What's a reasonable price difference between clean aluminium off-cuts and aluminium swarf/turnings?
Short answer: Solid off-cuts (sheet, bar, extrusion trim) consistently outprice swarf and turnings of the same alloy, for the same reason turnings underprice sheet generally — much higher surface area means much higher oxidation loss on remelt, plus turnings usually carry cutting oil contamination that off-cuts don't. Expect a meaningful discount on turnings even when the underlying alloy is identical.
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This is really the same dynamic as sheet-versus-turnings, just framed around general workshop off-cuts rather than sheet specifically. Anything solid and low-surface-area beats anything shredded, machined, or shaved from the same alloy.
What “reasonable” actually depends on
The exact gap varies by buyer and by how oily or mixed the swarf is, so there is no single fixed percentage worth quoting — it is more useful to ask a buyer directly for their off-cut rate and their swarf rate side by side, so you can see the actual gap they are applying rather than guessing.
Keeping the value up
Separate off-cuts from swarf at the source rather than combining them into one bin. Mixing solid pieces into a swarf bin does not help the swarf, and can drag down how the solid pieces get valued if the buyer weighs the whole bin as one lot.
How ScrapTrade Makes This Easier
Listing off-cuts and swarf as two separate lots on ScrapTrade — rather than one mixed workshop-scrap listing — lets each get priced against buyers actually looking for that specific form, instead of an averaged-down blended rate.
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