Construction Material Price Tracker
Live-ish prices for the commodities that drive your material costs — copper, aluminum, steel, and diesel — with 30-day and year-over-year change, a simple outlook, and a translation into the trade units you actually buy. Sourced from free government data (FRED).
Price History & Outlook
Solid = stored history · dashed = trend outlook (not a guarantee)
Copper · $/metric ton · source: IMF via FRED · latest 2026-06-01
What this means on the job
Raw commodity prices translated into the trade units you buy. These are rough estimates from configurable conversion factors — directional, not quotes.
Data & forecast notes
- Sources: prices are sourced from the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) API — copper & aluminum (IMF), diesel (EIA), and the iron & steel Producer Price Index (BLS). Metals and the steel index are monthly with a 1–2 month publication lag; diesel is weekly.
- Steel is an index, not a dollar price — it shows the relative trend of producer steel prices, not a $/ton figure.
- The outlook is an extrapolation, not a guarantee — a simple trend projection from recent history, for planning context only.
- Trade-unit costs are estimates from approximate conversion factors (metal content, fabrication, anchors). Verify against real quotes before relying on them.
- This page is informational and not financial or purchasing advice.
Frequently asked questions
Where do these material prices come from?
Every series is free government-published data pulled from the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) API: copper and aluminum are IMF global benchmark prices in dollars per metric ton, diesel is the EIA weekly U.S. on-highway retail price, and steel is the BLS Producer Price Index for iron and steel. A daily job pulls the latest observations into our own database, and the page reads from that stored history — every number traces to a published series.
What is the copper price per pound?
Divide the $/metric ton figure on the copper card by 2,204.62 — a metric ton is 2,204.62 lb, so copper at $9,500/ton is about $4.31/lb. That is the raw exchange-level metal price, not what wire or tube costs: by the time copper is drawn, insulated, and sitting on a distributor shelf, the price per pound of product is well above the price per pound of metal. The trade-unit tiles below the cards make that translation, roughly, for #12 THHN and Type-L tube.
Why don’t these prices match what I pay at the supply house?
Because these are commodity benchmarks, not counter prices. The copper figure is raw metal on the world market; your #12 THHN price adds fabrication, insulation, freight, distributor margin, and whatever your branch pricing tier is. The commodity is the driver, not the price tag — when copper moves 10%, wire follows directionally, but the counter price moves later and by a different amount. Use this page for the trend; use real quotes for the number in the bid.
How often do the prices update?
We pull from FRED daily, but the underlying series update on their own schedule: copper, aluminum, and the steel index are monthly and typically publish 1–2 months behind, while diesel is weekly. So this is not a live ticker — the copper card can lag today’s exchange price by several weeks. It is built for reading trend and direction, not for timing a same-day material buy.
Why is steel shown as an index instead of a dollar price?
There is no free government $/ton steel feed, so we track the BLS Producer Price Index for iron and steel instead. An index shows relative movement — if it goes from 300 to 330, producer steel prices are up about 10% — but it is not a price for any specific product. The rebar tile converts it to a rough per-stick dollar figure by anchoring the index to a real price, which makes it an estimate, not a quote.
How should I use this in a bid?
As an escalation and timing signal, not a price source. If copper is up 15% year-over-year, shorten your quote validity, get supplier pricing locked on the wire package, or carry an escalation clause. The outlook line on the chart is a simple trend extrapolation from recent history — treat it as context, not a forecast, and never bid off it.