Two weeks ago Corus slashed its prices paid for steel cans delivered to its CanRoute collection centres across the UK from £95 a tonne to just £10 a tonne. Now the huge steel company will be paying zero for cans. The drop is the result of volatile global markets and falling demand for new steel products, and follows an amazing high of £235 per tonne in the summer 2008.
Corus say, "This reduction, from £10 per tonne, is due to the global economic slow-down and the resulting decline in orders for new steel products in the UK, particularly in the automotive and construction sectors.
"A knock-on effect of this reduced demand for new steel products is a reduction in demand for all scrap steel to be used in the steel production process, resulting in a drop in demand - and value - of steel packaging delivered to CanRoute centres," it added.
Collectors, including councils, scrap metal merchants and waste management companies are bound to feel the pinch with this news, and some are wondering if in fact the price will eventually determine the viability of collecting the waste material at all, particularly as things are not set to improve until well into the New Year.
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