ISRI scrap codes are the short names traders put on an offer when they mean a mill grade, not a mixed pile. ISRI nomenclature is the system. The codes below are the ones that actually move: ferrous numbers such as 200 and 211, copper words such as Berry and Birch, aluminium names such as Taldon and Tata, and a handful of brass, stainless and shredder grades.

They come from the Scrap Specifications Circular published by the Recycled Materials Association (ReMA), still called ISRI specs in the trade. What follows is a trading reading of those grades, not a substitute for the circular. A contract can tighten size, packing, moisture or analysis. The code is the starting point both sides already know.

The first split is still ferrous and non-ferrous. After that, the lot needs a named preparation.

Ferrous codes: HMS and shredded

200 — No. 1 heavy melting steel

ISRI 200 is HMS 1. It is wrought iron or steel, roughly 6 mm thick and up, cut to charging-box size (about 150 x 60 cm) so a furnace can take it without further burning. This is the heavy, prepared scrap of demolition and industrial dismantling: beams, plate, ship and machine steel. Thin sheet, dirt and non-ferrous attachments do not belong here. In bulk seaborne trade, 200 is the grade mills want most of.

204 — No. 2 heavy melting steel

ISRI 204 is HMS 2 in the size most often quoted on the export market (about 90 x 45 cm). It is black or galvanised steel that is too light or too mixed to pass as HMS 1. Properly prepared auto scrap can be included. Sheet iron and thin gauge are the usual complaints. The price gap between 200 and 204 is why sellers fight to keep a lot in No. 1 and buyers assay for No. 2.

HMS 1 and 2 (80/20)

Eighty/twenty is not a single ISRI number. It is a commercial mix: 80 percent HMS 1 (typically 200) and 20 percent HMS 2 (typically 204). That ratio is the benchmark cargo into Turkey, South Asia and much of the Mediterranean. If a listing says only “HMS”, ask which codes and which ratio. The mix is the deal.

211 — Shredded steel

ISRI 211 is homogeneous, magnetically separated iron and steel from fragmentisers: cars, unprepared HMS and sheet, shredded to a dense, furnace-ready product (the circular’s denser shredded grade, about 1,120 kg/m³). 210 is the lighter shredded twin. Export parcels are usually 211. The mill is buying a consistent charge, not a box of plate.

207 — No. 1 busheling

Factory steel: new sheet clippings and stampings, not old auto bodies, not coated or enamelled stock. Busheling is a premium ferrous grade when it is clean. It is more common in domestic mill feeds than in mixed deep-sea HMS cargoes, but the code still appears on European industrial lots.

Copper codes

Barley — Bare bright / No. 1 copper wire

Barley is bare, uncoated, unalloyed copper wire, the grade yards call bare bright. No tin, no lacquer, no burn. Gauge is agreed. This is the top of the copper wire ladder and is priced accordingly.

Berry — No. 1 copper wire

Berry is clean, untinned, uncoated, unalloyed copper wire and cable, free of burnt brittle wire and free of tubing. It is the workhorse No. 1 wire grade in international emails. Barley is the brighter, stricter cousin; Berry is the standard No. 1 wire parcel. Briquettes only by agreement.

Birch — No. 2 copper wire

Birch is unalloyed copper wire that is no longer No. 1: a nominal 96 percent copper, minimum 94 percent by electrolytic assay. Tinned, soldered or heavily leaded wire, brass, insulation, burnt hair wire and ash take it out of the grade. Birch is how the market prices the wire that is still copper but not bright.

Candy — No. 1 heavy copper

Candy is clean, unalloyed, uncoated heavy copper: bus bar, clippings, punchings, commutator segments and clean tube. Not wire. When a seller has both wire and solids, the combination is often offered as Berry/Candy.

Cliff — No. 2 copper solids and tubing

Cliff is miscellaneous unalloyed copper solids and tube at the same 96/94 percent idea as Birch, without the wire. Leaded or soldered scrap, brass, burnt wire, insulation and tube with iron fittings are the typical rejects. Cliff is the solids equivalent of Birch.

Clove — No. 1 copper wire nodules

Clove is chopped or shredded No. 1 bare copper wire, minimum 99 percent copper, free of tin, lead, zinc, aluminium, iron and insulation. Fine wire (smaller than 16 gauge) is a matter of agreement. This is the granule grade refiners like: high assay, easy to sample.

Druid — Insulated No. 1 copper wire

Druid is Barley-quality wire that still has its insulation. It is sold on sample or recovery, not as a dry copper percentage you can see. Droid is the insulated Birch equivalent. Recovery, not the code word alone, sets the price.

Aluminium codes

Tata — New production aluminium extrusions

Tata is new extrusion scrap, typically 6063, including press butts, free of foreign contamination. Anodising is accepted; paint or a different alloy needs agreement. This is the clean 6000-series industrial grade, not old window frames from demolition.

Tense — Mixed aluminium castings

Tense is clean mixed aluminium castings, including auto and aircraft cast, without ingots, and free of iron, brass and dirt. Oil and grease are limited. Cast is not extrusion: silicon is higher, price is lower, and a mill that asked for Tata will reject Tense.

Taldon — Baled used beverage cans

Taldon is UBC, magnetically cleaned, baled to a stated density and size, free of steel, lead, plastic, glass and anything that is not a used drinks can. It is one of the most standardised aluminium lots in the world because the product is the same can everywhere.

Talk — Aluminium-copper radiators

Talk is clean aluminium fins on copper tube, or complete aluminium-copper radiators, without brass tube or iron. The lot is a bimetal: copper recovery and aluminium recovery are both in the price.

Twitch — Fragmentiser aluminium

Twitch is the aluminium fraction from car shredders after wet or dry media separation: dry, with tight limits on free zinc, magnesium, iron, rubber and plastic, and no airbag canisters or sealed units. It sits next to Zorba on the shredder belt. Twitch is the cleaner, more aluminium-rich cousin.

Brass, stainless, zinc, lead and Zorba

Honey — Yellow brass

Honey is mixed yellow brass solids: castings, rod, tube, rolled brass, including plated pieces. Manganese bronze, aluminium bronze, unsweated radiators, iron, munitions and heavily corroded material are out. Honey is the default brass word on a European offer.

Drink — Refinery brass

Drink is a lower, mixed copper-alloy grade for the refinery: brass and bronze solids and turnings plus contaminated copper, with a copper floor around 61 percent and a cap on iron. Insulated wire and grindings do not belong. It is priced as a copper unit, not as Honey.

Sabot — 18-8 stainless solids

Sabot is clean 18-8 (304-type) stainless clips and solids: at least 7 percent nickel and 16 percent chromium, with tight caps on molybdenum, copper, phosphorus and sulphur. Attachments and 400-series magnetic stainless are the usual problems. Ultra is the turning equivalent. In trade, “304 solids” and Sabot are often used as if they were the same sentence.

Zorba — Shredded non-ferrous

Zorba is the mixed non-ferrous concentrate from a shredder: mainly aluminium, plus copper, zinc, stainless, lead, nickel, tin and magnesium. A number after the name is the estimated non-ferrous content, so Zorba 90 means about 90 percent metal. Composition of each metal is agreed. Zurik is the sensor-sorted, stainless-rich sibling. Zorba is not a single alloy; it is a concentrate.

Saves — Old zinc die-cast

Saves is old zinc-base die-cast, with or without iron attachments. Borings, dross, melted lumps and more than about 30 percent iron are not good delivery. Dirt and rubber come off the weight. This is the common zinc scrap of auto grilles and hardware.

Racks — Soft scrap lead

Racks is clean soft lead, without batteries, cable sheath, hard lead, dross, foil or fittings. Lead is a regulated cargo: packaging and transport rules have to be agreed before the truck moves. The code names the metal; it does not replace those rules.

How to use the codes on a lot

Write the ISRI name, then the metal in plain English, then quantity, packing and city. “Birch, No. 2 copper wire, 22 t, packed in big bags, Hamburg” can be read in any language. “Copper scrap” cannot. If the lot is a mix, say so: Berry/Candy, or HMS 1&2 80/20. If it is shredded, say 211 or Zorba 90, not “shredded metal”.

The circular allows buyer and seller to vary a spec. What it does not allow is using a premium code for a worse preparation. A mill that bought Berry and receives Birch has a claim. The codes exist so that claim has a published baseline.

These are not all the ISRI names. They are the ones that set prices on the European and seaborne market every day. For the system behind the words, see what ISRI nomenclature is.