CRU Group

About CRU Group

CRU Group is a privately owned London-based business intelligence company focused on the global mining, metals and fertiliser markets, providing consultancy, market analysis, business analysis, news, data, conferences and price reporting agency services. Founded in 1969 as the Commodities Research Unit, a specialist copper research company, it has grown into a global intelligence house employing more than 400 people across 11 or more offices worldwide, its analysts and price assessors serving the industries that produce the world's metals and fertilisers. It publishes from crugroup.com from its headquarters at MidCity Place, 71 High Holborn, London.

Founding in 1969

In 1969 the company was founded by John Horam alongside Robert Perlman — CRU's own corporate history describes its foundation by Robert Perlman in that year — as the Commodities Research Unit, a specialist copper research company. The late 1960s were a formative period for commodity markets: the Bretton Woods system was crumbling, metals prices were becoming more volatile, and the mining and metals industries needed independent research on the markets in which they operated.

The company was later renamed from Commodities Research Unit to CRU as it expanded its offering beyond research products alone. Sir Sigmund Sternberg served as chairman of CRU Holdings in 1983, a mark of the company's growing establishment standing.

From copper to steel: the CRU price

Founded as a copper specialist, CRU began analysing the steel market in 1980, issuing its first steel price assessment in January of that year. That assessment — the US Midwest hot-rolled coil price, known in the market simply as ‘The CRU’ — became one of the most important benchmarks in the global steel industry. January 2020 marked the 40th anniversary of the price: the first assessment, in nominal terms, was $326 per short ton, equivalent to $1,079 per short ton in inflation-adjusted terms.

Over four decades, the CRU Midwest HRC price has been published through the US steel industry's most dramatic chapters — the import crises of the 1980s, when the Reagan administration sought voluntary restraint agreements with 25 exporting countries, through consolidation, the China boom and the tariff era — giving analysts a continuous, real-terms view of steel market volatility across generations.

The price reporting agency

CRU is an established price reporting agency whose assessments are embedded in physical commodity contracts across the metals and fertiliser industries. In 2013 its price reporting was audited by a Big Four accounting firm, with its prices cited as the most widely used carbon steel indices in the world at the time; in 2020 its price reporting was audited by BDO LLP; and in 2025 it was cited as the publisher of the leading US hot-rolled coil index.

The audited PRA status reflects the regulatory and commercial importance of commodity benchmarks: CRU's prices are used to settle contracts, value inventories and inform investment decisions, and their integrity underpins billions of dollars of trade.

Business intelligence across commodities

CRU delivers independent market analysis on a comprehensive range of global commodities, its in-depth analysis and forecasts providing reliable and authoritative views developed using first-hand data by experienced analysts and economists. The company's asset services span aluminium, base metals, battery metals, steel and steelmaking raw materials, precious metals, energy and fertilisers — from copper mines and smelters to lithium brine, from urea and phosphates to thermal coal and gold.

The analysis is built on primary research and proprietary methodologies developed over decades: the company stresses that it does not rely on others' models, whether forecasting demand and supply or assessing prices. Cost services help users understand industry cost structures, rank facilities against each other, investigate investment opportunities and conduct strategic planning, while emissions data partnerships — including work with Fitch Ratings on carbon emissions data — address the industry's decarbonisation agenda.

Consultancy and conferences

Alongside research and prices, CRU provides consultancy services to the mining, metals and fertiliser industries, advising on strategy, investment, market entry and asset valuation. Its conferences bring together the industry's producers, consumers, traders and financiers, extending the intelligence franchise into the convening of the market.

In 2018 the company acquired the Steel Market Update newsletter and conference product, strengthening its position in North American steel market intelligence and adding a well-established US conference franchise to its events portfolio.

Global offices and people

CRU's headquarters are in central London, with regional offices across the commodity world: Beijing (opened 2004), Singapore (2018), Shanghai, Tokyo, Sydney, Mumbai, Dubai, Johannesburg, Houston, Pittsburgh, New York, Santiago and São Paulo. The company employs more than 400 people from a range of disciplines: economists, management consultants, engineers, metallurgists, geologists, chemists and journalists.

The overseas offices and analysts based in key commodity hubs across Asia, Europe and the Americas allow CRU to build strong relationships and gather local information from the regions driving its industries — including hard-to-reach markets such as China — bringing customers deep insights into local markets across global supply chains. David Trafford became chief executive in 2019.

Partnerships

CRU works with Refinitiv to provide price data on various commodities, distributing its benchmarks through one of the financial market's great data platforms, and with Fitch Ratings on carbon emissions data, combining CRU's commodity expertise with Fitch's credit and sustainability analytics.

The partnerships extend the reach of CRU's intelligence beyond its direct subscriber base, embedding its prices and analysis in the workflows of financial institutions, traders and corporates worldwide.

CRU today

Today CRU offers what it calls unrivalled business intelligence on the global metals, mining and fertiliser industries through market analysis, price assessments, consultancy and events, founded on a reputation for integrity and independence built since 1969 and on a commitment to quality primary research and transparent methodologies.

From a specialist copper research unit to a global intelligence company whose steel price is the market's reference and whose analysts cover the commodities of the energy transition, CRU's half-century plus charts the professionalisation of commodity intelligence itself — and its private ownership has kept it, in its own phrase, big enough to deliver a high-quality service and small enough to care about all of its customers.

North America and Steel Market Update

CRU's 2018 acquisition of the Steel Market Update newsletter and conference product deepened its North American franchise, adding an established US steel intelligence brand to a portfolio already anchored by the CRU Midwest hot-rolled coil benchmark. The company's North American presence spans offices in Pittsburgh, New York and Houston, serving the continent's steel producers, service centres, traders and end-users.

The acquisition reflected CRU's strategy of combining organic benchmark authority with acquired editorial franchises: Steel Market Update's newsletter and conference brought a loyal US readership and a well-regarded events platform, complementing CRU's London-based analysis and its global office network across Europe, the Americas, China, Asia and Australia.

Calling the economic cycle

CRU's economists regularly weigh in on the macroeconomic forces shaping commodity demand. In May 2020, as economies began lifting pandemic lockdowns, the company's multi-commodity outlook estimated that one month of lockdown lowered the level of annual GDP by 2–3 per cent, forecasting a global recession with growth in the Eurozone and the United States turning negative and China suffering what it termed a hard landing, with growth slowing to just 1.6 per cent.

The call illustrated the breadth of CRU's intelligence: from the microeconomics of a copper mine's cost curve to the macroeconomics of global growth, the company's analysts connect the forces that determine commodity prices — giving customers facing critical business decisions the complete view of a commodity market that its corporate motto promises.