Scrap metal prices are not a single number. People search “scrap metal prices”, “copper scrap prices” and “aluminium scrap prices” every day because they want a figure they can put on a lot. What they get on a public list is a snapshot: a yard’s retail bid, an index for one grade at one port, or yesterday’s LME close. A tradable cargo is priced on grade, preparation, location, quantity and who takes the freight. Those five things move more money than the headline.
Ferrous and non-ferrous metals do not share a price scale. Steel is a volume market quoted in dollars or euros per tonne, often against an HMS or shredded index. Copper and aluminium are value markets: a few points of recovery or a wrong alloy can wipe the margin. ISRI nomenclature is how the trade names the metal so the price can mean something.
What scrap metal prices actually are
A scrap metal price is a bid or an offer for a named grade, at a named place, for a named quantity. “Copper €8,200/t” is not a price until you know whether it is Berry, Birch or insulated wire, whether it is ex works a yard or CFR a mill, and whether the lot is 8 tonnes or 200. The same steel can be HMS 1 in Duisburg and a claim in Iskenderun if the cut and the mix are wrong.
Public boards and yard posters are useful as a mood. They are usually built for walk-in sellers: small weights, mixed grades, a magnet and a scale. Industrial lots are priced the other way around. The mill or the processor says what they will melt. The yard, trader or broker works back from that delivered number: freight, packing, inspection, finance, and the risk that the discharge assay does not match the offer.
Indexes exist because seaborne steel and exchange-traded copper need a common reference. An HMS 80/20 CFR Turkey quote, an LME copper cash price, an aluminium ingot number: those are references. The lot still has a discount or a premium for quality, recovery, residuals and logistics. If you treat the index as the invoice, you will be surprised at the scale.
Why scrap metal prices move
Scrap metal prices move when the melt changes, when freight changes, and when the pile on the ground changes. Mills that run electric furnaces buy more when they have orders and less when they are repairing a furnace or sitting on inventory. Export destinations open and close with duty, licensing and freight. A tight container market can do more to a copper parcel than a quiet day on the exchange.
Grade is the first lever. Clean, specified metal pays. Mixed metal is a guess. A lot offered as “copper scrap” without a code will be priced as the cheapest interpretation. The same is true of “iron scrap” that is not HMS and of aluminium that is not a named alloy or a named ISRI grade.
Location is the second. Scrap is heavy. Inland Europe, a North Sea port and a Mediterranean discharge are three different delivered costs. A strong domestic mill bid can beat an export number after trucking. A weak home market and a cheap vessel can send the same cargo the other way. Always ask where the price is valid: ex works, FOB, CFR, DDP.
Quantity is the third. A mill programme is not a van. Small lots pay a yard spread. Container lots pay a different spread. Bulk cargoes are priced as cargoes. Publishing one “price today” for all three is how consumer sites work. It is not how the recycling cycle prices metal that will actually be charged.
Copper scrap prices
Copper scrap prices follow the copper market and then subtract everything that is not copper. Bare bright and No. 1 wire (Berry) sit closest to the metal price because recovery is high and the melt is clean. No. 2 wire (Birch) is a step down: some tin, some solder, some insulation history. Insulated cable is priced on estimated recovery after chopping, not on the weight over the weighbridge. Radiators, motors and mixed “red metal” are other products.
That is why copper scrap prices look high on a list and still disappoint on a mixed load. The list assumes a grade. Your pile may not be that grade. A buyer who pays Berry money for Birch will claim. A seller who offers Birch as Berry will not get a second order. Write the ISRI code, the packing and the city. “Copper scrap for sale” is a search phrase, not an offer.
Yards that buy from the street quote copper in local currency per kilo because that is how walk-in trade talks. Export and mill trade talk tonnes, recovery and a basis to LME or to a regional cathode number. Both can be honest. They are not the same quote. If you are comparing a poster in a retail yard with a container offer to a refinery, you are comparing two businesses.
Aluminium scrap prices
Aluminium scrap prices are alloy prices pretending to be one metal. Extrusions (Tata), cast (Tense), UBC (Taldon) and shredded non-ferrous (Twitch, Zorba when it is a mix) do not melt as the same charge. A smelter that budgeted for clean 6063 and receives painted sheet or mixed castings has bought a different product. The discount is not a negotiation tactic. It is chemistry.
UBC and extrusion usually have a clearer market than mixed aluminium because the recipe is known. Irony, plastic, foil and zinc attachments are where the argument starts. Like copper, retail lists often show “aluminium scrap prices” as if cans and window frame were cousins. They are not priced as cousins in a furnace.
Aluminium also moves with energy and with the primary ingot market, but the lot is still won or lost on sortation. If you do not know the alloy, do not name a premium grade. Offer what you have: photos, analysis if you have it, and a quantity a processor can plan around.
Steel scrap prices and HMS
Steel scrap prices are the volume side of the same question. In Europe you will hear domestic mill grades (E1, E3, E40 and the rest) and export language: HMS 1, HMS 2, HMS 1&2 80/20, shredded (ISRI 211). The number people screenshot from a newsletter is often HMS 80/20 into Turkey or a local shredded bid. It is not the price of every rusty beam in the yard.
HMS scrap pays more when it is thick, cut and clean, and less when it is light, galvanised or dirty. The 80/20 mix is the seaborne benchmark, not a law of nature. 70/30 and 60/40 exist and they are cheaper because the furnace gets a different charge. Shredded is a different product again: fragmentiser output, not heavy melting steel. Calling shredded “HMS” to chase a steel scrap price is how claims start.
Ferrous lots live and die on density, piece size and residuals (especially copper). A pretty photo of plate is not a spec. Quantity in tonnes, the mix, the port or the city, and whether it is bulk or sheared: that is the offer. The index tells you the weather. The lot is the deal.
How to read a price and how to offer a lot
Read a scrap metal price from the right-hand side. Where is it valid? Which grade? What quantity? Who inspects? What happens if the assay is short? A firm bid with those answers is a price. A screenshot without them is decoration.
When you post a lot, do not write “best price” and hope. Name the metal the way the melt already talks: HMS 1&2 80/20, Berry, Taldon, Sabot. Add tonnes, city or port, and the company. Buyers on live lots and wanted are looking for metal they can book, not for a debate about yesterday’s list.
ScrapEurope is a B2B marketplace, not a price board. Verified companies put the lot up and deal direct. The price that matters is the one two companies agree on a specified parcel. If you have metal on the ground or a mill programme to fill, request access and put the grade in writing. Lists expire. A named lot can be sold.