Market Data

What the PPI for Copper and Brass Mill Shapes Actually Measures

A plain-English guide to the BLS index that tracks what U.S. mills charge for copper and brass rod, sheet, tube and wire bar, and the raw-cathode and scrap prices that push it around.

The Producer Price Index for Copper and Brass Mill Shapes is a Bureau of Labor Statistics index (1982=100) tracking the prices U.S. mills receive for semi-fabricated copper and brass products. As of the latest reading, for May 2026, it stands at 559.59, meaning those prices are about 5.6 times their 1982 level, up about 76.8% from a year ago. Buyers see the index cited in surcharge notices and escalation clauses far more often than they see it defined; here is what is actually inside it.

What sits inside the index

The series covers the mill products of the copper and brass industry: rod and bar, sheet and strip, tube and pipe, and wire bar in both pure copper and brass alloys. It measures the first-sale mill price, what a brass mill or copper tube mill invoices, net of discounts, not the COMEX screen and not a distributor's counter price. That scope matters because a mill product's price is two things stacked together: the metal itself, and the fabrication premium for melting, casting, rolling, or drawing it into shape. The index captures the sum, which is why it can diverge from the cathode quote when mill capacity is tight or slack. The 1982=100 base makes the level a ratio: at 559.59, mill prices average roughly 5.6x the base year.

The inputs that push it around

The dominant driver is refined copper, the COMEX and LME cathode price typically accounts for well over half of a mill product's value, so global demand, mine supply, and tariff or premium shifts pass through quickly. The second input is scrap: brass mills in particular run heavily on recycled feed, and the spread between cathode and scrap prices moves mill economics even when the exchanges are quiet. Third is the fabrication premium itself, labor, energy, and mill utilization, which widens when order books fill and compresses when they thin. Watching the index alongside the raw cathode price tells you which layer is moving: metal, scrap spreads, or conversion.

The brass side of the index adds a wrinkle pure-copper buyers can ignore: zinc. Brass alloys run roughly one-third zinc by weight, so the yellow-metal mills' pricing carries a second commodity inside it, and the alloy surcharge schedules mills publish move with both metals. Product mix matters too, tube for plumbing and HVAC, rod for machined fittings, and strip for connectors and terminals face different demand cycles, and the index weights them by mill revenue. That is why a connector maker and a plumbing-tube buyer can both cite this series and experience different markets: the composite is the referee, but each product family trades around it. For contract language, the practical answer is to cite the index for the adjustment mechanism while benchmarking your specific product's transaction price against it once or twice a year.

PPI: Copper and Brass Mill Shapes, May 2026 (1982=100): 559.59. Ranged from 316.45 in May 2025 to 559.59 in May 2026 across the archived history.

Reading the level like a buyer

The base-year ratio gives the cleanest intuition: a basket of copper and brass mill products that cost $100,000 in 1982 runs about $559,593 at today's reading. More practically, the month-to-month changes are the negotiating tool. If your mill's price adjustment outpaces the index over the same window, the excess is the conversation to have; if it lags, expect a catch-up. And because the index is climbing and sits 100% of the way up its archived range, from 316.45 to 559.59, it also tells you where in the cycle your current quotes are being written.

A mill product's price is two things stacked together, the metal and the fabrication premium. The index captures the sum.

Put your copper volume through the metal price sensitivity calculator to see what each move in the index does to your material spend. Run your own sensitivity

Published 2026-07-13.