Scrap Metal Market News and Daily Briefing

A plain-language read on what scrap prices are doing: today's moves, the week in numbers, and the benchmarks behind the board, refreshed automatically with the live data.

Updated · Figures are the USD reference board · Methodology

Today's market briefing

As of October 16, the reference board shows copper scrap at $5.71 per lb, up 0.71 percent on the day and down 0.83 percent on the week; aluminum at $0.77 per lb, down 2.65 percent on the week; and steel at $300 per ton, flat on the week.

The biggest mover of the past week on the board is aluminum scrap, down 2.65 percent over five trading days, while over the past month the largest change belongs to aluminum scrap, down 9.81 percent. Day-to-day wiggles rarely reach a yard board unchanged; moves that hold for a week usually do, which is why the weekly column in the table below is the one worth watching.

Yard prices follow these reference moves with a short lag: falls are passed through within a day or two, rises more slowly. The live board carries all fifteen grades, the charts show the path, and the why prices change guide explains the machinery.

The week in numbers

Reference board changesUSD · Oct 16, 2026
MetalPriceDayWeekMonth
Copper Scrap $5.71 / lb ▲ +0.71% ▼ -0.83% ▲ +0.02%
Aluminum Scrap $0.77 / lb ▲ +0.00% ▼ -2.65% ▼ -9.81%
Brass Scrap $3.49 / lb ▲ +0.87% ▼ -0.71% ▲ +0.03%
Stainless Steel Scrap $0.57 / lb ▲ +0.00% ▲ +0.00% ▲ +0.00%
Steel Scrap $300 / ton ▲ +0.00% ▲ +0.00% ▲ +0.00%
Iron Scrap $264 / ton ▲ +0.00% ▲ +0.00% ▲ +0.00%
Lead Scrap $0.59 / lb ▲ +0.00% ▲ +0.00% ▲ +0.00%
Zinc Scrap $0.90 / lb ▲ +0.00% ▲ +0.00% ▲ +0.00%

Indicative USD reference prices derived from exchange benchmarks and typical yard recovery shares; country boards convert these to local currency and units. Weekly and monthly changes compare daily closes five and twenty-one trading days apart.

Benchmarks behind the board

Every scrap grade on this site is derived from a public benchmark. These are the latest values and their dates; the recovery shares that turn them into scrap prices are published on the methodology page.

COMEX copper futures
$6.59 / lb · Oct 16
CME aluminum futures
$3,094 / tonne · Oct 16
CME US hot-rolled coil steel
$1,357 / ton · Oct 16
NYMEX platinum futures
$1,639 / oz · Oct 16
NYMEX palladium futures
$1,120 / oz · Oct 16
IMF nickel price (monthly)
$16,632 / tonne · Jul 1

Analysis and updates

Aug 28, 2026 Strip That Wire, or Sell It As Is? The Break-Even Is 48 Percent Stripping only pays above a copper content you can calculate from today's board. The rule, the per-hundred-pound maths, and when a stripper or granulator… Aug 28, 2026 Why Local Scrap Prices Differ by 22 Percent for the Same Metal Trade position, freight, competition and currency set the gap between a world benchmark and the board at your yard. What drives it, and where… Aug 28, 2026 Data Centres Are Absorbing a Year of Copper Demand Growth One facility used 2,177 tonnes. Multiply that across this year's buildout and the numbers explain why copper sits at a record while the rest… Aug 28, 2026 Five Years of Scrap Prices: Copper Doubled, Ferrous Fell Our own five-year series across six grades: what peaked and when, the deepest drawdowns, and why two of the six are worth less than… Aug 28, 2026 We Tested Whether Waiting Pays: 253 Days of Scrap Prices Waiting a month paid on 71 percent of days for copper this year. Here is why that is a description of a rising market… Aug 28, 2026 Finished Steel Is Up 45 Percent. Scrap Is Up 12. That Gap Is the Story Ferrous scrap has lagged finished steel badly this year. Mill filings, the Turkish import price and a freight calculation explain why, and we correct… Aug 28, 2026 Platinum, Palladium and Rhodium: Three Metals, Three Markets Why the three metals in a converter behave completely differently, why rhodium has no exchange price, and what that means when you are quoted… Aug 28, 2026 Aluminium Cans: Deposit Refund Pays About Three Times Scrap Value California refunds $1.66 a pound for cans while scrap yards pay closer to $0.55. The official rates, the count-versus-weight myth, and what the aluminium… Aug 28, 2026 Copper Selling Rules Just Got Stricter: What Honest Sellers Need California now requires a licence to sell scrap copper and raised the maximum fine for buying stolen metal tenfold. What every yard must collect,… Aug 28, 2026 Who Actually Gained From the Metal Tariffs Mill selling prices rose $162 a ton while their scrap input cost rose $5, according to quarterly filings. What that says about where tariff…

How to read this page

The briefing and tables are generated from the same data that drives the boards: exchange benchmarks fetched twice daily, converted into indicative scrap prices through published recovery shares. Nothing here is a prediction and nothing is an offer; it is a record of what the reference prices did.

To act on it: check your own market's board on the country pages, compare your grade against the live board, and use the calculator before you load. Corrections and questions: info@scrappricetoday.com.