Once your scrap is on the scale and you have been paid, the dealer's work starts. A scrap dealer sits between the people who produce scrap and the mills and smelters that melt it. The job is to turn a mixed pile into material a furnace will accept.
Sorting
Everything is separated by metal: steel and iron, copper, brass, bronze, aluminium, stainless and lead. A magnet does the first split between ferrous and non ferrous. After that it is mostly people who know what they are looking at.
Grading
Each metal is then split by grade. Bright copper wire goes one way, painted pipe another. Clean aluminium extrusion is kept away from cast parts. Stainless is split by type. A mill pays for a consistent grade, so this step decides what the whole lot is worth.
Preparing
- Cutting long or oversized pieces to the sizes a furnace or buyer accepts
- Baling light material such as sheet and cans so it travels densely
- Stripping cable to recover the copper or aluminium inside
- Removing attachments, such as steel bolts from aluminium or brass fittings from copper pipe
- Draining oil and fluids from machinery and vehicle parts
Selling on
Prepared scrap is sold in larger lots: steel to mills that melt it in electric arc furnaces, non ferrous metals to smelters and refiners, and some through export buyers to markets overseas. Those buyers pay against international prices, which is why the rate a dealer pays you moves with the market. How scrap prices are set explains that part.
Why this matters to you as a seller
Every step above costs time and labour. The more of it you have done already, by keeping metals apart and taking off attachments, the less the dealer has to do, and the more of the price reaches you.
At our yard at Musaffah M42 the scale is where you can see it and the rate is for the day. Call or WhatsApp +971 52 727 0105, or see what we buy.
Common questions
Where does scrap metal go after it is sold?
The dealer sorts, grades and prepares it, then sells it to steel mills, smelters or export buyers who melt it into new metal.
Do scrap dealers melt the metal themselves?
Most do not. Dealers sort, grade, cut, bale and strip the metal, then sell it to the mills and smelters that do the melting.
Why do scrap dealers pay more for sorted metal?
Sorted metal saves the dealer labour and sells at a better grade, so part of that value can be passed back to you.
