Do scrapyards still take scrap ?

[bontai_Joe]

Last July I was quoted $7.50 per 100 pounds on junk cars, I had my old truck (Dodge Dakota) towed in with the bed full of misc. scrap metal in late Oct. and got $4 per hundred. After paying the tow truck, I cleared $60, not what I had planned. I still have an old car in my yard, and it's a lot lighter than the truck, so with today's prices, I'd loose money after paying for the tow, unless I find a bargain tow truck service. I've got around 500 pound of aluminum, and maybe 100 pounds of copper and brass, and I'm gonna sit on it for a while. My local yard is still taking metal, but I don't know for how long as his piles are getting pretty big.

 

[varmint]

Just visited a recycling yard over on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, found the 4 6' long pieces of heavywall alum. sq. tube I needed, for $1 a pound. I was happy to dig thru the mass of scrap aluminum to find just what I needed at a cheap price. They buy metal scrap, but I don't know what they pay. I do know that clean scrap brass (from manufacturing) is worth $4 pound, in quantity.

 

[pickstock]

well in australia its the same prices were high and now there nothng abnd they don't even tak old cars like what weve got =(

mums not getting a christmas girft this year
spke

 

[Scooby074]

I had a small car picked up today all i got was $25 down from around $70.

 

[California]

... financial planner/ investment guru ... claimed that he has always watched the scrap metals markets very closely and used it as one of the best indicators for not only certain sectors but for the general economy. ... His theory is that material needs are a direct indication of how much business certain sectors will be doing and an excellent forecaster of the near future economic trends.

Ok, a data point from Northern California. This was in the paper a week ago.

A scrap paper/cardboard exporter said the price he was getting from China, for material that would be turned into cardboard boxes, dropped suddenly. Then the China importer said don't ship any more.

This guy has no market and his stockpile of huge bales is growing like crazy. (I think his source is landfill-diversion recycling from the county, all free to him, and they deliver bales to him whether he wants it or not.)

He said this is the first time in 23 years that there is no market for waste paper at all. His theory is that imports from China have nearly halted, so they don't need any packing material to send stuff over.

I don't think we are anywhere near the bottom of this market.

 

[JSharp]

Ok, a data point from Northern California. This was in the paper a week ago.

A scrap paper/cardboard exporter said the price he was getting from China, for material that would be turned into cardboard boxes, dropped suddenly. Then the China importer said don't ship any more.

This guy has no market and his stockpile of huge bales is growing like crazy. (I think his source is landfill-diversion recycling from the county, all free to him, and they deliver bales to him whether he wants it or not.)

He said this is the first time in 23 years that there is no market for waste paper at all. His theory is that imports from China have nearly halted, so they don't need any packing material to send stuff over.

I don't think we are anywhere near the bottom of this market.

From 3 weeks ago. An article about the port at Long Beach being flooded with cars and cardboard -

There has also been a sharp drop in demand for the ports' single largest export: recycled cardboard and paper products.

This material typically goes to China, where it is used to make boxes for new electronics and other products that are sent back to the United States. But Chinese factories reacting to sharply falling demand are slowing production, so they need less cardboard. Tons of paper are piling up recycling businesses around the port, the detritus of economies on hold.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/b...op/News/World/Countries and Territories/China

I don't think we're near the bottom either. After the crash of '29 it was about 3 years until the market bottomed. Anyone ready to see the Dow at 6500?

 

[Knotbored]

Alternative energy?
How about burning that cardboard in coal-fured boiler plants to produce cheap energy and melt down the cars into ingots to sell to tractor manufacturers.

 

[Renze]

How about burning that cardboard in coal-fured boiler plants to produce cheap energy and melt down the cars into ingots to sell to tractor manufacturers.

Problem is that cardboard combustion temperatures arent high enough to melt steel- and the tractor manufacturers can get ingots cheap too because the demand for them is inherent to the low scrap demand...

 

[charlz]

Some years back I worked for a company that made onboard systems for trucks. Trash companies were a market segment. I was onsite at a trash company where they were the service company for a county trash contract. The county was mandated to collect cardboard in separate bins as part of the recycling program. They were bringing it in, baling it and hauling it to the landfill. I was like they said there was no market at the moment and the fire laws (or maybe insurance) wouldn't let them stockpile very much so they just went through the motions. They got paid to pick it up via the contract with the county whether there was a market for it or not. Probably some of that going on right now.

 

[tractorman99]

Metal prices


Current Primary and Scrap Metal Prices - LME (London Metal Exchange), COMEX, NYMEX, Copper, Aluminum, Nickel, Tin, Lead, Zinc, Iron, Steel, Specialty Steel, Stainless Steel, Nickel Alloy, Chrome, Titanium, Ferrochrome, Cobalt, Molybdenum, Antimony, P

 

[jlbrewer]

To change the subject just a little bit....

I've been wondering about this as I shop for implements. Every dealer states that what they have on the lot is "X dollars," but the next one I order will be "Y more" (usually substantially more. Given that steel and fuel prices have fallen with the economic downturn, why are implement prices still skyrocketing? Maybe the dealers and manufacturers are just trying to do a little profit taking, but the economics don't seem to add up.

Anyone else got any thoughts on this?

 

[foggy1111]

To change the subject just a little bit....

I've been wondering about this as I shop for implements. Every dealer states that what they have on the lot is "X dollars," but the next one I order will be "Y more" (usually substantially more. Given that steel and fuel prices have fallen with the economic downturn, why are implement prices still skyrocketing? Maybe the dealers and manufacturers are just trying to do a little profit taking, but the economics don't seem to add up.

Anyone else got any thoughts on this?

I worked in sales for a major aluminum company for over 20 years and for and for a major metal fabricator and end users as well. During this time I have seen the rapid price increases happen many times....followed by a big drop in prices. (re: aluminum prices in the 70's) The metal mills pass on price increases rapidly....but the price concessions take allot of time to occur. Usually the competition (another mill) has to offer a lower price to force the primary supplier to offer a lower price (s).

Typically it takes allot of time (several months) for the end users to realize the new lower prices are here to stay and make price cuts for their products....they got this high priced inventory and just don't want to take a loss on it....but eventually reality sets in. This volatility in the markets makes for some huge profits for some.....and huge losses for others. The aftershocks of volatility are what makes it rough. It makes it hard for everyone to figure out what's gonna happen next....and I think that's the fear at this time.

All I know is that I never seem to be on the right side of it.

 

[varmint]

I just read thru all 6 pages... this is like a mini-course in economics! Very interesting. Makes me want to learn more about whole system. Seems to me that government intervention, ie., certain requirements for recycled contents in manuf. products, would get the system moving again. The idea of burying useful scrap is just wrong...

 

[Renze]

As said in a different thread, i got 13 cents per kg for scrap 3 weeks ago... Its going up again.

 

[BILL_K]

5 feb Long Beach,Ca. was paying 200.00 a ton for steel and 130.00 for tin

 

[Renze]

5 feb Long Beach,Ca. was paying 200.00 a ton for steel and 130.00 for tin

Thats 18 and 11.2 dollarcent per kg ?? The 13 Eurocent i got, was for pure junk, no heavy steel. So i think the prices are pretty much equal around the world.

==on edit: given the exchange rate, i got payd the US price of heavy steel, for my Euro tin

 

[California]

Question: do you need to cut up scrap steel to get market price, or can you take in whole assemblies?

 

[Renze]

Question: do you need to cut up scrap steel to get market price, or can you take in whole assemblies?

I cut it up to be able to haul some... But when i brought a whole feed silo i got the same price as allways. For an old manure tanker i got less, because there is so much dirt inside...