Thread: Wow, scrap steel prices are up!!!

Tweet

Last week I decided to clean out the bed of my Jeep pickup. I haven't used it in about 8 months and we have been putting cut off scraps of steel in the bed to get them out of the shop. So I loaded them into the trunk of my Crown Vic and hauled a load to the local scrap yard. Ended up I had 480 lbs of it in there, and I figured I would walk away with a $ 20 bill. Surprise, surprise!!! It brought $55.80 !! No wonder the junk yards are being picked clean of all the old cars, they are worth a bunch of money right now. Sad part is, these are the very cars that most of us look for to do our projects, either as the base car or for the components.

When I was at the scrap yard there was a line of trucks and trailers hauling stuff into the yard, everything from complete cars to a big old farm tractor. I remember a time when the junkman wouldn't even come to pick up an old car because it wasn't worth his time, boy, has that changed.

By the same token, new steel is up too. We just paid $ 200 for a stick of tubing that we used to pay $ 100 for.

Don

My son is junking out cars and paying $250.00 a ton for old car and trucks. At that price they need to have the cat. on them though. I counted 25 vehicles there yesterday, last week he sold 10 to the scraper he deals with. The guy comes to his place and picks them up.

Our local salvage yard is paying $200 a ton, one 50 miles away is paying $310.00. It's better now to load up a car/truck with the scrap metal than to cut it up and sell it by it's self.

Don, your windfall on scrap sounds like my windfall on pop bottles. Back in the early 70’s I would buy Pepsi by the 8 pack 16oz. Bottle deposit was 2 cents. I would very seldom carry the bottles back to the store so the bottle collection was adding up. My wife’s brother was an assistant manager at the grocery store near us; he said hold onto your bottles a little longer the deposit is going up to a nickel. We hit the jackpot.

Richard

yep steel is up. i pick up a mild steel round stock 3 1/2 by 4 inch long $40. was not to bad . guy working were it get my steel told me it is going to go up alot more. they are stealing scrap next to my shop and every were .guy told me they catch a guy out in a parking lot cutting off exhausts for the cats ?. but with the hi price of gas and not much jobs i see alot of trucks hauling scrap every day

I must get at least 10 calls a day from guys asking who is taking my scrap metal off the property. I can remember days when I actually used to pay to get it carted off instead of having them bid to see who gets to take it away these days. A few dollars in my pocket is all it takes, for those who call and tell me they will only charge ME "XXX" to get rid of it I just laugh at them and hang up......


Bill S.

I just got to thinking I better go back to where people had been using the corner of our property as a dump for years before we came here, and pick it up before they start stealing our junk.

Richard

In my line of work there is a lot of Steel involved-I am getting letter every week from my Suppliers telling me that there will be a higher "Surcharge" (why don't they just call it for what it is? IT"S A PRICE INCREASE!-sorry, rant over ).

I'm sure a lot of you have heard the recent stories that now thieves are stealing Catalytic Converters because they are worth a bunch of money now-there were reports of people coming out of their Houses to find that their Car was "louder" and they didn't know why-this is nuts!

http://suvs.about.com/b/2008/01/15/c...rter-theft.htm

http://www.nbc5.com/money/14597279/detail.html

I was visiting with one of my Customers who owns a Steel Supply house on Friday and he said that he recently got a notice that his Prices were going up 20% (this was last week)-

Yea it would be cheaper to give the thief $100 and say tell your friends this one has been taken care of.

Richard

The fella that manages my retirement account told me that china is buying all the steel they can get at high prices seems a little ironic to me.... Francis

They buy our good steel,and send crap back to us, something wrong with this picture!!!

Originally Posted by ford2custom

They buy our good steel,and send crap back to us, something wrong with this picture!!!

Well, if you don't understand that logic you will NEVER become a Politician!!

Don

Originally Posted by ford2custom

They buy our good steel,and send crap back to us, something wrong with this picture!!!

well i would not bet on that all of that steel is good old USA steel or so good they may be getting back alot of oversea steel

Don, I wasn't too much of a lying, cheating, thieving person, so I guess I wouldn't make much of a politician. That's what a guy in the area where we used to live had painted black, on a white garage. The city tried everyway they could to get him to remove it but he fought it all the way to the Indiana, Supreme Court. He wanted a permit to ad onto his garage and one thing lead to another then he painted on the side of his garage" If you want to get rich quick be a lying, cheating, thieving Politician." I should have taken a picture of it but we would see it all the time and just got use to it.

I worked at a steel mill in Chicago, U.S. Steel South Works. I saw the foreign steel coming into the ports 1974 U.S. Steel South Works has been a vacant lot since the early 90's at one time there were around 300 Iron workers alone I was one, plus all of the other crafts, I would guess from 6 to 10 thousand workers gone. The south side of Chicago at one time in the 60's from when I started to the 90's were about 6 steel Mills, gone. Gary, Indiana across the Lake U.S. Steel Gary Works is still going but they have nowhere near the people they once had. You are right probably most of the steel is going to back to its origin.

Richard

well it to bad this country needs to get back to we make all the things we need here and drill for oil any were it is and tell everyone to ...piss off... but that will never happen ??? china owns us and i do not think they will bomb us sometime they will want to get paid back?? the hook has been set .gas at 3.69 a gallon . i see on the news that the (Goverment ) said they want cars and trucks get better fuel economy well thats great down the road but how about now ? or are they going to buy everyone a new car or truck

You are right they are deep in our pockets, who would have thought when they were sending their cheap --it over here that one day it would be to the point where it is now. I try to tell my oldest grandson to get an education, become a Dr., Lawyer, or some job where it cannot be out sourced. One day I don't believe there will be a middle class as we new it; rich or poor, so these kids coming up better get an education or they will be the minimum pay workers. I know this is a Hot Rod site and we should not get into politics but it’s hard when you see what’s happing to “our” Country. I will stop. Maybe someone should start a site where people can express their feelings about all of this!!!