There are many factors that influence the prices of both ferrous and non-ferrous scrap metals. You may have seen the stock market making charges up and down in the last few weeks. These fluctuations don’t directly affect the value of scrap metal. The most significant influences that bear on the value of scrap are the volume of scrap in the market, where it is on the global stage, what construction or manufacturers are demanding and weather or time of year.
These influences are interwoven and affect each other in many ways. The weather at any given time of year can create a slow down in transportation. If demand is high this could create a rise in prices during what would seem like normally slow seasons. If heightened demand is coming out of the US domestic market then scrap consolidated in areas of easy rail access may have slightly higher values making for different prices regionally in the US.
The obvious question “how do you predict price fluctuations?” is virtually unanswerable. That doesn’t mean you can’t get a feel for the rhythm of the market and pull some insight from what happens on the global stage. Excel Recycling’s staff is constantly monitoring these influences to bring you an accurate value for your material relative to all these influences.
