Broken engine blocks, machine beds, pipes, radiators and boiler sections — high-carbon iron scrap that foundries prize as a melting base for grey and ductile iron.
Broken engine blocks, machine beds, pipes, radiators and boiler sections — high-carbon iron scrap that foundries prize as a melting base for grey and ductile iron.
Cast iron scrap comes from products that were cast rather than rolled: engine blocks and cylinder heads, brake drums, machine-tool beds, manhole covers, cast water pipes, old radiators and stoves. It is hard, brittle and breaks rather than bends, which is why yards reduce it with a drop ball or hydraulic breaker rather than a shear.
The grades in the ReMA circular separate clean, heavy breakable cast, cupola cast, drop-broken machinery cast, and mixed or “unprepared” cast. Burnt iron from stoves and grates and cast iron borings are listed apart.
Iron foundries are the natural buyers. A cupola or induction furnace making grey iron wants a charge rich in carbon and silicon, and clean cast iron scrap supplies both, reducing the pig iron and carbon additions the foundry would otherwise pay for. Steel mills use small amounts as a carbon source.
India, with foundry clusters at Coimbatore, Rajkot, Belagavi, Kolhapur and Howrah, is a steady importer of cast iron scrap in containers. European foundry belts in Germany, Italy and Poland and the North American foundry trade are the other big markets.
Foundries reject cast mixed with steel, with burnt or oxidised material, or with attached non-ferrous parts such as brass fittings and bearings. Chilled or white cast iron, and alloy cast with chromium or nickel, must be declared because they change the melt.
Code: ReMA cast iron grades (cupola, breakable, drop-broken)
The main importing countries for this grade — each links to the country page with its mills, smelters, price references and named firms.