huge price drop here in ne pa

Everything is down across the board. I swear copper was 2.64 lb a month ago. Now 1.95. Ele motor down to 16c lb. Wire down to 65c from 95c lb. I could go on. I think I took a hit of 45 today due to the price drop.Also tin is down to 7.5 lb so a van I dragged in was only 200 after I stripped. I hope its just winter and not a sign of the times to come. This is Weusman in Scranton, pa and elmwodd in Scranton, pa for non ferrous.

sorry to break it to you buddy but its suppost to be this bad OR worst for the next year to year and a half...... With the 2 cents a pound I got today I would be stoked to get 7.5 cents a pound. So be thankful you got that!

Copper has been taking a hit for a while here thanks to lower demand from China but it has rebounded lately as a commodity, so hopefully that will translate to better prices for us soon. Aluminum is holding up pretty good in NE Ohio here. Steel shred is down to 7 cents a pound from 10 cents back in July. Last I checked I was getting 20 cents for electric motors and 50 cents for wire and cords.

Good luck!

Have to agree with sledge and Copper Head. I have quite a bit of shred I need to take in (about 9 - 10 16ft flatbed trailer loads). I have not been hoarding it, with my full time job I just have a hard time getting to it, and can only take it in on Saturday mornings. I am going to start making a more concerted effort in getting it in, but I think things will pick up for non-ferrous, so for right now I am still going to hang on to it. For me it is take in one or the other in my limited time, so I am going to get in what it taking up all the space.

Usually I goto just one yard ( faithful to it ) But times are changing , I had those half ton of lamps mentioned another post and ballasts @ 97 #
my frequented yard was paying .6 on the metal .11 on the ballasts another yard 2 miles away paid .7# for metal .16 # for ballast
So starting now I'm gonna sell to who pays best .An extra $7 $10 here and there better for me then them. I can't change the give or take of the past
but the future I will organize correctly

Ya it scares me, because I just started buying junking cars. I literally renting the uhaul trailer and paying whatever current shred price by the weight of the car. Do this out of necessity till I can afford a 1500 16ft trailer. So in simplicity I'm paying 50-75 more than its worth just for the pleasure of stripping it and making money off the parts. Don't get me wrong, I made 400 in parts in 3 days. But I'm afraid I buy at current pricing, then two days later when I move it to the yard, it drops 3c and costs me money. In fact last car I did was 7.5c lb and that was Friday last week. Today I'm getting another one at same price. And then found out the yard dropped to .0575 today. So it already cut me by 50 but I agreed to price on van. I'm just afraid now I start buy at .575 and 2 days later its down to 2c lb. But the + side to the equation is due to renting trailer I'm stripping van with a helper in 8 or less hours. I mean everything including motor, trans, etc. Plus where I live I don't need a zoning office up my ass like years a go.

Steel contracts are typically set month to month. They should be settled early next week so whatever price your yard is paying next week should be safe for a while. You can buy based on that. Toward the end of next month try to talk to a buyer or manager at the yard. They should at least be able to tell you what they expect to happen in March. Essentially we are all brokers, and surprises aren't good for the facilitation of transactions. So the people you do business with should be pretty straight forward with what they know about market conditions.

actually, things are improving here in Durban
between Nov-Jan all prices were DOWN

now they are coming up again
steel & subgrade/shred are almost the same rate they were in October

hopefully that happens by you.

Originally Posted by ccantu

Steel contracts are typically set month to month. They should be settled early next week so whatever price your yard is paying next week should be safe for a while. You can buy based on that. Toward the end of next month try to talk to a buyer or manager at the yard. They should at least be able to tell you what they expect to happen in March. Essentially we are all brokers, and surprises aren't good for the facilitation of transactions. So the people you do business with should be pretty straight forward with what they know about market conditions.

Although most scrap metal indexes are bi-monthly, scrap metal is a commodity and the big boys are constantly changing their investment strategies. Around here the value of scrap metal is changing daily and I can verify that is the same in another mid-west location. Yesterday a commitment for price was given and today the price dropped $ 15 a ton. They honored yesterdays price because of the volume that I haul. Do not expect business as usual, everyone is trying to hedge their bets.

Ya it does surprise me as I have not seen this bad drop in the last 4 years. I started scrapping late 2010 and a drop of 50c was OK. It was normal. But it would rebound quick. Now dropping, dropping, where is the bottom , o crap. Now if I had 10 acres in the woods, I would stock pile. But in my current situation, I can't. I'm having enough trouble figuring out where to store the trannies and motors for resale. So it is scaring me. I haven't seen it below 10c lb on shred in 4 years and this has become a way of life where I make more than working for someone else.

msm,

What are the prices in Durban? You can just state them in your own currency and I can convert, but I am curious. It would seem to me that the end destination of scrap from South Africa would still be Asia rather than say, India...? Or does SA have their own steel industry that eats up the scrap generated from the country?

Jon.

shred/subgrade- R2.20 per kg
steel- R2.90 per kg

No2 copper is at R57 per kg
that was at a high of R65 in October

i cant say what other metals are now as i havent taken anything in recently

Hi, MSM,

Thanks for the numbers...do you know where the scrap steel goes?

The quick conversion:

1. Shred: USD 176$/2000lb ton
2. Steel: USD 232$/2000lb ton
3. No. 2 Cu: USD 2.28$/lb.

Not bad pricing at all!!

either India or China

we have both Indian & Chinese guys with their own scrap yards in Durban
since were a busy port city, its quite convenient for them to run their own yards & fill their own containers of scrap.

i expected the one Chinese owned yard near me to offer better rates than the biggest scrapyard near me but their prices are not good.

Its an 8 year low. Not expected to turn around anytime soon.

As long as copper and aluminum don't drop, I can get by for now. at least its just steel...... for now....