Primary Nonferrous Metals: Reading the History Without Inferring a Copper or Aluminum Cycle

Source identity correction: this page previously described copper and brass mill shapes. The stored BLS series is WPU1022, Primary Nonferrous Metals, covering the broad primary nonferrous metals commodity group. The historical readings and page address are preserved; the earlier narrower product interpretation was incorrect.

Primary Nonferrous Metals stands at 544.73 index (1982=100) in the latest archived observation, Aug 2026, up about 49.3% from a year ago. These are index points with a 1982=100 base, not dollars per pound or per tonne.

Read the range as a price history

Across the 37-year archive, the archived low is 92.40 in Nov 1993 and the high is 587.67 in Jun 2026. The current reading is 91% of the distance from that low to that high. This is a position within a numeric range, not a statistical percentile or a probability of reversal.

Primary Nonferrous Metals, Aug 2026: 544.73. WPU1022; broad producer price index, 1982=100.

What would support a causal interpretation

A price change can reflect supply, demand, product composition and other conditions. A broad primary-metals or mill-shapes PPI cannot establish a copper-specific electrification squeeze, aluminum conversion pressure or an approaching industrial downturn. Investigate with matching product prices, quantities, inventories, capacity and order data. Keep any resulting causal explanation separate from the price observation itself.

Check the scope of any comparison

Use this series as broad producer-price context. It does not isolate aluminum, copper, brass, an alloy, a finished component or your supplier's invoice. A movement in the aggregate cannot identify which metal moved or separate raw-material, energy, labor and fabrication contributions. For a product-specific decision, obtain the corresponding product series and supplier pricing on the same units and dates.

Use your actual material price, quantity and an explicit change assumption to estimate cost sensitivity. Model a documented price scenario