Buoyant Commodities Prices are Encouraging Scrap Metal Thefts Across the UK
Bristol July 2010
Yesterday (14th July, 2010) saw a day of action across the UK by Police forces from England, Scotland and Wales as they held a co-ordinated effort to curb the increasing instances of metal thefts. It seems that the problem has risen to such proportions that such action is not only deemed necessary but essential. The effort was controlled by the British Transport Police in response to a massive increase in the frequency and scale of these types of thefts. Many British Rail facilities have suffered major losses leading to train delays and cancellations. Other targets have been hit across the country and local Police forces have been adding their own information to the national operation.
The rise of commodity prices as the global economy starts to return to a bull market has seen the trade price for metals rise in recent months. With huge demand from overseas and in particular China, there appears to be a lucrative opportunity for anyone with scrap metal for sale. This has led some misguided thieves to start to assess their local areas for the easiest and quickest places to steal scrap metal from.
Among the targets hit so far are power and signal cables from the railways, cable ripped from power stations and sub-stations, lead work from buildings – both municipal and private, business premises and homes alike. There have even been instances of road ironwork like manhole covers and drain grills being removed presumably to sell for scrap. The problem is a particular issue for the railways as the theft of signal and power cables has led to cancellations and disruption of services.
The total cost to British business is estimated to be around £750 million per annum. One commentator put the real cost to the railway network at over £1 million pound in terms of disruption, repair and compensation. The Police have been using powers granted them under the Scrap Metal Dealers Act, 1964, to enter scrap yards and inspect materials held and records relating to the point of origin of the scrap they hold.
Many scrap metal dealers are completely unaware of the source of the scrap metal when it is presented at their yards, and for those found to be holding stolen scrap it can leave a big hole in their balance sheets when it is seized for evidence. The scrap metal industry as a whole is co-operating fully with police and most are taking extra steps to be more vigilant.
For the vast majority of vehicle scrapyards this is of less importance as they collect most of their scrap from old vehicles. For those of us with vehicles to scrap; one upside is that as the price of scrap is rising the value of that old and broken transit could very well be worth more than last month. Scrap transit prices along with all scrap van prices need to be checked with your local scrap merchant before you set out to their yard.
The owner of United Vans, Bristol, a vehicle dismantling operation on the outskirts of Bristol, commented today ‘We, in this industry, work very hard to recycle old vehicles in a responsible way. This type of news helps no one, we here at United Vans would like to assure all our customers that licensed scrap yards, such as ourselves, are very different to the unlicensed variety.’
The usual requirements of most dismantling facilities are that you own the vehicle that you are scrapping and can prove it. Once in the yard the vehicle will be dismantled and any spare parts that still work probably kept for resale in the second hand parts market and the rest of the vehicle will be separated into component materials and sent for recycling where possible. The current trend of thefts should not reflect badly on most of these businesses and consumers should continue to trust their local scrap yard unless there is evidence that they shouldn’t.
About United Vans
United Vans is a licensed vehicle dismantler and has the facilities to separate and dispose of many of the wide range of materials found in scrapped vehicles. They have an excellent reputation for the sale of second hand parts and often announce their needs for specific vehicles to break for spares with ads such as ‘Toyota Hilux wanted‘ or ‘Vauxhall Brava wanted’. They can be contacted via their website www.unitedvans.com