Our margin on copper is relatively thin (5-10%)--Probably move 250,000 lbs in a good year (we are a small yard). Fortunately, our good cash flow position over the years has given us the ability to speculate on cu. In other words, we try to buy alot when comex is low and sit on it until the markets improve. Many yards don't play around with this as you can get burned. But if played correctly--our margins can improve to 10-15%. That's the plan anyway... Sometimes it isn't that easy. When comex is high we buy and turn red metals as fast as possible.

Someone mentioned it earlier... the wide-margins are in some of the non-sexy items (motors, sealed units, insulated wire, batteries and lead, coils, stainless and scrap iron-(for us anyway).

Volume is essential for the larger yards (where margins are smaller) but we try to find a good balance between volume and margins. It costs a lot money to be a high-volume yard (Eqpmnt, labor, supplies). It's not easy work running/owning a yard... I see these yards popping up everywhere now and I wonder if they know what they are getting themselves into. Good luck everyone!