Sources
Where every number comes from
6 feeds from 6 organisations. All public, all free to use and to display — no subscription, no API key, no licence. Nothing that needed one is on the screen.
| Source | Publisher | Updates | Licence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eurostat Comext DS-045409, CN 7602What scrap actually cleared customs at. One basket for all aluminium scrap, not a per-grade assessment. | Eurostat | Monthly · about 3 months behind | CC BY 4.0 |
| US Producer Price Index, aluminium scrap by grade, BLS via FREDThe closest free thing to a per-grade price. US, and an index rather than a level — direction and grade spread, never a EUR/t number. | US Bureau of Labor Statistics | Monthly · about 1 month behind | Public domain |
| Global price of Aluminum (PALUMUSDM), IMF via FREDLME-based, but published by the IMF — so it carries no LME licence. | IMF | Monthly · about 1 month behind | Free to use |
| World Bank Commodity Markets Outlook (the Pink Sheet)A second, independent read on the aluminium price, plus European gas and Brent — and the only free published aluminium price forecast. | World Bank | Monthly · forecast twice a year | CC BY 4.0 |
| ECB euro reference ratesAgainst every currency the buyers of this scrap pay in, not just the dollar. | European Central Bank | Every weekday | Free, attribution |
| Google News RSSHeadlines, publishers and links only — the feed carries no article bodies. Publishers' own feeds mostly refuse automated requests. | Google News | Continuously | Free to use |
Why some numbers are months old
Customs figures are compiled after the fact: a price labelled May is published in late July, so it describes a market months gone. It tells you where the level has been, not what to pay today.
Nothing free fixes this — customs data is the only free source of what scrap actually traded at in Europe. What the dashboard does instead is show every figure with its own date, and flag when the fresher half of a comparison has moved away from the older half.
Last fetched 2 Sept 2026today
What free data cannot do
- No per-grade European price. Alloy 226, 231 and 233 assessments exist only from Fastmarkets or WVM, on subscription. The US indices here split scrap by grade but are American, and are indices rather than EUR/t.
- No LME price on the page. Free to view next-day, but displaying it needs a distributor licence. The benchmark shown is the IMF’s LME-based monthly average instead.
- One basket, not your grades. Customs data covers all aluminium scrap under one code, so a month with a different mix moves the price with nothing having actually moved.
- Nothing knows your suppliers. There is no public record of what 15–20 negotiated relationships quote.
Attribution
- Source: Eurostat, Comext DS-045409 (CN 7602). Unit values derived by Since Labs from reported trade value and quantity.
- Global price of Aluminum (PALUMUSDM), IMF via FRED.
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Producer Price Index, via FRED.
- World Bank Commodity Markets Outlook.
- ECB euro reference rates.
- News headlines via Google News RSS; the reading of them is generated by Claude.