Used Rail Scrap

Cut melting rail and R50/R65 and UIC re-rolling sections

Used rail is the cleanest heavy ferrous scrap in circulation, and it trades two ways. Taken up from track at the end of its life, rail steel is high-carbon and manganese-bearing — on the common R260 grade, carbon around 0.62–0.80% and manganese around 0.7–1.2% — thick, dense and almost free of coatings, attachments and tramp copper. That makes it prized melting scrap: cut to 2ft, 3ft or 5ft lengths for charging, it charges densely, melts predictably and brings carbon and manganese into the bath that a melt shop would otherwise have to add. The second route skips the furnace. Heavy rail sections — R50 and R65, and the UIC 54 and UIC 60 profiles, at roughly 50–65 kg per metre — are sold to re-rolling mills in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, which reheat the rail and roll it straight into bars, angles and flats. Re-rolling buyers pay for length, section and head wear more than for tonnage: long, straight, uncracked rail with limited head wear carries a premium over cut melting rail, while bent, cracked or heavily worn lengths fall back to the melting price. Fishplates, tie plates, clips and bolts come off before loading or are declared, and so do switch and crossing pieces, whose cast high-manganese components a re-roller does not want.

The declaration follows the use. Rails imported as goods for re-rolling are commonly entered under HS 7302.10 as rails, while rails bound for the melt shop are declared as ferrous scrap under 7204.49 — so the heading depends on whether the buyer re-rolls or melts, and the buyer's customs broker confirms it before shipment. Some destinations restrict the import of rails for re-rolling or set quality rules on re-rolled product, so the destination's import policy is checked before a re-rolling lot is contracted. Supply comes from rail networks, track-renewal contractors and mining and port railways in the USA, the UK, Europe, Australia, South Africa and Brazil. Cut melting rail travels in 20ft containers at around 24–26 MT, loading on weight rather than volume; long re-rolling rail and large melting lots move in bulk on Handysize and Supramax tonnage, and for those bulk lots CBIL also runs a chartering desk, LaycanDesk. Every lot carries a radiation-free certificate and the standard free-of clauses — no explosives, sealed containers or hazardous residues — with inspection-agency supervision at loading on request, and LC at sight is the common payment basis. Rail prices as a premium to the HMS 1&2 80:20 benchmark, with the premium set by length, section and condition.

Need the ship as well? Our chartering desk prices scrap freight, bulk ships and containers on LaycanDesk.

Excluded origins are not offered, including product re-exported, blended or re-processed through a third country. Every lot moves with a certificate of origin naming the producing plant, mine or grower country, and nothing is quoted before the seller and loading point are known.