Steel offcuts under one metre: keep them or scrap them?

Every workshop collects offcuts of 20, 50 or 90 cm. Do you put them on a “might use it” rack or take them to the scrap yard? We put together the October 2026 prices in Romania: a kilogram of new tube costs about 7.20 lei, while the scrap yard pays 0.84 lei. That is almost 9 times less. Below you will see when an offcut is worth keeping, when it is not, and how to run the numbers for your own workshop.

In short

• A 0.5 m offcut of 40×40×2 tube is worth 0.97 lei as scrap and 8.32 lei if you had to buy it new.
• Keeping offcuts pays off if you reuse at least 12–15% of them. With a tidy rack, most workshops clear that easily.
• Scrap does not run away: an offcut unused for 12 months can still be sold. You only lose the space and the sorting time.
• Pieces under 20 cm, rusty thin-wall tube and profiles you no longer use go straight to scrap.

What scrap yards pay in October 2026

Prices vary by city and by day. For private individuals, the yard withholds 10% income tax and a 2% Environment Fund contribution, so you receive about 12% less than the posted price.

The calculations below use 0.84 lei/kg net, the best price we found. If your local yard pays less, keeping offcuts becomes even more attractive.

What the same steel costs new

Prices come from the MatHaus catalogue on 24 October 2026, VAT included, for 6 m bars. Weight per metre follows EN 10219 / EN 10056 and can be checked in the metal weight calculator or in the square tube and angle tables.

The takeaway is simple: every kilogram of offcut you reuse saves 6–8 lei of new material. The same kilogram sold as scrap brings in less than 1 leu.

What a single offcut is worth

One offcut changes nothing. What matters is how much piles up in a month and what share you actually reuse.

The full calculation for a workshop

Take a small metal fabrication shop that collects 150 kg of offcuts under 1 m per month, mostly tube and angle (average new price 7.20 lei/kg). The shop’s hourly cost is 50 lei and storage space costs roughly 20 lei/m² per month.

Option A, everything to scrap: 150 kg × 0.84 lei = 126 lei per month.

Option B, sorted rack with 40% reused:

• 60 kg reused × 7.20 lei = 432 lei of material you no longer buy
• 90 kg left for scrap × 0.84 lei = 75.60 lei
• 2 hours a month sorting and marking × 50 lei = −100 lei
• A 1 m² offcut rack = −20 lei
• Total: 387.60 lei per month

The difference over option A is 261.60 lei per month, about 3,140 lei per year, just from offcuts you would otherwise have sold for 0.84 lei/kg.

The break-even point

Let r be the share of offcuts you reuse. Option B beats A when:

150 × r × 7.20 + 150 × (1 − r) × 0.84 − 120 ≥ 126

Solving gives r ≥ 12.6%. In other words, if you reuse just one or two of every ten offcuts you put on the rack, you are already ahead. The threshold depends on the ratio between the new and the scrap price and on how much time sorting takes. The general formula is:

minimum r = (monthly sorting and space costs) ÷ [kg of offcuts × (new price − scrap price)]

With the figures above: 120 ÷ [150 × (7.20 − 0.84)] = 120 ÷ 954 = 12.6%.

The trip to the scrap yard costs money too

If the yard is 20 km away, a round trip is about 40 km × 0.90 lei (fuel and wear) = 36 lei, plus an hour of lost work, 50 lei. That is 86 lei per trip. With 100 kg in the boot you get 84 lei, so you break even at best. A trip only makes sense from about 300 kg upwards, or call a collector who picks up from the workshop.

What to keep and what to scrap

Watch out for stainless steel and aluminium: never mix them with iron. Stainless pays about 4.50 lei/kg and aluminium about 10 lei/kg. Thrown on the iron pile, they are paid at 0.84 lei/kg.

How to organise offcuts so you actually use them

• A rack by category: square tube, rectangular tube, angle, flat bar, round bar. Long offcuts lie flat, short ones go in bins by profile.
• Mark every offcut with a marker: profile, thickness and length, for example “40×40×2 – 72 cm”. No more time lost with the tape measure.
• The 12-month rule: once a year, take out everything you have not used and scrap it in a single trip.
• Check the rack before cutting a new bar. This is where the money is made: one offcut reused on a job means one bar less to buy.
• Track it in software. If you plan cutting with an optimiser that knows your offcut stock, it uses them first.

Company or private individual

As a private individual in Romania, you are paid on the spot against your ID, and the 10% tax and the 2% contribution are withheld by the yard. As a company, the sale goes through a transport document and an invoice, and the waste you generate has to be recorded in your waste management records. For the tax details, talk to your accountant: this article uses only the net prices for individuals.

Conclusion

Steel offcuts under one metre are almost always worth keeping, on three conditions: you sort them, you mark them and you check them before cutting new material. At October 2026 prices, a reused kilogram is worth 8–9 times more than at the scrap yard, and the break-even point is only 12–13% of offcuts reused. Whatever you do not use within a year goes to scrap, once, in a single trip.

Prices are indicative, checked on 24 October 2026, and change daily. Ask your local scrap yard for the exact price. Links to MatHaus are affiliate links: if you buy through them, e-utilio.ro may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Details. Scrap price sources: Mar Group, Fiarefinder, Remat Oradea.