List the lot materials with weight, metal content, moisture, impurities and melt loss, type the reference price and see what the lot is really worth and whether the offer is fair.
Pre-sizing and estimating tool: results do not replace design, calculations or reports signed by a licensed professional, nor verification against the applicable codes and standards.
For each material, how much of the gross weight is moisture, impurities, non-metal, melt loss and recovered metal.
How much each loss takes from the lot value, with the offer received alongside.
Yield is recovered metal over gross weight.
The calculation report gathers this page's inputs, results, equations, assumptions and references, with fields for project, engineer and revision. The full report also includes the charts and interpretations, in color. In the print dialog, choose Save as PDF.
Take moisture, impurities, the non-metal share and melt loss off the gross weight, multiply the metal left by the clean-metal reference price, and subtract freight and the buyer margin. The page does that for each material in the lot with the percentages you enter.
The 28.05 short ton lot yields about 23.8 tons of metal (85%). At the example's fictitious prices, that metal is worth about $17,700; less $701 freight and a 10% margin, the fair value is about $15,300, or $546 per gross ton. The $14,000 offer is 8.5% below, which equals a buyer margin of about 17.7%.
From the mill or foundry price sheet, the exchange quote for copper, aluminum and brass, or offers from other buyers. The calculator carries no market prices: type the price per short ton of clean, melt-ready metal and update it on the day of sale. Nonferrous prices quoted per pound times 2,000 give the price per ton.
Take a representative sample, weigh it, dry it and strip what is not metal (dirt, plastic, rubber, oil), weighing again at each step. For motors and insulated wire, copper content can be well under half the weight. Grading reports from earlier buyers also help.
It depends on the material and preparation. Heavy clean pieces lose little; turnings, cans, light gauge and painted or oxidized material lose much more, because part of the metal turns into slag or dross. Use the figures from the foundry or mill that will buy it, when available.
The buyer has to cover sorting, baling, freight, grading risk and profit. The useful question is whether the margin implied by the offer is reasonable: in the example it is about 17.7%, close to twice the 10% considered acceptable, which leaves room to negotiate or to sell the high-value materials separately.
Sell to licensed recyclers and keep records; many states require seller ID and holding periods for nonferrous scrap. Scrap metal being recycled is excluded from RCRA hazardous waste rules under 40 CFR 261.4(a)(13), but oily turnings, batteries and contaminated material may still be hazardous waste.
Important notice: Indus Metrics tools produce estimates and pre-sizing results from the data you enter and from published engineering methods. They do not replace design, calculations or reports signed by a licensed professional engineer (PE), nor verification against the applicable codes, standards and regulations, such as OSHA rules and the ASME codes. Material and fuel properties vary: check manufacturer data or your own process analyses before deciding. By using this site you agree to the Terms of Use.
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