Scrap copper - weigh in or wait for prices to rise?

[Subby]

I called the scrap metal merchants today to find out they are paying just £ 2.10 per kg on braisey copper which used to fetch £ 3.50+.
Do I stockpile my metal and hope for prices to go up or is it not worth the bother and just weigh in all my copper ?
What are all you lot doing?

 

[gassafe]

I'm wondering the same... The local scrappy is only offering 10 quid a cylinder! 🙁

 

[Ray Stafford]

Here is what has happened to the copper price in the last year.

Its priced in dollars, so if you were getting £3.50 per kg, that would be about $5.40.

Virgin metal on the LME is only $4500/tonne or $4.50 per kg = £2.90.



My best guess is that it still has further to fall.

 

[gassafe]

With metal prices falling like that & oil prices doing the same when can we expect boiler manufacturers to reflect this in there prices??

 

[Ray Stafford]

With metal prices falling like that & oil prices doing the same when can we expect boiler manufacturers to reflect this in there prices??

Hah hah!

We also have effectively zero % inflation, rock bottom interest rates, and as Gassafe says, we have collapsing metal, oil and other commodity prices.

And yet I still get those letters which start: "We have absorbed cost increases since 1066AD and regrettably we have no alternative but to pass these on via an increase in our list price..."

 

[Jay The Plumber]

China was having all the copper amongst other metals for building their infrastructure, thats all slowed right down now, get it gone mate

 

[SimonG]

China's screwed, royally, probably bring the rest of the world down with them. They've built whole cities based on projections of their economy which are stood empty like ghost towns.

 

[stevetheplumber]

sell it and buy gold

 

[REDSAW]

buy buy..sell sell rodney.lol

bury it in the garden and bring it out for retirement
not seen many scrappies out either!!

 

[Roger Welton]

I'm ditching steel, ally and stainless but saving brass and copper at the moment, based on no knowledge at all.

 

[Rickster123]

The guys at my local scrappy say they're close to calling it a day at the moment.

 

[Ray Stafford]

sell it and buy gold

 

[townfanjon]

The days of crawling over broken bricks , timber with nails stuck up , muddy knees etc etc etc , to fetch 300 mm of scrap copper are over !!!!

 

[Destroyer2813]

The guys at my local scrappy say they're close to calling it a day at the moment.

You must keep in business with all those bundles of new tube and fittings

 

[Rickster123]

You must keep in business with all those bundles of new tube and fittings

I have no idea what tube and fittings it is that you speak of...

 

[lame plumber]

got an oil boiler by the gate just sitting there, year back it would have gone overnight, now a scrappie wants £40 to collect it, taking the ****, if they are now scrapping 54 bulk carriers this month some 4.4 million tonnes of steel against last year some 2.1 million tonnes, someone is buying them and making money on scrap metal out there.

 

[Worcester]

So why isn't the new price for copper tube going DOWN as well 🙁

 

[Millsy 82]

So why isn't the new price for copper tube going DOWN as well 🙁

It has for me unless I was being ripped off before. Lol.

 

[Millsy 82]

got an oil boiler by the gate just sitting there, year back it would have gone overnight, now a scrappie wants £40 to collect it, taking the ****, if they are now scrapping 54 bulk carriers this month some 4.4 million tonnes of steel against last year some 2.1 million tonnes, someone is buying them and making money on scrap metal out there.

Last year I had an undesirable knock on my door and want to buy all my scrap. Probably gave me about £30 short of what it was worth but I didn't have to cart it in in 2 van fulls.

Now I can't get hold of the bloke, so I just drive through and dump it at the scrappies and drive out. It's just not worth it.

 

[Ray Stafford]

So why isn't the new price for copper tube going DOWN as well 🙁

Its been going down steadily for some months now.