Clean, uncoated, unalloyed copper wire of 16 gauge and heavier, bright in appearance — the top copper grade, priced closest to the exchange cathode price.
Clean, uncoated, unalloyed copper wire of 16 gauge and heavier, bright in appearance — the top copper grade, priced closest to the exchange cathode price.
Bare bright is stripped copper wire that has not oxidised, tinned or been alloyed. It comes from stripping insulated building wire and cable, from wire-drawing offcuts and from electrical contractors. The ReMA grade requires wire no thinner than 16 gauge, free of insulation, tinning, solder and hair wire. Berry is the related clean-wire grade; Barley is the strictly bare bright definition used in most price lists.
Because it is essentially pure copper, bare bright can go straight to a wire-rod mill or a fire refinery with minimal treatment, which is why it trades at only a small discount to COMEX or LME copper.
The United States, Europe and Japan generate bare bright from their cable-stripping industries; China is the largest buyer, followed by India, South Korea, Malaysia and Thailand, where secondary copper rod and brass mills consume it. Chinese import standards for recycled copper raw material admit high-purity grades like bare bright without the restrictions that applied to mixed scrap.
Buyers look for tinning, oxidation, solder joints and fine wire mixed into the lot. A few per cent of tinned wire moves the lot down to No. 1 copper or No. 2 copper pricing. Weight is checked carefully because the metal is valuable enough that moisture and dirt in bags matter.
Code: ReMA Barley / Berry (No. 1 bare bright wire)
The main importing countries for this grade — each links to the country page with its mills, smelters, price references and named firms.