Every material ScrapTrade prices runs through the same Index: one set of AI-generated reference prices, refreshed daily, covering ferrous and non-ferrous metals, plastics, paper and cardboard, and e-waste. What it actually covers, how it works, and how to use it properly.
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The Index runs across five real material categories and the 24 specific materials ScrapTrade actively prices within them, from HMS 1 steel to bare bright copper wire to mixed e-waste. Every one of them runs through the same Index, not a separate pricing system per category, which is what makes a like-for-like comparison across materials possible in the first place.
Steel and cast iron, from HMS 1 through structural and shredded grades.
Copper, aluminium, brass, zinc, lead, and the rest of the non-ferrous set.
PET, HDPE, and mixed plastic grades.
OCC and mixed paper.
Pre-sorted circuit boards, cables, and electronic components.
Twenty-four is not a fixed ceiling. It reflects what ScrapTrade actively trades today, and it has grown before as coverage expanded into materials that were not part of the original list. A seller generating a material outside the current 24, precious metals, for instance, still trades on ScrapTrade through the general marketplace and Wanted Board, just without a live Index number attached to it yet.
Most scrap buyers publish a price list: a static number per material, updated whenever someone gets around to it. An index is different. It is a running, continuously updated benchmark, the same role LME reference prices play for primary metals, or a spot price plays for gold: a single number the whole market can point to and compare against, rather than every buyer publishing their own figure with no way to check it against anyone else's.
That is the gap the ScrapTrade Price Index fills on the scrap side. It does not replace a buyer's actual offer, a real deal always depends on grade, quantity, and location too, but it gives every trader the same starting reference point before a single conversation happens. A seller checking today's copper price and a buyer across the country checking the same material are looking at the same Index, not two different guesses.
It is also the same Index that ScrapTrade's own market reporting draws from: monthly and quarterly reads on where prices actually moved and why, built on the same daily numbers rather than a separate dataset assembled after the fact. One index, one source, whether you are checking today's price or reading a trend three months back.
The five categories the Index tracks do not move for the same reasons, and understanding that is part of reading the Index properly rather than treating every number as equally volatile. Ferrous metals track construction and demolition activity closely, along with how much electric arc furnace capacity is buying scrap as feedstock in a given period. Non-ferrous metals, copper and aluminium especially, move with global commodity benchmarks the way LME pricing does, since these materials trade internationally regardless of where the scrap itself was generated.
Plastics track virgin resin and oil prices, since a buyer's alternative to recycled plastic is new plastic made from oil. Paper and cardboard move with export demand and pulp markets. E-waste is different again: its value sits mostly in the small amounts of copper, gold, and other recoverable metals inside it, not the bulk material itself.
None of that changes day to day in the Index, the daily refresh reflects short-term movement, but it explains why a steel number and a copper number on the same day can be moving in completely different directions for completely different reasons.
The Index is AI-generated and refreshed daily across every material category ScrapTrade tracks. If the AI pricing service is temporarily unavailable, a fixed reference price applies as a fallback rather than showing no price at all, so the Index stays available even when live generation is briefly interrupted.
It also runs across 20 currencies and 10 countries, Australia, the US, UK, India, China, UAE, Singapore, Canada, South Africa, and Malaysia, converted so a trader comparing AUD per tonne in Sydney and USD per kilogram in Singapore is comparing like-for-like value, not doing currency math by hand. Australia and AUD are the default, since that is ScrapTrade's home market, but the same Index runs the same way for a trader anywhere else on the list.
The Index is a reference estimate, not a locked-in trading price. It reflects current estimated market conditions for a material in general, not the specific grade, quantity, condition, or location of any one listing. Two sellers checking the same material on the same day see the same Index number, but the actual price either of them gets depends on what a real buyer offers for their specific lot, through negotiation, an auction, or a fixed-price listing.
Check the Index before you list or make an offer, not after. A seller who knows the reference price before naming a number negotiates from a position of information instead of guessing. Our guide to negotiating from a known price covers how to actually use that leverage.
A running set of AI-generated reference prices covering the 24 materials ScrapTrade actively prices, refreshed daily. It's the same reference point every trader sees, not a separate number per buyer, which is what makes comparing prices across materials, currencies, and countries possible in the first place.
Daily. Prices are generated by AI and refreshed at least once a day across every material category the Index tracks, rather than a static list updated whenever someone gets around to it.
No, and it's not meant to be. It's a reference estimate for a material in general, not the specific grade, quantity, condition, or location of any one listing. The actual price a seller gets depends on a real buyer's offer, through negotiation, an auction, or a fixed-price listing. The Index is where that conversation starts.
No. The Index covers the 24 materials across ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals, plastics, paper and cardboard, and e-waste. Precious metals like gold and silver aren't included, purity varies too much piece to piece for a single standing rate to be meaningful. See our precious metal scrap guide for how that category is priced instead.
Yes. The Index runs across 20 currencies and 10 countries, Australia, the US, UK, India, China, UAE, Singapore, Canada, South Africa, and Malaysia, converted so a trader in any of them is comparing like-for-like value. Australia and AUD are the default, since that's ScrapTrade's home market, but the Index works the same way everywhere else on the list.
A fixed reference price applies as a fallback, so the Index stays available rather than showing nothing at all. It reverts to live AI-generated pricing once the service is back.
Because knowing the reference price before you name a number changes the negotiation itself. A seller who checks the Index first can hold a price with confidence instead of guessing at what's fair, and a buyer who checks it first knows immediately whether an asking price is reasonable or worth pushing back on. Either way, the conversation starts from a real number instead of a blind opening offer.
See today's reference prices across every material ScrapTrade tracks.
