125 Years of
Global Commodities Price History

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) is the primary global benchmark for light, sweet crude oil.

Brent Crude is the primary pricing benchmark for two-thirds of the world's internationally traded physical crude oil supplies.

Natural gas delivered at the Henry Hub in Erath, Louisiana is the global pricing benchmark for North American pipeline gas and LNG export contracts.

Uranium provides fuel for nuclear power. This archive tracks the weighted-average price of spot-contract deliveries purchased by U.S. civilian reactor owners and operators.

Newcastle thermal coal (6,000 kcal/kg FOB) is the primary seaborne benchmark for power utilities across the Asia-Pacific region.

Gold is used in reserves, investment, jewelry and industry. This archive tracks annual values published by the USGS.

Silver combines industrial applications with monetary and investment demand. This archive presents USGS annual silver unit values.

Platinum is used in catalytic converters, chemical processing, jewelry and investment. This archive uses platinum-specific annual price tables published by the USGS.

Palladium is the primary catalyst element used to neutralize toxic carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons in gasoline-powered internal combustion and hybrid vehicles.

Copper is humanity's foundational conductor metal, indispensable for electrical grids, renewable power, electric vehicles, and AI computing data centers.

Aluminum is the most abundant metallic element in Earth's crust, but refining it requires immense electrical energy (14,000 kWh per metric ton), earning it the moniker 'congealed electricity'.

Nickel is vital for austenitic stainless steel and high-energy-density nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) electric vehicle batteries.

Over 60% of global zinc production is consumed in galvanizing steel to prevent corrosion in bridges, automobiles, wind turbines, and buildings.

Iron ore is the essential raw feedstock for blast furnace steelmaking.

Tin is the indispensable metallurgical glue of the digital age.

Lithium carbonate is used in ceramics, glass and battery materials. This archive uses the USGS carbonate proxy and import unit-value history, rather than a battery-grade spot benchmark.

Cobalt is used in rechargeable batteries, superalloys and industrial materials. This chart measures USGS annual import unit values per metric ton of cobalt content.

Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) Soft Red Winter Wheat is the preeminent global benchmark for wheat.

Corn (Maize) is the largest grain crop grown in the United States by volume and economic value.

Soybeans are the world's most heavily traded agricultural commodity.

This chart tracks annual Arabica coffee prices from the World Bank Pink Sheet.

Cocoa beans are the primary raw ingredient for chocolate and cocoa butter.

Cotton No.

World Sugar No.

Sawnwood is timber cut into usable boards. This archive tracks the World Bank Malaysian sawnwood benchmark in dollars per cubic meter, rather than U.S. framing-lumber futures.