Steelmaking raw material prices iron ore coal gas electricity.

Steelmaking Commodity Prices.

World steel raw material & energy costs

Price per cost unit

Year	Month	Thermal Coal $/tonne	Iron Ore $/tonne	Natural Gas $/BTU m	Electricity c/kWh
2015	1	61.44	68.23	9.25	6.62
2015	2	69.05	62.75	8.27	6.88
2015	3	64.76	58.05	8.27	6.79
2015	4	56.24	52.28	6.77	6.55
2015	5	61.19	60.3	6.68	6.65
2015	6	58.96	62.63	6.67	6.98
2015	7	59.9	52.39	6.69	7.3
2015	8	59.14	56.19	6.35	7.32
2015	9	57.65	56.95	6.28	7.18
2015	10	54.26	53.12	6.03	6.87
2015	11	52.47	46.86	5.5	6.59
2015	12	52.21	40.5	5.09	6.42
2016	1	49.02	41.88	4.4	6.44
2016	2	50.27	46.83	3.97	6.42
2016	3	52.21	56.2	3.91	6.46
2016	4	50.69	60.92	3.97	6.44
2016	5	51.31	55.13	4.33	6.57
2016	6	52.85	51.98	4.76	7.03
2016	7	61.24	57.26	4.67	7.23
2016	8	67.39	60.89	4.05	7.23
2016	9	72.72	57.79	4.25	7.14
2016	10	94.2	59.09	5.34	6.73
2016	11	103.43	73.1	5.69	6.66
2016	12	88.15	80.02	5.42	6.67
2017	1	83.73	80.41	6.14	6.59
2017	2	79.98	89.44	6.05	6.63
2017	3	80.9	87.65	5	6.71
2017	4	83.65	70.22	5.01	6.6
2017	5	74.42	62.43	5.06	6.78
2017	6	81.09	57.48	4.89	7.19
2017	7	87.49	67.74	5	7.31
2017	8	98.58	76.07	5.48	7.22
2017	9	97.82	71.53	5.96	7.17
2017	10	97.11	61.66	6.18	6.91
2017	11	96.64	64.24	6.69	6.73
2017	12	100.81	72.25	7.14	6.54
2018	1	106.45	76.34	6.66	6.95
2018	2	105.95	77.46	6.72	6.81
2018	3	96.66	70.35	6.7	6.66
2018	4	93.69	65.75	6.93	6.58
2018	5	105.29	66.1	7.49	6.82
2018	6	114.33	65.04	7.45	7.18
2018	7	119.57	64.56	7.6	7.34
2018	8	117.34	67.15	8.08	7.22
2018	9	114.16	68.44	9.52	7.17
2018	10	108.73	73.41	8.79	6.91
2018	11	100.73	73.26	8.27	6.88
2018	12	101.37	69.15	7.98	6.65
2019	1	98.56	76.16	7.26	6.58
2019	2	95.42	88.22	6.01	6.68
2019	3	93.12	86.47	5.18	6.73
2019	4	86.77	93.70	4.92	6.53
2019	5	82.32	100.2	4.34	6.71
2019	6	72.49	108.9	3.59	6.91
2019	7	72.08	120.2	3.62	7.18
2019	8	65.6	93.07	3.68	7.44
2019	9	66.0	93.08	4.21	7.09
2019	10	68.9	88.5	5.06	6.85
2019	11	67.0	85.0	5.15	6.73
2019	12	66.2	92.7	4.62	6.37
2020	1	69.7	95.8	3.63	6.33
2020	2	67.6	87.7	2.91	6.42
2020	3	66.7	89.0	2.72	6.40
2020	4	58.6	84.7	2.12	6.41
2020	5	52.5	93.7	1.58	6.48
2020	6	52.2	103.3	1.75	6.95
2020	7	51.6	108.5	1.80	7.17
2020	8	50.1	121.1	2.86	7.09
2020	9	54.6	123.8	3.95	7.01
2020	10	58.4	119.8	4.89	6.72
2020	11	64.4	124.4	4.84	6.48
2020	12	83.0	155.4	5.86	6.40
2021	1	86.8	169.6	7.27	6.32
2021	2	86.7	163.8	6.16	7.75
2021	3	94.9	168.2	6.13	6.98
2021	4	92.2	179.8	7.15	6.70
2021	5	107.0	207.7	8.91	6.65
2021	6	130.0	214.4	10.30	7.22
2021	7	152.0	214.1	12.51	7.42
2021	8	169.6	162.2	15.43	7.54
2021	9	185.7	124.5	22.84	7.61
2021	10	224.5	122.9	31.05	7.44
2021	11	157.5	96.2	27.62	7.37
2021	12	169.7	117.0	38.03	7.06
2022	1	197.0	132.5	28.26	7.19
2022	2	219.8	142.8	27.23	7.28
2022	3	314.0	152.1	42.39	7.37
2022	4	310.9	151.3	32.20	7.70
2022	5	371.9	131.2	29.17	8.25
2022	6	374.1	130.7	33.36	8.85
2022	7	402.2	108.6	51.33	9.31
2022	8	407.0	108.9	70.04	9.38
2022	9	430.8	99.8	59.1	9.06
2022	10	389.8	92.6	39.0	8.45
2022	11	342.2	93.3	35.7	8.14
2022	12	379.2	111.8	36.04	8.50
2023	1	318.0	122.2	20.18	8.32
2023	2	207.5	127.6	16.54	8.10
2023	3	187.2	128.4	13.81	7.79
2023	4	194.3	117.4	13.52	7.50
2023	5	160.5	105.2	10.11	7.62
2023	6	139.4	113.5	10.35	8.08
2023	7	140.6	114.4	9.55	8.32
2023	8	152.6	110.2	11.19	8.87
2023	9	162.5	121.0	11.55	8.44
2023	10	142.1	119.0	14.57	8.01
2023	11	126.8	131.1	14.49	7.81
2023	12	141.8	137.1	11.51	7.66
2024	1	124.9	135.8	9.56	8.10
2024	2	124.2	124.4	8.15	7.81
2024	3	131.5	109.8	8.55	7.73
2024	4	135.0	112.8	9.09	7.82
2024	5	142.0	118.9	10.12	7.95
2024	6	135.1	107.5	10.87	n/a
2024	7	137.6	106.9	10.35	n/a
2024	8	145.8	99.9	12.37	n/a

Table last updated: 12th September 2024. Next update: ~15th October 2024.

Comment on recent commodity price trends

Prices for thermal coal hit an all time high in September 2022, but are now around one third of that level having declined rapidly in H1 2023. World iron ore price peaked in mid-2021 and are now less than 50% of their peak level. Click here for further disussion about the current steel price cycle.

Notes and commodity definitions

Thermal Coal: Note the definition has changed over time, as follows.
- From January 2015, prices are for fo.b. Newcastle, 6000 kcal/kg.
- For 2002-2014, prices are f.o.b. piers, Newcastle/Port Kembla , 6,300 kcal/kg (11,340 btu/lb).
- In both cases, coal has less than 1% sulfur and ash content below 14%. Data is expressed in US $ per metric tonne.

Iron Ore: price figures are for Chinese imported iron ore fines (62% Fe spot, CFR Tianjin port). The units are $ per metric tonne.

Natural Gas and Electricity Costs: Gas is Russian origin, border price in Germany expressed in US $ per million metric British Thermal Units. Electricity figures are average monthly US costs for industrial consumers. Units are cents per kilowatt hour.

U.S.A. GAS PRICES

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Cost Models
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