Scrap-to-Capital Financing

Idle metal is idle money. A decommissioned production line, a yard of retired trucks or a demolished warehouse frame is worth a precise sum at today's scrap price, and the only thing standing between that sum and your bank account is the time it takes to cut it up, weigh it and ship it. Our financing desk removes that wait. We pay on valuation, before the dismantling is finished, so end-of-life assets become working capital immediately rather than in three months.

This is not a loan

We are not a lender and we do not pretend to be one. What we offer is payment for scrap, brought forward. We value the material, pay against that valuation, and recover the material. There is no interest, no security over your other assets, no covenant and nothing to repay, because the metal is the settlement. If you have ever been offered financing that turned out to be a loan with your scrap as collateral, this is the opposite of that.

Advance payment against tonnage

For material already at one of our yards, settlement is same day against the weighbridge ticket. For larger sellers with a steady flow, we agree a rate card and pay per ticket as loads arrive, so a factory producing offcuts every week is paid every week rather than accumulating a pile and negotiating once a quarter.

Cash on valuation for plant awaiting decommissioning

This is where the desk earns its name. A valuer visits, walks the site and produces a lot-by-lot figure for the plant, fleet or structure at current scrap prices, taking into account grade, contamination, access and the cost of cutting. An advance is paid against that valuation before the first cut is made. The balance follows as each lot crosses the weighbridge, reconciled against actual tickets that you see.

The advance is deliberately set below the valuation, because recovered weight always differs from estimated weight. If recovery comes in above the estimate you receive the difference. If it comes in below, the shortfall is absorbed within the margin we held back, and you are not asked for money.

Bridging for demolition contractors

Demolition contractors carry a cash gap between paying crews and plant during strip-out and being paid for the steel when it finally sells. We pay for the steel as it comes down, lot by lot, against tickets from a weighbridge on site or at the nearest yard. The contractor funds the job from the job, which is how it should have worked all along.

Placement of proceeds

A seller who has just been paid for a large decommissioning often holds that cash against a known future obligation, such as the replacement plant. It need not sit in a current account earning nothing until then. We place proceeds with licensed money-market fund managers, with a maturity matched to the date the cash is needed. Matching maturity to obligation is the whole discipline; a better rate on money you cannot reach when the supplier invoices has not helped you.

A worked example

A food processor is replacing a packing line. The old line is thirty tonnes of mild steel frame, four tonnes of stainless, half a tonne of copper in motors and cable, and a control cabinet full of switchgear. Our valuer prices each of those at the current rate for its grade, deducts the cutting and transport, and arrives at a figure per lot. The processor receives an advance against that figure the week the new line is ordered, not the week the old one is finally gone. As each lot crosses the weighbridge the balance is paid against the ticket, and the copper, which the processor had never counted, turns out to be the most valuable lot of the lot.

How a valuation is done

We value at current scrap prices, by grade, less the cost of recovery, and we show the workings. Structural steel is valued on the drawings and confirmed on site. Machinery is valued by material composition, with motors, copper windings and non-ferrous fittings separated because they carry a different price from the frame. Vehicles are valued as ferrous shells plus the non-ferrous and catalytic content. You see the basis of every number before you decide.

What we do not do

We do not take deposits and we do not lend as principal or as agent. If a structure only works if you borrow, we say so and we do not write it. The financing desk exists to pay you sooner for what you already own, and it does nothing else.