Stainless steel scrap is the alloy search that sits between steel and the non-ferrous book: stainless recycling, 304 scrap, 316 scrap, inox. It is ferrous by chemistry — it contains iron — and it is not HMS. A mill that budgeted for heavy melting steel and receives a box of 304 has not had a lucky day. It has had a residual problem. A remelter that budgeted for 18-8 and receives magnetic 400-series has not had a bargain. It has had a claim.
Stainless is the awkward cousin in ferrous and non-ferrous metals. Chromium and nickel give it corrosion resistance. The magnet is a hint, not a grade. The names the trade uses sit in ISRI nomenclature: Sabot for 18-8 solids, Ultra for the turnings. If a listing says only “stainless scrap” or “inox”, it is not a grade yet.
What stainless steel scrap is
Stainless steel scrap is stainless that has already been made and can be specified again: food-plant sheet, tank plate, pipe, flanges, sinks, hospital kit, architectural clip, the solids a fabricator drops on the floor. It is not galvanised steel that looks silver. It is not aluminium that someone hoped was inox. It is not plated mild steel. Those are other lots.
Stainless recycling is nickel and chromium accounting with iron as the host. 304-type 18-8 is the workhorse. 316 carries molybdenum. 400-series is magnetic and nickel-poor. Duplex and heat-resisting grades are other recipes. Mix them and the melt is a guess. The recycling cycle pays the sorter who keeps those streams apart. The furnace pays the analysis.
In Europe you will hear 304, 316, 18-8, V2A, V4A, 430, magnetic stainless, and Sabot. They are not synonyms. Write the alloy you actually have, or write that you do not know.
304 scrap and Sabot
304 scrap is the grade people mean when they say stainless. Sabot is the ISRI name for clean 18-8 solids: clips and solids with enough nickel and chromium to sit in the 304 family, and tight caps on molybdenum, copper, phosphorus and sulphur. Attachments and 400-series magnetic stainless are the usual rejects. In trade, “304 solids” and Sabot are often used as if they were the same sentence.
Clean, uncoated, unpainted clip from a fabricator is the working lot. Sinks and hollow-ware can be 304 and still fail the solids spec if they are dirty, sealed or full of other metals. Food-plant tube is often 304; it is still a claim if the ferrules are a different alloy and nobody said so.
Do not put stainless in the HMS pile to make the truck heavier. Copper and nickel residuals in a steel charge are how a ferrous mill fines you. Do not put mild steel in the Sabot bag to make the bag heavier. Diluted nickel is how a stainless mill fines you.
316 and other nickel grades
316 scrap is 304’s cousin with molybdenum: chemical plant, marine, some food and pharma. It pays more when it is really 316, and it contaminates a 304 heat when it is undeclared. V4A in German-speaking yards is the same idea. Offer 316 as 316. Do not upgrade 304 by writing 316 on the ticket.
Other nickel-bearing grades — 310, 321, duplex, heat-resisting — are specification lots, not a bonus in Sabot. A handful of unknown flanges in a 304 box will be priced as the worst piece or rejected. If you have a PMI gun, say the readings. If you do not, say so and let the yard or mill test. Guessing an alloy from a brush finish is how sellers argue with the spectrometer.
Magnetic stainless and 400 series
Austenitic 304 and 316 are often weakly magnetic or not magnetic at all. 400-series — 409, 430 and the rest — is magnetic and low in nickel. It is still stainless. It is not Sabot. It is not a cheap way to fill a 304 bag. Yards pull it with a magnet for a reason: it looks like stainless and assays like a different charge.
Catalytic and automotive stainless, some exhaust, some washing-machine drums and some architectural sheet sit here. Magnetic stainless can be a lot of its own. Mixed “all the silver metal” is a discount. If the magnet sticks hard, do not call it 304.
Plated steel and aluminium also fool a rushed sort. Stainless recycling at industrial scale is the discipline of not trusting colour.
Turnings, attachments and mixed stainless
Turnings are not solids. Ultra is the turning equivalent of Sabot: same alloy idea, different packing, moisture and oil problem. A mill that bought solids and receives oily swarf has bought a different product. Say turnings. Say if they are from 304 or mixed.
Attachments are the other claim: carbon-steel flanges left on stainless pipe, copper fittings, plastic, concrete, lead. The price of stainless is a nickel and chrome number minus everything that is not stainless. Irony stainless is priced as irony.
Mixed stainless — 304 with 430, 316 with unknown, solids with turnings — is a valid lot when you call it mixed. It is a claim when you call it Sabot.
Why mills buy stainless scrap
Stainless mills and remelters buy stainless steel scrap because it is nickel, chromium and molybdenum units they can plan. Primary nickel is expensive. Prepared 18-8 solids are a cheaper, lower-carbon way to put those units in the furnace. They still need a known residual book. Copper, molybdenum in the wrong heat, and magnetic dilution are why inspection is not optional.
Europe generates fabrication clip and demolition inox in the same towns that melt stainless. Scrap is the domestic alloy mine if the grade is honest. A company that will stand behind a Sabot parcel is the counterpart the melt wants. A lie about 316 helps once.
How to offer stainless on a lot
Name the grade the melt already uses. Sabot or 304 solids. 316. Magnetic 400-series. Turnings, if that is what they are. Then tonnes, packing, city or port, and the company. “Sabot, 304 solids, 22 t, big bags, Brescia” can be read in any language. “Stainless scrap for sale” cannot.
Keep stainless out of HMS and out of the aluminium and copper bags. How to sell scrap metal starts with the magnet, then with the alloy. Put the lot on live lots or answer a wanted notice. ScrapEurope is a B2B marketplace: verified companies, direct deals, zero commissions.
Stainless steel scrap is alloy prepared for a nickel charge, not silver-looking steel. 304 and Sabot are the workhorse solids. 316 is a different recipe. Magnetic 400-series is another. Mills buy them because they can schedule a heat. The rest is specification, and specification is what makes the lot tradable. If you have metal on the ground, request access and write the grade first.