Steel Products Prices North America

CRU to Audit U.S. Midwest HRC Price Data Providers

November 19, 2019

CRU has underlined its commitment to ensuring “The CRU,” its U.S. Midwest HRC price, remains the most reliable and trusted reference in the industry by initiating a second audit of its data providers. The audit will be conducted by third-party audit firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC). It has been in planning for some time as a follow-up to our previous third-party audit and as part of our ongoing price governance processes.

The audit will proceed over the coming months, covering active U.S. Midwest HRC price providers to CRU, requiring submission of supporting documentation and evidence. In addition, a sample of data providers will receive a site visit from PwC in order to walk through processes and corroborate responses and supporting evidence provided.

CRU’s network of data providers—those who provide HRC prices to CRU—extends along the supply chain, including mills through steel service centers and end users. It also ranges across firm sizes including large, but also medium-sized and smaller enterprises.

“Building on the previous audit, which focused on reporting processes, this audit will scrutinize data provider adherence with published reporting specifications and the actual values reported,” said CRU Compliance Lead Claire Ballak.

“It will also support the ongoing methodology and definitions development process through the provision of independently-sourced additional information on wider aspects of HRC price reporting to CRU,” added CRU Head of Prices Development Chris Houlden.

CRU’s FOB U.S. Midwest mill HRC price, “The CRU,” is the leading steel price benchmark in North America and is used in the settlement of futures and options contracts on the CME. It is based exclusively on transaction data, to the exclusion of bid/offer or opinions of price information. It helps customers across the steel supply chain manage their commercial operations, mitigate price risk and monitor and analyse the market.

For more detail on CRU’s U.S. Midwest HRC price, please see: https://www.crugroup.com/the-cru/