Scrap Week Recap: Mills Paid Up
Market notes · Published
Steel scrap prices led the week of October 19 to 23, 2026. Mills had to pay more than they first offered for October scrap, and the people who trade it expect November to go higher again. This recap covers that, the September housing numbers, copper and the recyclers' fall meeting, and what each one means for a hauler. Every figure names its source and its date, and nothing here is a forecast of your yard's board.
The week in four lines
Four pieces of news mattered this week, and the card below puts them on one page.
Here is the same week in words:
- Steel scrap: October settled up $20 to $30 a gross ton after the first bids fell short, and traders expect higher steel scrap prices in November (Steel Market Update, October 21).
- Housing: September housing starts fell 5.2 percent and building permits slipped 0.2 percent (Census Bureau, October 20).
- Copper: the futures price held near $6.56 a pound while warehouse stocks built up (copper.com.au weekly brief, October 22).
- The industry: the Recycled Materials Association held its Fall 2026 Meeting from October 20 to 22, with a panel on cargo theft (recycledmaterials.org, October 21).
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Steel scrap prices: mills paid up in October
The biggest news for a hauler this week was steel. Steel Market Update reported on October 21 that mills opened their October buying with bids of up $10 to $20 a gross ton, and that those bids did not bring in enough scrap. In its words, "buyers eventually settled for prices up $20-30/gt," and "a few mills had to pay even more to fill in their needs" as the month went on.
A gross ton is 2,240 pounds, so $20 to $30 a gross ton works out to about 0.9 to 1.3 cents a pound. That sounds small, and on one pickup haul it is. On a trailer of heavy melt or a month of cleanouts, it adds up.
Here is a simple way to see it. Say you bring in 4,000 pounds of mixed steel a week. At one more cent a pound, that is $40 more a week, and about $160 a month, if your yard passes the full move along. A small yard may pass along only part of it, and later. So treat the math as the top of the range, not a promise.
An earlier Steel Market Update report, on October 15, carried one more number worth knowing. Busheling, the clean factory offcut grade, averaged $480 a gross ton in October, up $12.50 from September. A hauler rarely sells busheling, but it shows which way the mill market is leaning.
What November could bring
The October 21 report says "Scrap prices will probably rise in the US in November." The open question among traders is how much.
We will be plain about what this is. It is a read on what mills pay big scrap dealers for prime and shredded grades, and it reaches a small yard's board later and only in part. Your yard posts its own price for light iron, plate and structural, and the rest. Use the trend as a reason to check the board, not as a number to quote at the scale.
Scrap tip: Clean steel pays better than steel with junk on it. Keep wood, tires, concrete and plastic out of the steel pile, and cut long pieces to the length your yard asks for. A pile the yard can drop straight into a grade is a pile it does not have to discount.
How steel scrap prices reach your yard
Steel scrap prices move in steps. Big mills buy once a month from the large dealers and shredders. Those dealers then change what they pay the smaller yards, and the smaller yards change their boards. Each step takes days or weeks, and each one keeps a margin. That is why a move like this one can show up at your scale late, smaller, or not at all if your yard sells to a buyer who did not pay up.
The fastest way to know if your yard moved is to ask, or to check posted prices before you drive. Steel scrap prices on a posted board beat any number in a news story, because the board is what you get paid.
Related reading: A higher steel price in the news is not always a higher scrap price. Steel prices up, scrap steel prices not explains why the two can move apart, and what a hauler should watch instead of the headline number.
Why supply was short
The report ties the long October buying cycle to scrap that was slow to come in at the first price. How your scrap comes in is the part a hauler controls. When steel scrap prices firm up, the scrap that comes in sorted and prepared is the scrap that gets the better number.
Housing starts fell in September
On Tuesday, October 20, the Census Bureau published New Residential Construction for September, in its release. These are seasonally adjusted yearly rates:
| September 2026 | Rate | Change from August | Change from September 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Building permits | 1,400,000 | down 0.2 percent | down 3.0 percent |
| Housing starts | 1,221,000 | down 5.2 percent | down 7.4 percent |
| Housing completions | 1,192,000 | up 2.2 percent | down 14.0 percent |
Single-family starts were at a rate of 859,000, down 4.6 percent from August. The Census Bureau marks most of these monthly changes with a wide margin of error, so one month is a hint, not a trend.
Here is why a hauler might care. New homes throw off copper pipe offcuts, wire ends, steel studs and ductwork, and permits come before the work. Fewer starts and flat permits point to a little less new-build scrap over the winter. Remodels and tear-outs are not in this report, so if that is your work, your own job count is the better guide. Our Monday issue explains how to read these numbers.
Scrap tip: Ask a builder near you if you can haul the offcut bin. Copper pipe ends, wire scraps and steel studs pay more when you pull them out of the trash before it goes to the dump. Ask before you take anything from a site.
The next release is November 18, 2026. Building numbers do not move steel scrap prices right away, but fewer new homes over a full year means less new steel going into the ground, and in time less coming back out.
Copper: steady price, stocks building
Copper had a quiet week on price and a busy one underneath. The copper.com.au weekly brief for October 22 reported:
- the COMEX futures price settled at $6.56 a pound on October 21, little changed on the week.
- the London Metal Exchange three-month price was about $14,364 a tonne late that day, about 3.4 percent below its September 10 record.
- available stocks in London's warehouses reached a two-month high of 147,450 tonnes on October 20.
- workers at the Centinela mine in Chile ended a strike that began on October 7.
- the US decision on a tariff for refined copper is still pending.
Is copper scrap tariffed?
Not under the Section 232 copper tariff, according to the Congressional Research Service. Its summary says the tariff does not cover copper scrap. For a hauler, that means the yard's copper price still follows the copper market, not a tariff on the scrap itself.
Related reading: A copper price in the news is not the price for your grade. Scrap copper prices per pound and the yard grades walks through the copper grades a yard posts, from bare bright down to the lower grades.
The recyclers' fall meeting: cargo theft
The Recycled Materials Association, the trade group behind the standard scrap grade names, held its Fall 2026 Meeting from October 20 to 22. Its news page lists an October 21 item on a cargo theft prevention panel at the meeting. The association also named Myles Cohen as the recipient of its PSI Chapter Lifetime Achievement Award the same day.
Cargo theft matters to a one-truck business too. A loaded trailer or a truck bed full of sorted copper is easy money for someone else if it sits unwatched overnight.
Scrap tip: Do not leave a sorted haul of copper or brass in the truck overnight. Sell it the same day, or lock it up. Keep your weigh tickets and the date and grade of every sale, so if anything goes missing you can show what you had.
The association's New York Chapter holds its fall meeting and networking event on Thursday, October 29, at 230 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, per its events page.
What we watch next week
The Census Bureau publishes September durable goods orders, new home sales and preliminary US imports of steel products on Tuesday, October 27, per its calendar. Steel imports compete with steel made from scrap, so that line sits next to this week's steel news. The Federal Reserve meets October 27 and 28, per its meeting calendar. And the November steel scrap buying cycle starts at the turn of the month, which is when Steel Market Update's call for higher prices gets tested.
Between one recap and the next, the scrap rates page shows posted prices by ZIP code, and Scraplift ranks the yards near you by what you clear after the drive. Our scrap week recap from last Friday has the September scrap price indexes if you want the longer view.
This is general market commentary, not financial advice and not a promise. Your yard's own posted price for your grade is what you are paid. Check the date and the grade on any quote before you agree to it.
Quick answers
What happened to steel scrap prices in October 2026?
Mills opened October with bids of up $10 to $20 a gross ton, found too little scrap at that price, and settled up $20 to $30 a gross ton, per Steel Market Update on October 21. Traders expect higher steel scrap prices in November.
Will my yard pay more for steel?
Maybe, and later. Steel scrap prices in the trade press are what mills pay big dealers, and your yard's board may move less or later. Check the board before you drive.
How much is $20 a gross ton in cents a pound?
A gross ton is 2,240 pounds, so $20 a gross ton is about 0.9 cents a pound, and $30 is about 1.3 cents a pound.
What did the September housing starts show?
Housing starts fell 5.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted yearly rate of 1,221,000, and building permits slipped 0.2 percent to 1,400,000, per the Census Bureau on October 20, 2026.
Is copper scrap tariffed?
According to the Congressional Research Service, copper scrap is not covered by the Section 232 copper tariff. The yard's copper price still follows the copper market.