Believe it or not, scrap metal values are determined globally by market conditions – not much unlike other commodities like gold or silver. The manufacturing sector has demands for raw metal products to supply their operations to make new products. This supply in turn has an effect on the demand for scrap metals to be melted down and used to produce these raw materials. In turn, the demand for scrap metal drives the market value up or down. While we would love to pay everyone a whole bunch of money, unfortunately the market does not always allow us to!