Copper scrap — highest value per kilo, highest need for honest scales

We buy copper scrap from companies and institutions: bright bare wire (millberry), insulated wire and cable, busbars and switchgear copper, motor and transformer windings (dry types), and mixed copper. Copper — “tanso” — is the highest-value common scrap per kilo, which is exactly why it attracts the industry’s worst weighing behavior. Our answer is calibrated scales, dual custody, and a published formula: on copper, a rigged scale steals more per minute than anywhere else in the yard.

Which copper grades do we distinguish?

• Millberry / bright bare wire — clean, uncoated, untinned; the reference grade of the family.
• Burnt or stripped wire — recovered conductor with residue; factor reflects cleanliness. (Note: we buy burnt wire — we do not burn wire. Open cable burning is illegal and toxic; mechanical stripping preserves value legally.)
• Busbar & heavy copper — electrical bus, pipe, solids.
• Insulated cable — priced on recovery yield by cable type.
• Windings & mixed copper — motors, coils, mixed items; graded on copper content.

Why does copper demand extra custody control?

Because copper theft is a documented, persistent problem for utilities and contractors — which makes provenance the first question any legitimate buyer must ask. We KYC every account under the Anti-Fencing Law (PD 1612) and buy only documented corporate origin. That protects sellers too: your copper enters a paper trail that proves your disposal was lawful, which is precisely what your security team and your client audits want to see.

Selling copper to us — what to expect

Survey and classification with photos; segregation advice (separating millberry from mixed can move real money on a single pickup); weighing witnessed by your representative; formula pricing off the weekly reference with copper’s grade factors; ticket + BIR paper on release. For cable-heavy accounts — utilities, electrical contractors, telecom — see the utilities page.