Scrap Metal Prices Explained: How the LME Shapes What You’re Paid

If you’ve sold scrap metal in Singapore more than once, you’ve noticed prices move — sometimes a few cents per kilogram, sometimes dollars per tonne. Those movements aren’t arbitrary. They track the London Metal Exchange (LME) and a handful of regional scrap indices, and understanding them helps you time sales for better payouts.

What Is the LME?

The London Metal Exchange is the world’s largest market for industrial metals. It sets global reference prices for copper, aluminium, zinc, lead, nickel, tin, and more. When you hear “copper is at $10,000/tonne”, that’s the LME 3-month contract. Scrap metal dealers everywhere — including in Singapore — use LME prices as the starting benchmark for what they’ll pay.

How Scrap Prices Relate to LME

Scrap metal isn’t identical to pure refined metal. It’s dirtier, mixed with other materials, and needs processing before it becomes new metal. So scrap trades at a discount to the LME refined price. Typical discounts:

• Bright copper scrap: ~90-95% of LME copper
• Copper cable (75% yield): ~65-75% of LME copper
• Aluminium extrusion: ~70-80% of LME aluminium
• Brass: priced off LME copper + zinc blend
• HMS scrap steel: priced off regional scrap indices, not LME

Singapore buyers adjust further for local demand, freight to regional smelters, and processing cost. But the LME direction is the main signal.

Why Prices Change Week to Week

Copper prices respond to global construction, EV manufacturing (copper-intensive), and Chinese industrial demand. Aluminium moves with auto and aerospace. Steel and ferrous scrap follows regional construction cycles. When any of these sectors surge or slow, prices follow within days.

Molten Steel updates our scrap metal buying rates weekly. Sometimes twice a week on volatile weeks. We post indicative rates — final prices depend on grade, volume, and that day’s LME fix.

Should You Wait for Higher Prices?

For small loads, probably not. A 500 kg copper load at $9/kg is $4,500; if prices go up 5%, that’s $225 extra — likely eaten by the cost of holding, insurance, theft risk, and the risk prices drop instead.

For large industrial clearances (tonnes, not kilos), timing can matter more. We advise some clients to sell in tranches — half now, half in two weeks — to smooth out market risk. Call us if you want a view on where rates are likely to go.

How Molten Steel Keeps Pricing Honest

• Published weekly rates — no hidden haggling
• LME-benchmarked — our rates move with the market, not with who’s asking
• Volume bonuses — larger loads earn higher per-kg rates, posted in the quote
• Same-day payment — no “we’ll pay next month” games

If you’re evaluating scrap dealers in Singapore, always ask: “What’s your reference benchmark?” A legitimate licensed buyer will cite the LME or a regional scrap index. If the answer is vague, walk away.