Gold scrap value rises by $100 as Australian car scrappers scramble for scrap

The value of scrap metal scrap in Australia has increased by $50 per tonne, or about 1.3 per cent, in the past week, according to data from the Australian Automobile Dealers Association.

The data shows the sharpest jump occurred on Wednesday morning when gold scrap value increased by nearly 10 per cent to $9.70 per tonnes, according the AADA.

Gold scrap was up more than 50 per cent in the previous week.

The jump in scrap value is due to a rise in demand from car scrapping operations, with scrap prices increasing across the industry.

Australia has seen a rise of about $15 billion to $30 billion per annum since the end of the global financial crisis in late 2008, according a report by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

The report also said the Australian economy was contracting, and there were “strong signs of a further deterioration in the outlook for growth and employment” due to the crisis.

The ABS data also showed that Australia’s unemployment rate stood at 5.9 per cent for January and February, with a total of 7.2 million people employed in the labour force.

The unemployment rate fell to 5.8 per cent last month, the lowest since May 2010, when the country experienced its worst economic downturn in more than three decades.