Scrap Yard KPIs and Benchmarks: Yield, Turns, Uptime and Recovery
The KPIs that run a scrap yard, from recovered yield to the spread over the index: how to measure each, what moves it, and which figures have a cited source.
Use these benchmarks as reference points for spotting a gap, not as targets. Your own trend by grade and by week says more about your yard than any single published figure, so let the ranges below point you to the KPI with the most money behind it.
Every figure shows its basis. A superscript number links to a public source in the Sources list, and the sentence gives that source's scope. Most yard operating figures here are marked no cited source: they are kept exactly as originally published because no public source stating them was found, so treat them as illustrative.
At a glance
Scrap yard KPI benchmarks at a glance
KPI
Typical
Strong
Basis
Recovered yield, saleable weight over gross received
Words in parentheses give each figure's original framing. The melt loss figures are per-grade benchmarks, so they sit in one column. Not stated means the original guide gave no figure for that column.
Method: How the figures in this guide are sourced
A figure with a superscript number is stated by the cited source, listed under Sources with its publisher, location in the document and access date, and the sentence gives its scope. A figure marked no cited source is kept exactly as originally published because no public source stating it was found. It is illustrative, not measured industry data. Worked examples show arithmetic only and are not benchmarks.
Recovered yield
Recovered yield is the flagship KPI: saleable weight out of gross weight received. Typical yards run 88 to 92 percent no cited source, and world-class shredding operations hit 94 to 96 percent through tighter downstream separation no cited source.
Small drops are expensive, so trend yield weekly by grade. The lever is upstream: better inbound inspection and tighter buy specs move yield faster than any downstream sorting equipment upgrade.
For example, a 2 point yield drop across 8,000 tons a month at 320 dollars per ton is 8,000 x 2 percent x 320 = 51,200 dollars of vanished revenue every month.
How to measure
Divide saleable weight shipped by gross weight received.
Report it per grade, not as one yard-wide number.
Trend it weekly so a drop shows up before month end.
What moves it
Inbound inspection at the scale and at unloading.
Tighter buy specs, so off-grade material is priced as what it is.
Downstream separation on shredded material.
The Recovered Material Yield calculator tracks it per grade.
Inventory turns
Inventory turns measure trapped capital. Typical mixed yards turn 8 to 12 times a year no cited source, and a disciplined shredded-focused operation turns 18 to 24 on fast grades no cited source. Below 6 turns you are financing piles that oxidize and lose weight no cited source.
How to measure
Divide tons shipped by rolling average tons in inventory, annualized.
Use a rolling average, not a single month-end count.
Split fast grades from slow cast and specialty grades.
What moves it
Shipment cadence, with loads consolidated to full legal payload.
Grade discipline, moving stagnant cast and specialty grades on a scheduled sweep rather than waiting for a price pop.
Together those two levers can lift turns 3 to 5 points in a quarter no cited source. The Yard Inventory Turns calculator runs the arithmetic from shipped tons and average inventory.
Shear and baler utilization
Shear and baler uptime separates good yards from break-even ones. Nameplate throughput means little on its own; effective utilization against nameplate is the KPI.
Typical operations run 55 to 65 percent utilization against nameplate no cited source. World-class disciplined yards reach 75 to 82 percent no cited source.
For example, closing a 10 point utilization gap on a 90 ton per hour machine adds 9 tons per operating hour (10 percent of 90). Over 8 operating hours, that is 72 more tons with zero new capital.
How to measure
Measure effective tons per operating hour from scale tickets, not from the machine plate.
Divide effective tons per hour by nameplate tons per hour.
Log every stop by cause: feed waits, changeovers, blade work and breakdowns.
What moves it
Crane feed choreography, so the machine never waits for material.
Changeover reduction between grades and bale sizes.
Melt loss is the recovery KPI on the furnace side: the share of charged weight that does not come out as liquid metal. Clean prime grades should benchmark 2 to 4 percent no cited source, heavy melt 4 to 6 percent no cited source, and light oily turnings 8 to 12 percent no cited source.
No public source stating melt loss by scrap grade was found, but U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) furnace data give context. DOE's 1999 profile of the metalcasting industry cites work putting electric arc furnace yield at about 95 percent1, and its 2005 melting report lists 5 to 8 percent melt loss for direct arc steel melting2. Both are foundry furnace figures, not scrap grade figures.
Prep quality drives the spread between grades. The 1999 DOE profile notes that clean scrap may generate aluminum dross of around 1 percent of the metal melted, while plants melting dirty, painted or light-gauge scrap may produce dross above 15 percent of the charge3.
The same profile puts aluminum melt losses in reverberatory furnaces at 2 to 12 percent4, and cupola iron melt losses at 7 to 10 percent5. Dross includes entrained metal, so it is not the same measure as melt loss.
Typical melt loss by furnace and metal in foundry melting
Figures from Exhibit 1 of DOE's 2005 report on melting technologies for the metal casting industry2. They describe furnace types in foundries, not scrap grades.
Track melt loss by grade and flag any heat drifting a point above its grade band no cited source.
For example, each point of melt loss recovered on a 20,000 lb heat is 1 percent of 20,000 lb, or 200 lb of saleable liquid metal per charge, which compounds fast across a shift of heats.
How to measure
Weigh the charge and the liquid metal tapped for every heat.
Record the grade mix of each charge.
Trend loss by grade, not as a furnace average.
What moves it
De-oiling turnings before they are charged.
Reducing fines, which cuts oxidation loss.
Keeping dirty and clean grades apart in the charge plan.
Labor productivity is best benchmarked two ways: tons sorted per labor hour and labor dollars per ton. Typical hand-sort lines run 3 to 5 tons per labor hour no cited source; mechanized lines with pickers hit 10 to 15 no cited source.
Hold a target dollars-per-ton band for each grade. Overstaffing a clean grade or understaffing a dirty one both blow the target.
How to measure
Divide tons sorted by paid labor hours on the line, per shift.
Convert it to labor dollars per ton with loaded wage rates.
Report both by grade, since dirty grades sort slower.
What moves it
Crew size matched to how dirty the grade is.
Operators cross-trained to flex between sorting and machine feed, which keeps tons per labor hour near the top of the band during flow swings.
Contamination rate is a quality KPI that gates everything downstream. Benchmark inbound contamination at under 3 percent for prime and under 6 percent for heavy melt no cited source; world-class inbound programs hold prime under 1.5 percent no cited source.
Trend the deduction lines by supplier, because two or three dirty accounts usually drive most of the give-back no cited source.
How to measure
Record contamination as a share of gross weight on every inbound load.
Keep each load's deduction in pounds and in dollars.
Roll both up by supplier every month.
What moves it
Supplier scorecards that rank accounts by contamination percent.
Inbound inspection that records contamination on every load.
Re-pricing or coaching the worst 20 percent typically cuts total penalty dollars 30 to 40 percent within two months no cited source. Total the deductions by supplier with the Contamination Penalty calculator.
Truck payload and freight
Scale and freight efficiency is a quiet KPI with real leverage: average payload against legal capacity. Strong yards load to within 3 percent of the axle limit no cited source, and weak ones leave 8 to 12 percent on the table no cited source.
Legal capacity has a federal ceiling. On the Interstate system, the federal limits published by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) are 20,000 pounds on a single axle, 34,000 pounds on a tandem axle and 80,000 pounds gross vehicle weight6. States may set their own limits off the Interstate, so check each lane.
For example, closing a 10 percent payload gap on a 22 ton target adds 2.2 tons per haul (10 percent of 22). With a fixed cost per haul, going from 19.8 to 22 tons cuts freight per ton by 10 percent (1 - 19.8 / 22), which drops straight to the delivered net.
How to measure
Compare each outbound load's net weight with the legal payload for that truck and route.
Average the shortfall by lane and by loader.
Trend freight dollars per ton by lane.
What moves it
Loading to a target weight confirmed on the scale before the truck leaves.
Consolidating partial loads instead of shipping light.
Confirm loading targets with the Truck Scale Capacity calculator, and trend dollars per ton by lane with the Scrap Freight Burden calculator.
Delivered net spread over the index
Tie the KPIs to a single north-star: delivered net dollars per ton, benchmarked weekly against the commodity index. World-class yards hold a 60 to 90 dollar per ton spread over the index through price cycles no cited source.
Typical yards see the spread compress to 30 to 45 dollars when they let yield, turns and uptime slip together no cited source. A yield miss, a turns slowdown and an uptime dip each look survivable alone, but they compound into a spread collapse.
How to measure
Subtract the index price for each grade from delivered net dollars per ton.
Review it weekly beside the other KPIs on one dashboard.
What moves it
Every KPI above, because they move as a system.
A weekly review, so a slip in one KPI is caught before it compounds.
Write down one definition for each KPI and keep it fixed.
Collect several months of weekly data by grade before you set targets.
Put every KPI on one weekly dashboard, because they move together.
Compare against your own trend first and published ranges second.
Note what changed in the yard whenever a KPI moves.
Sources
Energy and Environmental Profile of the U.S. Metalcasting Industry. U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Industrial Technologies (prepared by Energetics, Inc.). published September 1999. Sec. 4.6 Byproducts, "Melt Losses Are Generally Small" (PDF p. 51). Accessed September 30, 2026.
Energy and Environmental Profile of the U.S. Metalcasting Industry. U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Industrial Technologies (prepared by Energetics, Inc.). published September 1999. Sec. 5.6, "Melt Losses Depend upon Furnace Used" and "Skim and Dross Diminish the Volume of the Melt" (PDF pp. 60-61). Accessed September 30, 2026.
Energy and Environmental Profile of the U.S. Metalcasting Industry. U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Industrial Technologies (prepared by Energetics, Inc.). published September 1999. Sec. 3.6 cupola byproducts, melt losses (PDF p. 38). Accessed September 30, 2026.
Commercial Vehicle Size and Weight Program. U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Office of Freight Management and Operations. Section on federal weight standards on the Interstate Highway System. Accessed September 30, 2026.