It does seem to me like you'd be losing a lot of potential profits by going through a middleman (the scrapyard) with such a huge quantity. All that they'll be doing anyway with that plate steel is dumping the roll-offs, and loading it into sea containers or (less likely) gondola railcars.
Have you heard of these things?
http://www.acculoader.net/CONTAINERLOADING.html
http://www.stecotrailers.com/StecoScrapper.pdf
or their background?
http://www.advancedsteel.com/news/21
They seem like the next big thing in the scrap industry.
Or, alternately, you could load sea containers the old-fashioned way at the docks you're scrapping these vessels at. Build up a month's worth of metal and then bring in a crane for a day or two.
Have you contacted any of the Schnitzer Steel companies? They own Oregon Rolling Mills and run a bunch of yards out your way to buy scrap for their own mills.
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