The three materials most sellers ask about first, and three genuinely different pricing stories. Understanding what actually drives each one is worth more than memorising a single number, because that number changes.
The highest value per kilogram of the three, and the most sensitive to global demand shifts. Priced off benchmark exchange rates and then discounted by grade, bare bright wire pays significantly more than the same weight in insulated cable. Electrification and grid buildout are the biggest current demand drivers.
Priced against its own exchange benchmark, then split sharply by form, extrusion, UBC cans, and sheet all trade at different rates because contamination and remelt cost differ by grade. Automotive lightweighting and can-to-can recycling are the two biggest demand stories right now.
The largest scrap category by volume, but the lowest value per kilogram. Pricing is driven less by a single global benchmark and more by regional electric arc furnace demand, InfraBuild's two Australian EAFs alone remelt around 1.4 million tonnes of scrap a year, since EAF mills buy scrap directly as their primary raw material, not a byproduct of primary production.
Each material has its own grade structure that affects price beyond the headline number: copper splits into categories like bare bright, #1, and #2 based on purity; aluminium splits by form, extrusion, UBC cans, sheet, and cable; steel splits by thickness and condition, HMS 1, HMS 2, shredded, and structural. The specific grade matters as much as the base material when it comes to the actual price offered.
Copper and aluminium both trade against a genuine, published global benchmark, which is why a live reference number for either is meaningful anywhere in the world. Steel scrap doesn't work that way, its price is set far more locally, by whichever electric arc furnace mills are actively buying in your region and how urgently they need feedstock right now.
InfraBuild's two Australian furnaces, in Laverton, Victoria and Rooty Hill, NSW, together remelt roughly 1.4 million tonnes of scrap steel a year, close to half of the entire country's EAF scrap consumption on their own. Demand that concentrated, from that few buyers, means steel scrap pricing in Australia tracks domestic mill activity and construction cycles far more closely than it tracks a single international number the way copper and aluminium do.
Copper is the most volatile of the three, since it trades closest to a genuine global commodity benchmark and reacts fastest to demand shocks, the kind of move that put copper at record highs in early 2026 is a copper-specific story, not one that automatically pulls aluminium or steel along with it at the same magnitude.
Aluminium sits in the middle, exchange-linked like copper but generally less reactive, since substitution and stockpiles cushion sudden demand swings more than they do for copper. Steel is the most locally driven of the three, for the reasons above, which is part of why EAF expansion is reshaping steel scrap demand specifically, region by region, rather than moving a single global price.
Copper, aluminium, and steel are the three materials sellers ask about first for good reason: together they cover the overwhelming majority of scrap volume and value traded in Australia. Steel dominates by sheer weight, present in nearly every demolition and manufacturing offcut. Copper dominates by value per kilogram, small quantities represent real money in a way most other materials don't. Aluminium sits as the genuine middle ground, common enough to appear in almost every load, valuable enough to be worth separating out properly.
That combination, high volume plus high per-unit value plus broad presence in ordinary scrap loads, is exactly why these three anchor most pricing conversations, and why understanding what drives each one specifically pays off more than trying to track a single generic "scrap metal price" that doesn't actually exist as one number.
A static price table goes stale the day it's published, both live figures above will have moved by the time you read this. For a genuinely current number, use the scrap metal calculator, and for a forward-looking view specifically on copper, independently sourced and clearly not financial advice, see the copper price forecast.
Scarcity and processing cost, mainly. Copper ore grades have declined globally, making primary production more expensive, while copper's conductivity makes it essential for electrification, which is currently a major demand driver. Steel is abundant and its ore is comparatively cheap to mine, so the value gap reflects underlying supply and demand economics, not an arbitrary industry convention.
As a live reference point, copper has recently traded around $14,400 a tonne on exchange-linked pricing, and aluminium around $3,290 a tonne on the London Metal Exchange. Both figures move regularly, they're a snapshot, not a fixed number, which is exactly why checking a current calculator before selling matters more than relying on a number from months ago.
Loosely together, since all three respond to broad industrial demand and currency movements, but not in lockstep. Copper is the most sensitive to electrification-specific demand, aluminium tracks automotive and packaging cycles more closely, and steel is driven more by regional construction and EAF capacity than by a single global signal.
ScrapTrade's live calculator covers all three, along with every other tradeable material, updated against current market data rather than a static reference table.
It comes down to how forgiving each metal is of contamination. Copper's value gap between bare bright and insulated cable is large because insulation has to be stripped before the metal can be remelted cleanly. Steel is more forgiving, mixed or painted steel still processes reasonably well, so its grade-based price gaps are comparatively smaller.
Not quite the same way. Exchange benchmarks exist for refined primary metal, but scrap trades at a discount to that benchmark which varies by grade, region, and buyer. ScrapTrade's own Price Index exists specifically to give a transparent, live reference point for scrap specifically, not just refined metal.
Steel, by a clear margin. A simple magnet test confirms it instantly. Aluminium and copper both require a bit more care, aluminium can be confused with other light metals, and copper's value varies enormously by form, bare wire versus insulated cable versus pipe, in ways that aren't obvious just from looking at it.
All three move both ways depending on grade and domestic demand. Higher-grade copper and aluminium scrap is frequently exported to processing hubs overseas, while steel, being the largest volume category, increasingly feeds growing domestic electric arc furnace capacity as that sector expands.
Volatility and a genuinely global demand story. Copper hit an all-time high on the London Metal Exchange in late January 2026, driven by electrification and grid infrastructure demand outpacing new mine supply, a dramatic, headline-friendly move that steel and aluminium simply haven't matched at the same speed, even though all three remain economically significant.
Live prices for copper, aluminium, steel, and every other material ScrapTrade trades.
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