Self storage and scrap metal

They used to say “where there’s muck there’s brass”; now a more apt expression would probably be “where there’s brass there’s gold”’, as China’s insatiable appetite for resources has caused an explosion in the price of scrap metal over the last ten years.

This, in turn, has produced a new economy in scrap metal which has benefitted a number of self storage companies.

Scrap metal on the rise

The prices dealers can get for selling large amounts of scrap metal have multiplied several times, suddenly turning it into an extremely valuable commodity.

According to the BBC, the biggest rise has been in the value of insulated copper cable, which in 2010 was selling for prices 700% higher than it had been in January 2002. Steel and brass had also seen large rises in price, while the metal which had risen the least in value, scrap lead, had still risen by nearly 400%.

Much of the metal which is sold is destined for China, which received 43% of Britain’s scrap copper in 2007. There it will fuel the country’s rapid industrial expansion. This includes the country’s huge export industries, which have enabled moneyed Westerners to enjoy years of cheap imported goods, thanks to China’s relentless driving down of manufacturing costs.

Paradoxically, much of the metal that gets transported from the UK to China may well end up returning here inside the latest Blu-Ray players and television sets, as Western scrap is often used to make components.

Metals are also needed to supply the huge housing construction boom in China, as more and more of its rural citizens migrate to live an urban life in the cities, putting huge pressure on them to grow. Some analysts have argued they will need to build 50 cities the size of London over the next 20 years, suggesting demand for metals is hardly going to slacken off.

Beware! Scrap metal crime wave!

Unfortunately, the big money that can now be made in scrap metal trading has not gone unnoticed by members of the criminal fraternity.

While legitimate scrap metal dealers preside over an industry worth more than £4 billion a year, a vast underground network has emerged of criminals who steal metal and then sell it on to the more unscrupulous members of the profession, often on an industrial scale.

There was the case of a bronze statue, stolen from the Henry Moore Foundation in Hertfordshire in 2005, which is believed to have been melted down. It was worth £3 million on the art market, so the metal thieves may have actually short-changed themselves without realising.

All kinds of more mundane sources have been targeted. Newham Council now has to spend £60,000 a year replacing cast-iron manhole covers which have been stolen, while in 2007 Devon saw 100 aluminum road signs disappear in one night. Entire bus shelters have been removed in West Bromwich, according to the Guardian.

On the Continent, such crime has been conducted on an even grander scale. Entire iron railway bridges have been removed and melted down in Russia, Macedonia and the Czech Republic, where one that weighed four tonnes went missing.

However, far more alarming has been the rise in thefts of copper wiring from railway signaling systems, which caused 2,500 hours of delays in the UK in 2007. Not only is this very annoying for passengers, it’s also extremely dangerous; the risk of a crash increases when the signaling equipment isn’t working properly, and several thieves are killed each year, by being either electrocuted or run over by trains.

Self storage customers cash in

Self storage has enabled a few entrepreneurs to cash in on the scrap metal boom. One of them is Matt Shorter, described as a “21^st-century rag and bone man” in an article about self storage in The Times

He runs a company called Ecojunk, which is paid to clear houses and offices and then dispose of the waste responsibly. The objects they remove are sorted into his self storage units in London and then processed for reusable material; power cables are one of his highest-earning commodities because of their scrap metal content, which he sells on for over £1,000 per tonne.

Somerset Storage is another firm with interests in scrap metal, as they have added a set of self storage containers in the corner of their family scrap yard

One Response to “Self storage and scrap metal”

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