FRED Producer Price Index series WPS1012 (iron and steel) · as of May 2026. Free to view, no login.
What to expect next
Carbon Steel moved moderately higher last month (+1.0% month over month). Vendor quotes typically lag the benchmark by 4 to 8 weeks, so expect upward pressure on new carbon steel quotes over the next month or two. If you have volume to lock, the earlier half of that window is usually the better entry. This is a lag heuristic, not a guarantee.
The headline figure at the top of this page is the most recent HRC carbon steel benchmark from the FRED Producer Price Index (series WPS1012, iron and steel), with the month-over-month and year-over-year change beside it. It refreshes monthly. Treat it as the underlying-metal reference, not a delivered vendor quote, which adds conversion, freight, and margin.
A vendor quote for a finished part or coil program includes the raw metal plus processing, freight, and the vendor margin. The benchmark is the raw input only. The useful question is not whether the quote equals the benchmark, it is whether the gap between them is normal for that material and whether it moved in the same direction the benchmark just did.
Vendor quotes typically lag commodity moves by 4 to 8 weeks. When the HRC benchmark turns up materially, the first half of that window is usually the better time to lock carbon steel volume, before the move works through to quotes. This is a heuristic from the historical lag, not a guarantee.
Monthly, from the FRED Producer Price Index. A daily intraday feed ships with the Intelligence tier in Q3 2026.
Yes. The commodity benchmark and trend are free to view with no login. Anonymized network market averages from real awarded RFQs require a BlastRFQ buyer subscription. Founding pilot members get 6 months free through August 31, 2026.