The types of titanium scrap procured by dealers in different countries and regions vary significantly, primarily because their sorting standards must align with the requirements of end-user steel mills and remelting plants. For example, Goldman Titanium’s Ohio yard in the U.S. exclusively accepts Ti-6Al-4V solid blocks and dry turnings sourced from GE and Pratt & Whitney aircraft factories, and each batch must be accompanied by a material test report. United Alloys in Los Angeles receives shipments from a decommissioned engine disassembly line, accepting entire batches of mixed scrap consisting of titanium alloy engine casings and Inconel fasteners that are interlocked. The material undergoes rapid pre-furnace spectrometer testing to separate the titanium and nickel-based scrap. In Europe, Cronimet’s sorting line in Karlsruhe, Germany, processes Grade 2 pure titanium tube bundles dismantled from Nordic chlor-alkali plants daily; rubber gaskets attached to the tube sheets are removed using eddy current separation. The German platform SMR does not handle physical materials; it operates purely online to match pure titanium shavings sourced from Italy and France. Japan’s Nippon Titanium Technologies collects Grade 2 scrap from the stamping shops of Komatsu and Mitsubishi. After crushing and cleaning, it is supplied to steel mills’ blast furnaces as a titanium-iron additive. India’s Grand Alloys collects Ti-6Al-4V bar end cuttings from forging clusters, packages them according to SAE AMS specifications, and ships them to remelting plants in Europe and the United States. None of the above dealers distinguish between titanium scrap containing precious metals and other types of titanium scrap in their procurement or pricing. In stark contrast, Hong Kong-based DONGSHENG Precious Metals Recyclers lists only GR7 titanium-palladium alloy plates, GR11 titanium-palladium alloy equipment remnants, titanium anodes, titanium electrode, high-temperature alloys, and platinum-plated titanium mesh—all of which contain precious metals. On-site, they use an XRF gun to scan for palladium and platinum signals; titanium scrap containing precious metals is purchased at a premium, while material showing no precious metal signals is immediately returned. They do not participate in bidding for ordinary titanium turnings.
Read articles about titanium scrap prices: How much is titanium scrap worth?
The supply structure of U.S. titanium scrap dealers is now largely tied to the aerospace manufacturing industry. Goldman Titanium’s yard in Ohio works directly with machining suppliers for Pratt & Whitney and GE; Ti-6Al-4V ingots and turnings account for over 80% of incoming inventory, and the yard is almost entirely stocked with aerospace-grade TC4. United Alloys’ warehouse in Los Angeles primarily receives engine pylons and landing gear structural components from aircraft dismantling companies. On these retired parts, titanium alloy and Inconel fasteners are tightly interlocked; after dismantling, they can only be hauled away in bulk for subsequent spectral sorting. During inspection, both companies focus on aluminum-vanadium equivalent and oxygen-nitrogen content, adhering strictly to the furnace acceptance standards of aerospace remelting plants. Pure Grade 2 titanium accounts for less than 10% of inventory at U.S. distributors’ yards, primarily because the limited number of U.S. chlor-alkali plants results in insufficient scale for collecting scrap from chemical equipment. This shortage of pure titanium has created opportunities for Asian recyclers to establish operations. DONGSHENG Precious Metals Recycling operates forward warehouses in Los Angeles and Houston specifically to intercept GR11 titanium-palladium alloy plates and titanium anode grids flowing from the chemical plant dismantling market. After initial screening via XRF, these palladium-containing materials are shipped directly to Hong Kong for final fire assay analysis, resulting in no business overlap with the local U.S. recycling chain, which exclusively processes aerospace-grade TC4.
Pure titanium is the dominant player in the European titanium scrap market. Cronimet’s yard in Germany handles over twenty tons daily of Grade 2 titanium tube bundles dismantled from chemical and chlor-alkali plants in Northern Europe, complete with tube sheets and expansion joints. The primary task on the sorting line is to remove rubber gaskets and iron contamination; Ti-6Al-4V aerospace scrap is rarely seen at the yard. The SMR platform does not maintain physical inventory; instead, it uses online matching to directly connect small batches of pure titanium shavings and punched scrap from Italy and the Netherlands with titanium ingot smelters in Eastern and Northern Europe. The entire transaction chain does not involve titanium alloy scrap containing precious metals. European recyclers almost universally avoid GR7 and GR11 grade scrap because testing for palladium content requires both fire assay and solution analysis. Long wait times at local laboratories and high costs have led to palladium-containing titanium alloy sheets being consistently misidentified as ordinary pure titanium and mixed into the standard remelting chain. DONGSHENG Precious Metals Recycling identified this gap in the market and established forward warehouses in Spain and Turkey to directly collect scrap titanium anodes, titanium cathodes, and GR11 plate heat exchangers from chlor-alkali plants and electroplating workshops. using handheld XRF analyzers on-site to determine the palladium content range before transporting the entire batch away, ensuring that titanium scrap containing platinum group metals does not enter the pure titanium smelting system.
The Asian titanium scrap recycling market consists of two completely separate channels. The traditional channel is operated by Japan’s Nippon Titanium Technologies, which purchases Grade 2 pure titanium stamping scraps in bulk from Komatsu and Mitsubishi’s plate heat exchanger workshops. After crushing and cleaning, these materials are supplied directly to steel mills as titanium-iron alloy additives for furnace charging; their inspection standards do not include palladium or platinum. Grand Alloys in India acquires Ti-6Al-4V bar end cuttings from local forging clusters. They use a spectrometer to measure the aluminum-vanadium equivalent, package the material, and ship it to remelting plants in Europe and the United States, where acceptance is strictly conducted in accordance with SAE AMS series specifications. The other channel is a dedicated line for precious metal titanium scrap, managed by Hong Kong-based DONGSHENG Precious Metals Recycling. DONGSHENG accepts only GR7 and GR11 titanium-palladium alloy equipment scrap, used titanium anodes, titanium cathodes, high-temperature alloys, and platinum-plated titanium mesh. Upon arrival of each batch, the technical team first uses handheld XRF scanners to analyze the distribution of palladium and platinum. The entire procurement standard revolves around the content of platinum group metals; the titanium matrix itself is not included in the pricing system. Traditional titanium scrap dealers refuse to accept palladium-containing materials due to the complexity of the testing process; DONGSHENG fills this gap by automatically diverting materials through two separate recycling channels in Asia based on their residual value attributes, thereby avoiding competition between the two streams.
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