Industrial sourcing · China to Europe

Buyer-firstOpen route · visible proof

Buyer guide · Recycling

Metal scrap baler from China

A metal scrap baler is paid for by the density of the bales your steelworks or smelter accepts, and the listings we checked almost never stated force, chamber size or bale size, the three figures that decide it.

Ask about this machine ↗Where the numbers come from

Written and listings checked 1 October 2026. Every figure on this page names its source.

What you are actually comparing.

Two quotes, one machine name

What hides inside the price

Number of rams and direction of press

Two-ram balers press in two directions; three-ram balers add a third and make a denser, squarer bale. Ask how many cylinders, their bore, and which directions they press.

Lid and shear edge

Long scrap sticks out of the box. A lid fitted with a shear blade cuts it off as it closes. Ask whether the lid cuts, and the hardness of the blade on it.

Chamber size against your scrap

The box must take your longest pieces. Ask the inside dimensions and the bale section that comes out.

Bale ejection

Side push-out, forward push-out or turn-out lids each need a different floor layout. Ask which, and where the bale lands.

Liner plates and frame

Scrap wears the chamber walls. Ask for replaceable liner plates, their steel and hardness, and the frame plate thickness.

Before you ask for a price.

Send these with the enquiry. Without them, any number a factory gives you is a guess dressed as a quotation.

Scrap types by share: light steel, turnings, profiles, aluminium cans, car bodies, copper.
Longest and heaviest pieces that will be loaded.
The bale size and density your buyer or furnace accepts.
Loading method: crane with grab, forklift, excavator or conveyor.
Diesel or electric drive, and your supply voltage if electric.

Turn the claim into a demonstration.

Require this	A pass looks like
Bale a counted run of your own scrap, or the closest mix the factory can source.	Each bale measured and weighed, and density worked out from weight and volume, at or above the figure in the offer.
Load a piece longer than the box so the lid has to shear it.	The lid closes and cuts without stalling, and the blade edge is undamaged.
Run cycles until the oil reaches working temperature.	Cycle time measured hot at or below the offered figure, with no leaks at cylinder seals.

The documents that must arrive with it.

EU Declaration of Conformity with the serial number, under 2006/42/EC until 19 January 2027, then Regulation (EU) 2023/1230.
Hydraulic diagram with cylinder bores and working pressure, so force can be checked by arithmetic.
Liner plate and lid blade drawings with steel grade.

The one people forget. The lifting plan and weight for each major part. A metal baler often arrives in pieces, and the crane hire on delivery day needs the heaviest lift in writing.

When this is the wrong machine.

Buy something else if

Named, not hedged

Your material is cardboard, paper, film or PET bottles.

A horizontal baler. Its channel and automatic tier suit light material that a metal box would press badly.

Your buyer pays more for shredded scrap than for bales.

An industrial recycling shredder, which also frees contaminants a baler would lock into the bale.

Where the numbers come from.

We name the kind of source, how many and when, and never the factory. Listed prices are asking prices, not landed cost. Where we do not hold a fact we say so: that is a GAP, not an estimate.

Listings · 14Fourteen metal scrap baler listings in one marketplace search, checked October 2026: thirteen showed asking prices from US$999 to US$200,000. Asking prices, not landed cost.
Listings · 14In the same fourteen listings, one stated a press force, 200 tonnes, one said big bale without a size, and none stated a chamber size or a throughput.
ArithmeticForce equals pressure times piston area. Doubling the bore at the same pressure gives four times the force, because area grows with the square of the bore.
GAPGAP - no supplier quotations logged for this machine yet. Three to five quotations for one configuration would give a real price spread.

Related machines.

Horizontal baler. Choose a horizontal baler when you press cardboard, paper or film rather than metal.
Industrial recycling shredder. Choose a shredder when your buyer pays better for shredded scrap than for bales.

Every machine we source in this area is on the Recycling page. How a project runs, stage by stage, is on how it works, and what it costs is on pricing.

Straight answers

Questions buyers ask about this machine.

Chinese vs European metal scrap baler: what matters?+

Frame and liner steel, cylinder and pump brands, and measured bale density. Compare them on one scrap sample, not on tonnage.

What is on a metal scrap baler inspection checklist?+

Bale density measured on real scrap, the lid shear test, hot cycle time, seal leaks, liner fixing, guarding and emergency stops, and the serial plate.

How do I check the press force a listing claims?+

Ask the cylinder bore and working pressure. Force is pressure times piston area, so the claim can be checked by arithmetic before you travel.

Who is the EU importer of a metal scrap baler?+

The business placing it on the EU market, which is you when buying direct. Your yard's waste permit is your matter as operator.

Contact

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Send a machine, a quotation you want checked, or a question. We reply with what we would look at first.