Steel @ $300 a ton in near future???? Kiss your scrap yard finds goodbye......

[fahrenschnell]

Re: Steel @ $300 a ton in near future???? Kiss your scrap yard finds goodbye....

The Chinese are at least consistent. Crappy cars and now Crappy Dams!

You have to love the mistakes that developing countries make in the name of "progress" ;D

[CooL-NeWeLL]

Re: Steel @ $300 a ton in near future???? Kiss your scrap yard finds goodbye......

We sell about 60% percent of our car that go to auction to junkyards and alot of them run and drive and they take them to their lot let them sit for a week, if they are halfway decent, or two at the most and then shred them. If we take cars directly to the crusher we are getting about $240 a gross ton it is probably the highest i have seen. Last week we sold a 70 ford f-150 long bed 4pd and a big block that ran in drove had a damaged front fender for $670 and they are most likely going to shred it. Week before that sold a 69 chevy longbed for $450 that ran with a small block to the crusher too. The normal bidders dont want to big that high because gas prices are so high its hard to resale them.

[WagonKiller]

Re: Steel @ $300 a ton in near future???? Kiss your scrap yard finds goodbye......

$310 a ton last few weeks here,ad's in the paper paying 250-450 for scrap cars and trucks.they said it did drop some lately tho.

Everybody and thier bro is a scrap guy now,and not 1 of these guys has a liscense to do so,nor do they pay the bonds or insurance to go with it .they are even buying cars with NO TITLES and the shredder is buying from them.

Yea they are hitting the mom and pop junkyards hard.

[VTJUNK]

Re: Steel @ $300 a ton in near future???? Kiss your scrap yard finds goodbye......

Our local yard pays $250 per car, then processes it, removing all the radiators, A/C condensers, batteries, wheels, and all the fluids. Then the car goes to the crusher. I can't buy anything there. Used to be the kind of place that set stuff aside, and gave you a break if you were buying stuff for a project (you know, I don't really need it, vs I gotta have it to get to work)

The guy that owns/operates the yard knows that stuff is slipping through the yard and into the crusher. He feels bad, but stuff comes in at such a rate, he can't keep an eye on everything. I told him about a 70 Fullsize Mercury that went in the crusher with a nice running 429 4v, and a C-6. (I knew the car) He just shook his head, said the guys in the yard do dumb stuff sometimes.

Not that it matters, I can't ever get a decent price on anything anymore.
They must figure if you're asking about it, it must be worth alot of money. Here's a list of prices I recently got from them.

70 351w heads, full of dirt, but complete cores for rebuilding $125.00
73 351w engine, complete but condition unknown, $800.00
75 Maverick needed floor pan, fenders and quarter repairs, no drivetrain $1000.00
75 Poncho 400, good running condition, 42k miles $900.00
TH350 long tail trans, core for rebuilding, $150.00
TH350 condition unknown, supposed to work $350
Chevy truck ralley wheels, rusty with junk tires $125.00
Just a little on the high side.

I frequent yards in Southern Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, and the prices are way cheaper there. I love the Pick-N-Pull yards, those have the best deals.

[Caddyman]

Re: Steel @ $300 a ton in near future???? Kiss your scrap yard finds goodbye......

Traditional "car junkyards" are going away due to something other than the Chinese, too.

Insurance companies. ???

Nationwide, All-state and State Farm are (have been) going Corporate with funding behind LKQ Autoparts.


They (LKQ) purchase all the junkyards in a given area to eliminate the competition. They will cut prices initially to remove the old, slow-moving parts, then when they become fully operational....WHAM...they undercut the late-model parts to eliminate the competition from smaller yards! After everyone is gone....they creep prices up........
They purchased some smaller yards just to close them!

The largest yards statewide (here in SC) included both McCallisters, both A&R's, Livingstons, and a few others in the upstate.

They are all, now, owned by and operated under LKQ.

The insurance companies figure a couple $$$-making things go on when they control the 'yards.

1. No middleman in insurance jobs (theirs)...fixed pricing to them.

2. They control the titles in insurance "totals" anyway, so now they ENSURE anything that is "totalled" is in fact scrapped. This removes them from future liability.

3. They control the quality of the parts.

4. They control the PRICE of the parts to repairers OUTSIDE their system (me and you!), in addition to INSURERS outside their group (Geico, Progressive, ect).

5. They have the ability to "sell to themselves", bypassing traditional "insurance auctions", and the associated time, expense, and towing involved from inspection site/body-shop to insurance yard to auction site to salvage yard....

What does this mean to us?

Higher insurance prices (due to price differences between carriers for parts), and higher parts prices (in addition to price fixing to themselves, because they are so large, they "control" the scrap price market to a large extent).
Less cars (in the future) available for rebuild, less parts for those that do survive, and a guarantee that at no point in the future will their be "old stuff" in the back of the JY.


There is no room in Corporate entities like these for sentiment.

They WILL scrap EVERY car they get, and because most cars IN the yards come from insurance carriers, they get most, due to pre-arranged purchase values, if not all the totalled stuff.


The future just don't look too bright for small or specialty type yards from the past.
:'(