Zinc & Die Cast Scrap Prices in Texas
Get the hard facts on Zinc & Die Cast scrap prices in Texas. Track local yard payouts against the LME, estimate your haul's worth with our load calculator, and find the highest-paying scrap buyers in your area before you hit the scale.
Zinc & Die Cast Scrap Price Trends
over the last 30 daysIn the last month in the Zinc & Die Cast category: price is steady for 1 grade.
Current Zinc & Die Cast Scrap Prices by Grade
Check the board below for live Zinc & Die Cast payouts in Texas, which currently run from $0.25/lb up to $0.30/lb depending on iron contamination. For example, yards are paying around $0.25 to $0.30/lb for pure Clean Zinc Die Cast, while Scrap Carburetors usually sit at . If you've got Irony Zinc Die Cast with steel attached, expect quotes near $0.05 to $0.15/lb. Use these numbers to ensure you aren't getting lowballed.
Top Scrap Yards Buying Zinc & Die Cast in Texas
No yards with tracked prices for Zinc & Die Cast in Texas yet
Local yards may still accept this metal — call ahead to confirm. U.S. national benchmark: category avg $0.25 – $0.30 / lb.
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🚀 List your scrap yard ⟶Price Chart & History
See how local yard buy prices track the exchange (LME). Use this chart to judge whether it's a good time to cash in now or wait for yards to catch up with the latest exchange move.
Calculate Your Zinc & Die Cast Scrap Value
Selling a mixed load? Pick the grades below — a weight field appears after you select at least one grade, then the calculator estimates your haul’s value from current average prices in Texas.
Grade Value: Purity vs. Contamination
The exchange price represents pure, refined metal (99.9%+). Each scrap grade contains varying levels of impurities, which require different amounts of processing. The higher the percentage, the more valuable the grade and the closer its payout is to the spot price.
| Grade | Exchange (100%) | Yard Price (per lb) | Grade Quality |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clean Zinc Die Cast | $1.39 LME | $0.28 | High Grade•20% |
📊 What Determines Zinc Grade Value:
- Zinc Purity: Clean, solid zinc without paint, corrosion, or foreign metals commands the highest scale price.
- Iron Contamination: Attached steel screws, shafts, or brackets immediately drop your load into the 'irony' category, slashing your payout.
- Form factor: Whole automotive carburetors are graded lower because buyers must process them to remove the inner steel and brass components.
- Market Spread: Local yard demand and global shifts dictate the 81.8 margin buyers take against the market index.
Stop Giving Away Your Heavy Zinc as Cheap Aluminum
Listen, zinc and die cast scrap is a sleeper category. Too many scrappers mistake it for cast aluminum and throw it in the wrong bin. Zinc is significantly denser, and if you aren't paying attention, the yard will happily buy your heavy zinc at lower mixed aluminum rates. Across Texas, buyers are paying anywhere from $0.25/lb for dirty, irony material up to $0.30/lb for clean solids, with the average hovering around $0.28/lb. Throwing Clean Zinc Die Cast into a pile of Irony Zinc Die Cast because you were too lazy to remove a few steel screws can easily cost you upwards of $0.00 on a heavy gaylord box. You need to know what you're holding before you pull onto the scale.
The Scrapper's Sorting Guide to Zinc & Die Cast
Yards grade zinc based strictly on cleanliness and the presence of foreign metals, primarily iron and steel. Here is how you need to separate your haul to secure the top-tier payout:
- Clean Zinc Die Cast & Zinc Solids: This is your prime material. Think clean plumbing fixtures, heavy automotive trim (with all steel clips removed), and clean counterweights. Expect yards to offer around $0.25 to $0.30/lb.
- Scrap Carburetors: Automotive and small engine carburetors are predominantly zinc die cast, but they are full of steel butterfly valves, iron shafts, and brass floats. Because of this mixed composition, buyers typically quote around , provided they are fully drained of gas.
- Irony Zinc Die Cast: This is die cast zinc with steel screws, brackets, or inserts still firmly attached. The yard has to run this through a shredder to separate the metals, which means more labor for them and a lower price for you—usually around $0.05 to $0.15/lb.
Yard Pro Tip: Zinc die cast looks almost identical to cast aluminum, but it is roughly two and a half times heavier. If you pick up a piece of 'aluminum' grill or trim and it feels surprisingly dense, it's almost certainly zinc. To confirm, hit it with a file or a grinder: zinc is softer than aluminum and won't load up the file the same way. Never mix the two, or the yard will grade the entire box as cheap mixed cast.
Understanding the Zinc Market in Texas
Local scale prices don't just fluctuate randomly. Scrap yards monitor the LME closely. Because zinc is heavily used for galvanizing steel to prevent rust, its price often moves in tandem with global steel production and auto manufacturing outputs. Buyers factor in a 81.8 spread to cover their freight and processing overhead. When industrial demand spikes, clean zinc payouts rise quickly. Knowing the current $0.28/lb average gives you the leverage to know when to sell and when to stockpile.
Market Insights
How Are Zinc & Die Cast Scrap Prices Set?
Zinc scrap prices are tightly linked to the LME and global industrial demand, particularly in the steel galvanizing and automotive manufacturing sectors. When yards price out your material, they factor in their own processing overhead and a 81.8 spread. Clean zinc solids will fetch top dollar, while irony or contaminated loads require expensive shredding, dropping the payout significantly to the $0.25/lb range.
Tips to Maximize Your Zinc Profits
- Strip the Steel: Run a strong magnet over your die cast parts. Remove any steel bolts, pins, or clips to jump from irony pricing to clean pricing.
- Don't Mix with Aluminum: Keep your zinc separate from cast aluminum. If the yard finds zinc in your aluminum bin (or vice versa), they will downgrade the whole load to the cheapest mixed metal price.
- Drain Your Carbs: If you are scrapping old carburetors, ensure they are 100% drained of fuel. Yards will dock your pay or reject the load entirely for hazardous fluid leaks.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I tell the difference between zinc die cast and cast aluminum?
The fastest and most reliable way is by weight. Zinc is much denser and heavier than cast aluminum. If you hold a piece of zinc in one hand and a similarly sized piece of cast aluminum in the other, the zinc will feel drastically heavier. Also, oxidized zinc tends to have a slightly darker, duller gray look compared to the powdery white oxidation found on old aluminum.
Why do scrap carburetors have their own specific price grade?
Scrap Carburetors are a complex assembly of multiple metals. While the main body housing is valuable zinc die cast, they contain steel shafts, brass jets, springs, and sometimes plastic. Because they require dedicated shredding or manual teardown to recover the clean zinc, yards assign them a specific 'dirty' price tier to account for the processing loss.
Is it actually worth the time to clean irony zinc die cast?
It absolutely depends on the ratio of zinc to steel. If a heavy 5-pound piece of zinc has just one or two small steel screws holding a bracket, it is 100% worth taking a drill to remove them, jumping your material from Irony Zinc Die Cast to the much higher-paying Clean Zinc Die Cast. If it's a small, flimsy piece riddled with steel rivets that would take ten minutes to extract, just throw it in the irony bin and move on.
Zinc & Die Cast scrap prices in Texas on the map
The map shows cities in Texas with Zinc & Die Cast scrap prices. Click a marker or pick a city in the list below to see Zinc & Die Cast prices in that location.