Non-ferrous metals

Millberry is the trade name for bright and shiny bare bright copper wire: clean, untinned, uncoated and unalloyed wire of minimum 99.9% copper, completely free of insulation, oxidation and burnt material. Usually recovered from stripped power cables, it is the highest-value copper scrap grade because rod mills can melt it directly in place of cathode. Note that Millberry is an industry term — the ISRI code words for the wire grades themselves are Berry (No.1) and Birch (No.2).

Both are ISRI copper wire grades, but they sit a class apart. Berry is No.1 copper wire: clean, unalloyed and uncoated, minimum ~99% Cu, with only light oxidation permitted. Birch is No.2 copper wire: it may be coated, tinned, soldered or oxidised and includes burnt wire, with a nominal 96% (minimum 94%) copper content. In practice, Berry goes to rod mills and refiners at a premium, while Birch feeds secondary refineries at a wider discount.

Zorba is the ISRI term for shredded mixed non-ferrous metals produced by automobile fragmentizers and recovered by eddy-current and dense-media systems. It is predominantly aluminium, with fractions of copper, brass, zinc, stainless and insulated wire. Zorba is graded by its non-ferrous metal content — 'Zorba 95' means roughly 95% metallics. Its stainless-rich counterpart from the same process is Zurik.

Both. Alongside the full ISRI scrap range we trade refined and semi-finished forms: copper cathode, copper and brass ingot, aluminium remelt ingot, and 8 mm copper wire rod. It means we can serve a scrap generator and a rod mill in one place, and price each on the right basis.

ISRI grades are the standard specifications published by the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (now ReMA) in its Scrap Specifications Circular. Each code word — Birch, Toto, Honey, Zorba — defines exactly what a shipment must contain and what contamination is allowed. Trading on these grades means both buyer and seller are pricing the same, precisely defined material. Where a metal has no published code (for example aluminium bronze or gunmetal), we trade it on laboratory assay instead.

Although stainless contains iron, the market prices it on its nickel, chromium and molybdenum content: the valuable 'alloy units'. Because those units dwarf the iron value, 300-series stainless is bought, sold and hedged alongside non-ferrous metals.