBC), Extrusions 6063, Cast, Sheet - **Steel/Iron**: HMS 1, HMS 2, Shredded, Busheling - **Brass**: Yellow Brass, Red Brass
Each grade includes its ISRI specification code for industry-standard identification.
Pricing
The free tier gives you 100 API calls per day with access to current prices. The Basic plan ($29/month) adds 30-day historical data and 1,000 calls/day. The Pro plan ($99/month) unlocks full historical data, bulk endpoints, and 10,000 calls/day.