Originally Posted by
OFWIFJ
NC
2004 .10/lb or 200.00/ton
2024 .05/lb or 100.00/ton
I never prepped anything just hauled 3,600lb v8 cars to local yards.. It's been years since I scrapped.. I was making 45k a year gross just hauling cars as a side hustle in 2004; no way in heck I'd do anything but PCB gold extraction these days..
You can't really compare. There was an unusually heavy market demand for steel during the Iraq war in 2004. You could hardly give steel away after the recession of 07-08 hit. The bottom dropped out of the market. The global Covid-19 pandemic and the whole world all but came to a halt. It was awhile before manufacturing resumed. All supply and demand.
It's survival of the fittest during the turbulent times. The strong survive and the weaker businesses that aren't in a position to compete tend to fall by the wayside.
It's all about the economy of scale and the industrial process these days.
We have to ship out 15 ton loads of prepped mix steel on a truck /trailer combo for it to be a paying proposition where i'm located. We're about a 60 mile run to the main yard.
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