Get Brass Rod (BR-ROD) - Per Tonne Historical Prices using this API for daily time series

If you need Brass Rod (BR-ROD) — priced per metric tonne — as a daily historical time series for pricing, forecasting, or inventory valuation, you can get it from Metals-API in a clean JSON format that’s ready for modeling. This guide shows how to query BR-ROD daily historical prices, interpret response fields, handle units and weekends correctly, and integrate the data into pricing engines, ERP systems, or analytics pipelines. We’ll focus on two endpoints that matter for this task: Time-Series (daily history between dates) and Historical (single day snapshots). We’ll also include a realistic curl request and a concise Python example to pull and normalize values for downstream use.

Why BR-ROD daily historical prices matter for modern apps

Brass rod is a staple in manufacturing, machining, valves, fittings, architecture, and electrical applications. Having accurate, daily historical prices per tonne enables:

• Dynamic pricing for quotes and contracts that track recent brass rod costs.
• Backtesting and research for hedging or procurement strategies.
• ERP/MRP cost roll-ups and standard cost updates.
• Data-driven reorder points that account for volatility and trend.
• KPI tracking (cost per unit output, margin by SKU, variance to plan).

Metals-API delivers daily historical Brass Rod (BR-ROD) prices in a developer-friendly JSON REST interface. Start with the Metals-API Website to get your API key, and confirm symbols on the Metals-API Supported Symbols page.

What this guide covers

• How to get BR-ROD per tonne daily historical prices with the Time-Series endpoint.
• How to retrieve a single date with the Historical endpoint.
• Decoding JSON responses: base currency, unit, timestamp, rates, and missing days.
• Best practices: units and conversions (troy ounces vs tonnes), timezone, weekends/holidays, caching, and retries.
• Secure integration patterns and error handling.
• A curl request and a short Python example to operationalize your data pulls.

Quick reference: BR-ROD and per-tonne pricing

Brass Rod is typically transacted in bulk with valuations quoted per metric tonne. In Metals-API, symbols map to standardized units. Precious metals tend to return “per troy ounce”; industrial series like BR-ROD return “per tonne” in the response’s unit field.

Symbol	Description	Default Base	Quoted Unit	Use Case
BR-ROD	Brass Rod commodity series	USD (default)	per tonne	Manufacturing, procurement, ERP cost updates, quoting

Verify symbol availability and metadata anytime on the Metals-API Supported Symbols directory.

Endpoints you’ll use for BR-ROD daily history

We’ll focus on two endpoints ideal for daily historical pricing workflows:

• Time-Series endpoint: request a continuous daily series between start_date and end_date for BR-ROD.
• Historical endpoint: fetch a reference price on a specific YYYY-MM-DD for validation, backfills, or spot checks.

For broader capabilities (latest, OHLC, fluctuation, conversions, intraday, etc.), see the Metals-API Documentation.

Authentication and request basics

All requests include your access_key as a query parameter. Data is returned in JSON. By default, rates are relative to USD unless you specify another base. The unit appears in the response and tells you how to interpret the rate (per tonne for BR-ROD).

• Base currency: USD by default. Use the base parameter to request another currency if supported by your plan.
• Symbols: Always include BR-ROD for this use case; you can comma-separate multiple symbols if you need a basket.
• Dates: Use ISO format YYYY-MM-DD. Time-Series accepts start_date and end_date.

Get your free key at the Metals-API Website and store it securely (environment variables or a secrets manager).

Time-Series: daily BR-ROD historical prices between dates

Purpose and functionality

The Time-Series endpoint returns daily closing prices for each date in the requested range. This is the fastest path to load a full panel for analytics, charting, or backtesting. Weekends and market holidays are handled by returning data for business days; dates without prices may be absent or carry last-available values depending on market availability. Always programmatically check for missing dates.

Parameters you’ll use

• access_key: Your API key.
• symbols: BR-ROD
• base: Optional. Defaults to USD.
• start_date: Inclusive start (YYYY-MM-DD).
• end_date: Inclusive end (YYYY-MM-DD).

Example: curl request for a six-month daily series

curl "https://metals-api.com/api/timeseries?access_key=YOUR_ACCESS_KEY&base=USD&symbols=BR-ROD&start_date=2024-01-01&end_date=2024-06-30"

Realistic JSON response

{
"success": true,
"timeseries": true,
"start_date": "2024-01-01",
"end_date": "2024-06-30",
"base": "USD",
"rates": {
"2024-01-02": { "BR-ROD": 6125.0 },
"2024-01-03": { "BR-ROD": 6140.5 },
"2024-01-04": { "BR-ROD": 6132.0 },
"2024-01-05": { "BR-ROD": 6151.2 },
"2024-01-08": { "BR-ROD": 6160.0 },
"2024-01-09": { "BR-ROD": 6157.4 }
/* ... business days through 2024-06-30 ... */
},
"unit": "per tonne"
}

Field-by-field: what your application should use

• success: Boolean. Verify before processing.
• timeseries: Boolean. Confirms the query type.
• start_date / end_date: Echoed inputs for audit logs.
• base: Currency that denominates the price (USD by default).
• rates: Date-keyed map of daily prices for BR-ROD in base currency.
• unit: “per tonne” tells you volume basis for BR-ROD. Use this in UOM conversions.

Handling missing dates and weekends

Do not assume every calendar date appears. Weekends and exchange holidays may be omitted. If you need a continuous daily index, forward-fill programmatically for analytics while preserving a business-day calendar in your database for clarity.

Common pitfalls and solutions

• Omitting symbols: Without symbols, you may pull a large payload you don’t need. Always pass symbols=BR-ROD.
• Timezones: Prices represent the market reference day; store the returned date as-is and avoid local TZ shifts on the date key.
• Double-counts in ETL: Use idempotent upserts keyed by (symbol, date) to safely re-run jobs.
• Unit mismatch: The response’s unit drives UOM conversion logic (e.g., tonne to kg). Don’t assume per troy ounce.

Performance tips

• Batch by quarter or half-year if you need multi-year history to avoid very large single responses.
• Cache normalized BR-ROD series in a time-series database to reduce repeat API calls for the same range.
• Schedule off-peak refreshes and only delta-load new dates after an initial backfill.

Security best practices

• Keep access_key in environment variables or a secrets manager; never commit it to source control.
• Proxy API calls server-side when building client apps; don’t expose keys in the browser.
• Implement request signing or origin checks on your server endpoints that relay Metals-API data.

Historical: single-day BR-ROD snapshots

Purpose and functionality

The Historical endpoint returns the reference price for a specific date. Use it for validation spot checks, audit trails, or when you only need one date (e.g., end-of-month valuation).

Parameters you’ll use

• access_key: Your API key.
• date: Target date (YYYY-MM-DD) appended to the endpoint path.
• symbols: BR-ROD
• base: Optional (USD by default).

Example: curl request for a specific date

curl "https://metals-api.com/api/2024-03-29?access_key=YOUR_ACCESS_KEY&base=USD&symbols=BR-ROD"

Realistic JSON response

{
"success": true,
"timestamp": 1711756800,
"base": "USD",
"date": "2024-03-29",
"rates": {
"BR-ROD": 6278.4
},
"unit": "per tonne"
}

Field-by-field: what to store

• date: Trading/valuation date. Use as the primary key with symbol.
• rates.BR-ROD: Price per tonne in base currency.
• timestamp: Epoch seconds when the price was last updated in the system. Use for metadata, not as the series date.
• unit: Confirms per tonne. Persist for auditability.

Use cases

• End-of-month revaluation: query the final business day of the month for ledger adjustments.
• Cost variance analysis: compare standard cost vs. historical BR-ROD for the same date last year.
• Dispute resolution: retrieve historical price evidence for quote or invoice reviews.

Optional: Latest for sanity checks and dashboards

While our goal is historical data, the Latest endpoint can power a live dashboard or input validation to ensure your historical series aligns with the current trend. Keep it secondary to Time-Series and Historical in backfills.

Example: curl request for current BR-ROD

curl "https://metals-api.com/api/latest?access_key=YOUR_ACCESS_KEY&base=USD&symbols=BR-ROD"

Realistic JSON response

{
"success": true,
"timestamp": 1727131200,
"base": "USD",
"date": "2024-09-24",
"rates": {
"BR-ROD": 6542.1
},
"unit": "per tonne"
}

When to use Latest

• Display today’s indicative BR-ROD in procurement or quoting UIs.
• Validate that your daily batch loaded the newest available record.
• Generate alerts when BR-ROD crosses thresholds versus historical averages.

Complete example: pull and normalize BR-ROD daily history in Python

The snippet below fetches a date range, forward-fills missing business days, and converts per tonne values to per kilogram for BOM-level costing. Adjust as needed for your environment.

import os
import json
import urllib.request
from datetime import date, timedelta

ACCESS_KEY = os.environ.get("METALS_API_KEY")
BASE = "USD"
SYMBOL = "BR-ROD"
START = "2024-01-01"
END = "2024-06-30"

url = (
"https://metals-api.com/api/timeseries"
f"?access_key={ACCESS_KEY}&base={BASE}&symbols={SYMBOL}"
f"&start_date={START}&end_date={END}"
)

with urllib.request.urlopen(url) as resp:
payload = json.loads(resp.read().decode())

if not payload.get("success", False):
raise RuntimeError(f"API error: {payload}")

unit = payload.get("unit", "")
if unit != "per tonne":
raise ValueError(f"Unexpected unit for {SYMBOL}: {unit}")

rates = payload["rates"] # dict: date -> { "BR-ROD": price }
# Build a continuous series with forward fill on business days
def daterange(d1, d2):
cur = d1
while cur <= d2:
yield cur
cur += timedelta(days=1)

start_dt = date.fromisoformat(payload["start_date"])
end_dt = date.fromisoformat(payload["end_date"])

last_val = None
series = []
for d in daterange(start_dt, end_dt):
ds = d.isoformat()
if ds in rates and SYMBOL in rates[ds]:
last_val = rates[ds][SYMBOL]
# Skip weekends without forward fill if desired
if d.weekday() >= 5 and ds not in rates:
continue
if last_val is not None:
per_tonne = last_val
per_kg = per_tonne / 1000.0
series.append({"date": ds, "symbol": SYMBOL, "price_usd_per_tonne": per_tonne, "price_usd_per_kg": per_kg})

# 'series' now holds normalized daily data for BR-ROD
print(json.dumps(series[:5], indent=2))

What this code does

• Issues a Time-Series request for BR-ROD between two dates.
• Asserts the expected unit is “per tonne.”
• Iterates over dates, forward-filling business days and skipping weekends unless you choose otherwise.
• Creates a derived per-kilogram field (tonne/1000) for BOM and SKU-level costing.

Understanding units and conversions for BR-ROD

Units matter. Industrial series like BR-ROD are returned “per tonne” (1 tonne = 1000 kg). If your ERP or quoting system prices brass content by kg or by piece weight, convert directly:

• USD per kg = USD per tonne / 1000.
• Line cost = weight_kg × USD per kg.
• If you store densities and dimensions for rods, compute piece weight and multiply.

Do not mix precious metal units (troy ounce) with industrial series (tonnes). Always read the response’s unit field and enforce UOM checks in code to prevent silent mispricing.

Time, date, and timezone considerations

• Response date reflects the market valuation day; store as a date (no timezone shift).
• Use the date string as the canonical key to merge with your business calendar.
• timestamp gives the epoch seconds when the price was last set in the system; it’s metadata, not your series key.

Caching, batching, and cost control

• Cache historical ranges after first fetch; they rarely change.
• Delta-load new days once daily instead of re-querying entire ranges.
• Batch long histories by year or quarter to avoid oversized responses and to improve resilience.
• Implement an exponential backoff strategy on transient HTTP or network errors.

Data validation and sanitization

• Check success is true; otherwise parse the error object if present.
• Validate unit for BR-ROD is per tonne; abort if unexpected.
• Ensure rates[date]["BR-ROD"] exists before arithmetic; handle missing dates explicitly.
• Cast numeric fields to decimals/floats in a controlled manner to avoid precision surprises in financial calcs.

Error handling patterns

• Network errors: retry with jittered backoff; cap attempts to protect SLAs.
• Invalid parameters: log endpoint, query, and server error payload for rapid triage.
• Missing data on a date: decide whether to skip, forward-fill, or use prior business day based on your accounting policy.
• Auth failures: rotate or refresh access_key securely; don’t log secrets.

Architectural considerations for production systems

• Ingestion jobs: a daily ETL that calls Time-Series for yesterday-to-today to pick up the latest business day.
• Storage: time-series DB or warehouse table keyed by (symbol, date), storing base, unit, and price value.
• API gateway: a service wrapper that normalizes responses, applies business-day calendars, and enforces UOM contracts.
• Observability: metrics on data freshness, missing-date counts, and price jumps versus rolling averages.

Transformative potential: brass data meets smart manufacturing

Brass (BRASS) markets are being reshaped by digital transformation: real-time data flows into procurement bots; machine learning aligns purchase timing with seasonality; and IoT-driven production lines estimate material usage in advance to pre-hedge. Developers can use Metals-API to wire BR-ROD prices into smart quoting engines, configure rules for cost-based markups, and auto-adjust reorder quantities to minimize cash tied up in inventory without risking stockouts.

As technological innovation accelerates, data analytics converts BR-ROD price histories into actionable insights: volatility clustering for risk buffers, vendor lead-time calibration to price windows, and what-if simulations on copper-zinc spreads (brass composition drivers). Metals-API’s JSON format makes it simple to feed these models in batch or streaming workflows.

Compare the endpoints used in this guide

Endpoint	Primary Use	Key Params	Response Highlights	When to Prefer
Time-Series	Daily BR-ROD history between two dates	symbols=BR-ROD, start_date, end_date, base	rates[YYYY-MM-DD].BR-ROD, unit, base	Backfills, charting, modeling, analytics
Historical	Single-day BR-ROD price	symbols=BR-ROD, base; date in path	date, rates.BR-ROD, unit, timestamp	Audit checks, EOM valuation, spot retrieval
Latest	Current indicative BR-ROD price	symbols=BR-ROD, base	date, rates.BR-ROD, unit	Dashboards, alerts, sanity checks

Additional examples and scenarios

Time-Series with a different base currency

If your accounting currency isn’t USD, request another base if supported by your plan. Always verify the base in the response before persisting values.

curl "https://metals-api.com/api/timeseries?access_key=YOUR_ACCESS_KEY&base=EUR&symbols=BR-ROD&start_date=2024-04-01&end_date=2024-04-30"

{
"success": true,
"timeseries": true,
"start_date": "2024-04-01",
"end_date": "2024-04-30",
"base": "EUR",
"rates": {
"2024-04-01": { "BR-ROD": 5850.3 },
"2024-04-02": { "BR-ROD": 5864.1 }
/* ... */
},
"unit": "per tonne"
}

Historical with a weekend date

If you query a weekend or holiday, the date field will reflect the valuation day returned by the API for that historical request. Handle this in your UI by showing the returned date alongside the requested date.

curl "https://metals-api.com/api/2024-05-25?access_key=YOUR_ACCESS_KEY&base=USD&symbols=BR-ROD"

{
"success": true,
"timestamp": 1716681600,
"base": "USD",
"date": "2024-05-24",
"rates": {
"BR-ROD": 6411.7
},
"unit": "per tonne"
}

Error scenario: invalid symbol

Always confirm your symbol via the Metals-API Supported Symbols page.

{
"success": false,
"error": {
"code": "invalid_symbols",
"type": "invalid_symbols",
"info": "One or more invalid symbols were specified: BRROD"
}
}

Solution: correct to BR-ROD.

Production checklists

Data ingestion checklist

• Verify success flag and expected fields.
• Assert base and unit match your configuration.
• Normalize types (Decimal for financial accuracy where required).
• Idempotent upsert keyed by (symbol, date).
• Alert on missing business days or unexpected gaps.

Systems and scaling checklist

• Schedule daily loads after market cutoffs you adopt in policy.
• Partition warehouse tables by date for fast range scans.
• Precompute rolling averages, volatilities, and cost indices.
• Implement circuit breakers to pause non-critical refreshes during outages.

Security checklist

• Store access_key outside code (env vars, vault).
• Use server-side calls; never expose the key to browsers or mobile clients.
• Rotate keys on personnel changes and implement least-privilege CI/CD access.

From data to decisions: analytics patterns for BR-ROD

• Moving windows: 20D, 60D, 250D averages to modulate quote margins.
• Volatility budgeting: adjust buffer stock and contract terms when BR-ROD variance spikes.
• Seasonality scans: month-over-month deltas to plan procurement windows.
• Sensitivity analysis: measure margin sensitivity to BR-ROD moves for top SKUs.

Integrating with ERP, MES, and quoting tools

• ERP: nightly job updates “Brass Rod Cost (USD/tonne)” and cascades to BOM roll-ups.
• MES: production orders compute real-time material cost exposure via per-kg conversion.
• Quoting: UI shows today’s BR-ROD, last 30D avg, and automatically applies pricing rules.

Quality assurance and auditability

• Persist raw JSON payloads for 90 days for forensic checks.
• Annotate price records with metadata: source=Metals-API, unit=per tonne, base=USD, load_timestamp.
• Run periodic reconciliations versus single-day Historical queries to validate cached Time-Series panels.

Future trends and smart technology integration

As brass supply chains digitize, expect tighter coupling between market data and shop-floor decisions. Autonomous procurement agents can monitor BR-ROD trajectories and issue conditional POs. Predictive maintenance can anticipate scrap rates and fold expected regrind credits into net material costs tied to BR-ROD. With APIs like Metals-API, developers lay the foundation for these next-generation systems, turning historical series into real-time levers for efficiency and margin control.

Get started

1) Get your free API key at the Metals-API Website. 2) Confirm BR-ROD on the Symbols page. 3) Use the Time-Series endpoint to fetch your backfill and wire it into your analytics or ERP. For advanced parameters and additional features, visit the Metals-API Documentation.

Additional resources

• Official Metals-API Documentation for endpoints and parameters
• Supported Symbols to verify BR-ROD and units
• Sign up for a free key on the Metals-API Website
• ISO 4217 currency codes reference
• Metric tonne definition and conversions

Conclusion

Daily historical pricing for Brass Rod (BR-ROD) — per tonne — is straightforward with Metals-API. Use the Time-Series endpoint for bulk backfills, the Historical endpoint for single-day validation, and the Latest endpoint for dashboards or sanity checks. Always confirm the base currency and the unit in each response, handle weekends and closures gracefully, and cache what you can. With a small amount of plumbing, you can integrate BR-ROD time series into pricing engines, ERP cost models, and analytical workflows that scale. Start now: get an API key from the Metals-API Website and review parameters in the documentation.

FAQ

What symbol should I use for brass rod?

Use BR-ROD. Always verify availability and metadata on the Supported Symbols page.

Are BR-ROD prices returned per tonne?

Yes. The response includes unit: "per tonne" for BR-ROD. Always check the unit field rather than assuming.

What currency are prices in?

USD by default. Pass base=EUR (or other supported currency) if needed. Verify the base in each response.

How do I handle weekends and holidays?

Some dates won’t appear if markets are closed. Forward-fill business days for analysis if appropriate, and retain the original date keys for auditability.

Can I get intraday brass rod data?

This guide focuses on daily history. For details on intraday or other endpoints, see the Metals-API Documentation.

What’s the best way to store this data?

Use a table keyed by (symbol, date) with fields for base, unit, and price. Partition by date for efficient range queries and backfills.

How should I secure my API key?

Store it in environment variables or a secrets manager. Do not embed it in client-side code. Proxy requests through your server if building web or mobile apps.

Can I convert per tonne to per kg?

Yes. USD per kg = USD per tonne / 1000. Use this for BOM-level costing and SKU pricing.