Current price of scrap - July

[M'coli]

Any idea what it's around? I've heard on another forum that it's plummeted, but will rise again some autumn.Is there any variation around the country?

[Cavcraft]

It would appear to depend on who you talk to and, I suppose, different areas and diferent yards.Last time I checked medium-ish sized cars (Escorts/Golfs/Astras) were getting £145-ish, Cavaliers/Sieeras/Mogdeos £170-ish and Mercs/Beemers/Jags over £200 and that was very recently.Obviously you don't take them down to the yard at the start of the month because most of the crafty ferkers pay less as people's tax discs expire so they get rid of them end start of the month.

[ashmicro]

It would appear to depend on who you talk to and, I suppose, different areas and diferent yards.Last time I checked medium-ish sized cars (Escorts/Golfs/Astras) were getting £145-ish, Cavaliers/Sieeras/Mogdeos £170-ish and Mercs/Beemers/Jags over £200 and that was very recently.Obviously you don't take them down to the yard at the start of the month because most of the crafty ferkers pay less as people's tax discs expire so they get rid of them end start of the month.

That's pretty much verbatim what my local scrappy told me this week while I was negotiating the purchase of a very smashed MGZR 160 (nose over tail roll, hit telegraph pole, several trees, hedge, gatepost and Nissan Micra). He's going to give me £75 back after I strip the engine, 'box, interior etc. Apparently, MG Rover metal is of particularly good quality (??)

[Cavcraft]

Hmm, wouldn't know that tbh and as far as metal yards are concerned I would have thought they weren't arsed where it came from.Incidentally I'd advise cutting out the middleman when you have the parts you want off it: it'll be classed as clean scrap without engine/box and should command a better price. I bet you'd get over a hundred for it no bother at a metal yard as opposed to a scrap yard.Oh, if the cat is still on it and you don't want it put it on ebay as at least two people on there are paying up to fifty quid a throw for them.

[marinast]

Scrap steel prices have come down since the barmy prices of April-May. They normally pick up around October and dip again over Christmas, however I've read that Chinese steel producers have recently negotiated steel prices for 2009/10 and this should keep prices high for at least two years. Plus with the current shift by investors into commodities such as oil and scrap metals, I can't see prices falling back too far for a long time.

[Cavcraft]

/\Yay!

[Father Ted]

The arse side to that is that the age of free or very cheap shitters is over

[MrRegieRitmo]

....and that we need to watch over our old cars with a loaded shot gun!

[mk2_craig]

I don't. Price of scrap means nothing over here.

[pogweasel]

We stop buying cheap white goods because we are spending all our cash on food & fossil fuels at inflated prices, Chinese cheap white goods industry goes to the wall, demand for scrap (& fossil fuels) falls. In theory, anyway.

[Pete-M]

It would appear to depend on who you talk to and, I suppose, different areas and diferent yards.Last time I checked medium-ish sized cars (Escorts/Golfs/Astras) were getting £145-ish, Cavaliers/Sieeras/Mogdeos £170-ish and Mercs/Beemers/Jags over £200 and that was very recently.Obviously you don't take them down to the yard at the start of the month because most of the crafty ferkers pay less as people's tax discs expire so they get rid of them end start of the month.

I weighed in a Peugeot 106 something or other (1.1, denim interior) and got £135 from my local scrap dude. An Iveco Turbo Daily weighed in at £397, and a shagged out old Range Rover 2 door (with a Perkins lump in) brought me the lovely total of £445.Scrap is around £190 a ton and rising....

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Shitting hell!I'm gonna be a millionaire with all my grot.

[Cavcraft]

(According to another forum) price dropped slightly but this is due to yards being full to the rafters with scrap and not wanting to get caught out themselves.Any one know the average price of alloy, especially in the West Cheshire area, please?

[M'coli]

Alloy is slightly different than steel. I find Let's Recycle pretty good for alloy and other stuff, but scrap cars, it doesn't mention.

[Cavcraft]

Weighed 30 clean alloys in today and got £160.50 for them.

[Ross_K]

Some related news from the other side of the Atlantic:http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/ne ... 30.art.htm

Cities and counties are battling manhole-cover thefts, a crime spree that police tie to the weak economy.Hundreds of 200-pound covers have disappeared in three months in California, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Georgia as scrap metal prices pop up."It's a sign of the times," says Sgt. Jay Baker of the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office in Georgia, where 28 manhole covers disappeared in April and May. "When the economy gets bad, people start stealing iron."

[Spottedlaurel]

Masses of scrap still being transported past my office window, usual mix of depressingly new (to me) cars, old machinery and agricultural stuff, so I guess the money must still be in it. Or they're trying to get it all in before the price does come down?

[fotorabia]

My scrappie mates are laughing here..also depends whose in the office..if they are..get a call..they just go buy it themselves..thats how i got the Mitsi Mirage..and the Rover P5 Mk1A is in threat of getting crushed cos we cant do fack all with it..

[Richard]

Metal theft is happening in the UK too, as some members here know only too well. A couple of months ago somebody caused chaos on the railways with their attempt to steal a section of live cable. I can't remember if they actually managed to get any but they managed to cut through the cable without being electrocuted.

[CortinaDave]

Next door neighbour to me had a 51 plate Focus Ghia that they traded in last month at the vauxhall dealership against a horrible new postman pat's van-esque Agila.The focus only had 40k on the clock when traded in.... and i passed a lorryload of motors heading towards the scrappy a couple of days ago... and saw it at the front!I know for a fact there was sod all wrong with it except it was the undesirable saloon in that nasty gold colour... but im flabbergasted that the dealership would just weigh a car like that in

[AnthonyG]

Next door neighbour to me had a 51 plate Focus Ghia that they traded in last month at the vauxhall dealership against a horrible new postman pat's van-esque Agila.The focus only had 40k on the clock when traded in.... and i passed a lorryload of motors heading towards the scrappy a couple of days ago... and saw it at the front!I know for a fact there was sod all wrong with it except it was the undesirable saloon in that nasty gold colour... but im flabbergasted that the dealership would just weigh a car like that in

Aren't Vauxhall running some sort of scrappage incentive though - people get paid more on the part-ex if they agree that it should not go back on the road?You're right though, one day people will look back on this and shake their heads at the waste....whilst mining old landfill sites for plastics to turn back into oil!!

[Cavcraft]

Yes, Vauxhall are running this scheme. I think you get a minimum £1000 part exchange and they have to scrap it.This worries me actually because it's been rumoured for a while now (about two years I think) that 'they' want to press for a ban on all cars over 6 years old. That would mean the end of the road for most of us and a blank cheque book for the manafacturers.Having said that unless Vauxhall are forced to bin these cars then they must be absoultely mental to scrap a 51 plate Focus and would ordinarily shove it round the block at that age.

[Ross_K]

Metal theft is happening in the UK too, as some members here know only too well. A couple of months ago somebody caused chaos on the railways with their attempt to steal a section of live cable. I can't remember if they actually managed to get any but they managed to cut through the cable without being electrocuted.

LOLZ. Reminds me of an old Darwin Awards story:http://darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin2001-16.html

[Split_Pin]

it's been rumoured for a while now (about two years I think) that 'they' want to press for a ban on all cars over 6 years old. That would mean the end of the road for most of us and a blank cheque book for the manafacturers.

I get serious piss-boilage when the govenrment bangs on about how we should drive newer and 'cleaner' cars.Its common knowledge (read in practical Classics) that more pollition and emmisions are released in the production of a new car than it will ever produce in its entire lifetime. With all this Carbon footprint wank thats being banded about in the media of late, this fact should surely become part of their policy. By driving an older car or restoring it for further use is a far more effective form of recycling than weighing something in.Cant believe theres a garage that would weigh in a 40K 51-plater Focus. Must be at least another 5 years motoring in that

[155V6]

Metal theft is happening in the UK too, as some members here know only too well. A couple of months ago somebody caused chaos on the railways with their attempt to steal a section of live cable. I can't remember if they actually managed to get any but they managed to cut through the cable without being electrocuted.

In my local paper this week,there's a story about thieves posing as workmen who tried to steal copper wire from a Telecom box.They turned up in broad daylight,removed a manhole cover & cut through 4 underground cables,but someone challenged them & they fled empty handed.They did manage to cut off the phone & internet to about 1,000 homes though

[Richard]

Broad daylight is the way to do it. When I was at college somebody walked into an occupied computer room, lifted a computer and walked out. This was in the mid-90s when a PC was over £1000. Nobody bothered him because he was wearing a labcoat.

[Pillock]

Metal theft is happening in the UK too, as some members here know only too well. A couple of months ago somebody caused chaos on the railways with their attempt to steal a section of live cable. I can't remember if they actually managed to get any but they managed to cut through the cable without being electrocuted.

LOLZ. Reminds me of an old Darwin Awards story:http://darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin2001-16.html

Not so rare.... locally to me, in Cresswell, police found a smouldering hacksaw near an unconscious male, boots smoking, who had been trying to cut through a live cable running from a substation. Apparently the current had been great enough to liquify the hacksaw blade as he held it! Very shortly after that he was propelled though the air, and the blackout alerted the power company who called the police.

[Richard]

A quick search on the BBC News website confirms that theft of live cables is indeed quite common.

[mk2_craig]

unless Vauxhall are forced to bin these cars then they must be absoultely mental to scrap a 51 plate Focus and would ordinarily shove it round the block at that age.

Man, that's crap. I suppose at the end of the day a 7 year old Ford spared the crusher is another Astra rolling off the production line without a buyer, and therefore not generating servicing/spare parts revenue. What's the betting that the work experience lad was given the Focus keys, instructed to remove the sump bung and chuck a brick on the throttle until it was rendered beyond economical repair, just so as there's no risk of the salvage yard finding a willing buyer.

[Cavcraft]

I don't even think that would happen Craig as I would be willing to bet they're taken straight to the metal yard as opposed to the scrap (car) yard.If the work experience lad has anything about him he would be taking small parts of it to flog on eBay and have a stash ofspare steel wheels round the back to swap the alloys with, or something, I know I would.You'll be pleased to know Ford and somebody else (whose name escapes me) are part of this scheme too, though I don't think they push it so much.