Scrap Steel Prices Today

There's no COMEX or LME print for scrap steel. Each month steel mills announce buying prices for the grades they melt, published through regional indices, and every yard sets its board from the mills it ships to, less freight and its margin. That's why ferrous prices move in monthly steps, why a yard 200 miles from the nearest mill pays less, and why you'll see the same grade $40 a ton apart in two states.

Boards quote per ton, and you have to ask which ton: a gross ton is 2,240 pounds, a net ton is 2,000. A price of $200 per gross ton is 8.9 cents a pound; the same $200 per net ton is 10 cents. Yards weigh your vehicle in and out on a truck scale, deduct for obvious dirt, concrete, or non-ferrous attachments, and pay on the net weight.

Plate and structural (P&S) is the premium cut grade: thick plate, beams, and channel cut to length. HMS No.1 (heavy melting steel) is steel a quarter inch or thicker cut to the yard's size limit, usually 2 to 5 feet. HMS No.2 is thinner or unprepared heavy steel. Shredded is what automotive and appliance scrap becomes after the shredder; consumers don't sell it, but it sets the tone for the market. Light iron, also called tin or sheet iron, is thin steel: appliance shells, filing cabinets, ductwork, bed frames, car body panels. Cast iron is radiators, tubs, engine blocks, and brake rotors, sometimes on its own line. Steel cans are light iron at best; many yards want them in quantity or not at all.

A mill's furnace charge has to fit through the door, so steel that arrives cut to size can go straight in. Unprepared steel costs the yard shear or torch time, and the board reflects it: prepared No.1 can pay 30 to 60 percent more per ton than unprepared. If you have a torch or a saw and a pile of long heavy stock, cutting it to the yard's stated length is the highest-paying hour in ferrous scrap.

Appliances and cars have their own rules. Refrigerators, freezers, and air conditioners must have the refrigerant recovered by a certified technician before a yard will take them, and most charge or refuse otherwise. Cars need a title or a state-specific form, and fluids drained. Water heaters, washers, dryers, and stoves go straight in as light iron; pull the copper, brass, and stainless first, because they're worth many times the steel.

Call ahead for the price, the ton unit, and the size limit. Load heavy and dense so the weight is in the metal, not the air. Pull the non-ferrous first: a magnet across a load finds the aluminum, copper, and brass that pay 10 to 50 times more sold separately, and the yard would deduct for them anyway. Sweep out dirt and concrete. At the yard you weigh in, unload, weigh out, and get paid on the difference, usually by check above a small threshold and with photo ID recorded.