The Reason For The Fall In The Price of Scrap Metal

There’s no denying the fact that the price of scrap metal has fallen dramatically over the past year. The Scrap Price Bulletin have reported that the price of scrap metal in February is at its lowest since 2009. ‘Views that the February market could be down as much as 10-15 per cent began circulating before January sales were in the books’ (www.scrappricebulletin.com) Our industry will fall in line with the rest of the world, and other industries and stock exchanges have a direct effect on the price of scrap.

Price of Oil Affecting The Price of Scrap

‘The drop in oil prices since the third quarter of last year is one of those good news, bad new events for the domestic ferrous scrap industry. Weaker crude oil prices globally have added significant downward pressure on the scrap industry.’ Europe, the US, Asia and European markets each affect the scrap industry. And therefore if one area of industry is seeing decline, it will directly affect the rest. China has seen a massive amount of growth over the past few years, however it has stabilised now. And due to a bad few years in the Eurozone, Europe will now demand less exports. War in Asia has also had a small effect on trade.

Sucden Financial said ‘Still, lower oil prices and weaker commodity currencies will lower the marginal costs levels so support levels may shift lower too. Even so, the projected surplus is not that large, especially given that supply disruptions are an ever-present feature in the copper market and that China - as a net buyer - may well be prepared to increase its strategic purchases, all the more so if prices approach the marginal costs of production.’


And as it filters down from the London Metal Exchange, each and every scrap metal buyer and trader is affected. And unfortunately predictions and forecasts all say the same thing, the price of scrap metal will fall dramatically again before getting better. For a short period in January we saw a slight rise in the price of scrap metal, however, for now it looks like it is in free-fall.

Call Us To Sell Some Scrap Metal

We are a leading scrap metal buyer in the North West, and although the price of scrap has fallen and is to carry on falling, we will always pay you the very highest prices that we possibly can. We want you to come back to us again and again when you want to sell some scrap metal, and trust that we will always give you a fair price. What’s more, as soon as the price of scrap has gone up, when we know, you’ll know.