Mill Berry Copper Supplier — ISRI Barley for Bulk Export

Atlas Copper International supplies mill berry copper — ISRI Barley, No.1 bare bright copper wire, 99.9%+ Cu — in container volume to refiners, rod mills, wire-drawers and foundries worldwide. We are a third-generation, family-owned US company trading out of Doral, Florida since 1962. Pricing is LME-linked with a transparent grade-based margin, the minimum export order is 5 × 20ft containers (about 110–120 MT), and material ships FOB Port Everglades or CFR/CIF to your port. This page covers the specification, what disqualifies a load, packing and container weights, pricing, terms and inspection: everything a buyer needs before asking for a quote.

What mill berry is, and why the ISRI code matters

"Mill berry" is the trade name for the cleanest grade of recovered copper wire. It is wire that has been stripped of all insulation and is bright, uncoated and unalloyed, so it can go straight into a furnace with minimal refining. Because so little copper is lost in the melt, it earns the narrowest discount to the LME of any scrap grade, and it is the grade rod mills and refiners specify when they want scrap that behaves almost like cathode.

The name only becomes enforceable when it is tied to a code. The ISRI specifications (ISRI now operates as ReMA, the Recycled Materials Association, but the grade codes are unchanged) define mill berry as Barley: clean, untinned, uncoated, unalloyed copper wire and cable, not smaller than No.16 B&S wire gauge, free of burnt wire that is brittle. Hydraulically briquetted copper is acceptable by agreement. A contract that says "mill berry" without "ISRI Barley" leaves room for a grade dispute on arrival. A contract that names Barley gives the inspector, the buyer and the seller a single shared standard to test against.

What disqualifies a load from Barley

Barley and No.2 copper (Birch/Cliff) are both unalloyed copper. The line between them is cleanliness, not chemistry, which is exactly why most grade disputes on wire scrap happen at this boundary. A container contracted as Barley drops toward No.2 pricing if any of these turn up in meaningful quantity:

• Tinned or soldered wire. Tin is the most common contaminant in bright-looking wire. It is easy to miss by eye on a fast visual check and obvious on an XRF reading.
• Coatings and enamel. Magnet wire and painted wire are not Barley, however clean they look.
• Burnt, brittle wire. Wire that has been burned to remove insulation oxidises and loses copper. ISRI excludes it from Barley explicitly.
• Fine gauge and hair wire. Anything below No.16 B&S drags down yield and belongs in a lower grade.
• Attachments and non-copper metal. Brass terminals, steel, aluminium and lugs left on the wire.
• Universal prohibitives. No sealed containers, no free liquids, no hazardous material and nothing radioactive. Every load is checked for radiation before export, and a positive reading stops the shipment.

A side-by-side of the two tiers, with the price gap explained, is in mill berry vs Birch/Cliff. If your process can take No.2 feed, our copper wire scrap supply page covers Birch and Cliff.

Who buys mill berry, and what for

Barley is bought by operations that pay for predictability. Rod mills and wire-drawers melt it into continuous-cast rod for building wire, magnet wire and automotive harness wire, where conductivity is the whole point. Secondary refiners and smelters use it as a high-yield charge that sweetens a furnace running lower grades. Foundries and alloy makers use it as a clean copper unit when they need to control what goes into a brass or bronze melt. Traders use it as the reference grade against which every other wire scrap is priced.

The common thread is that these buyers buy repeatedly. The first container is a test of whether the material matches the paperwork, and the tenth is where both sides make money. That is why we start every mill berry relationship with a coded contract, certified weights and inspection, so that container one looks exactly like container ten.

How mill berry is priced

There is no fixed price for mill berry, and a supplier quoting a flat number for delivery weeks away is quoting something they cannot hold. Our offer has three parts: the LME copper settlement price on the agreed pricing date, a transparent grade-based margin for Barley, and a volume tier that improves with committed tonnage. On CFR and CIF terms, freight and insurance are added as separate, visible lines rather than buried in the metal price.

Barley carries the narrowest margin of any wire grade because the furnace yield is close to 100%. Every percentage point of tin, coating or fines in a load reduces that yield, which is what a wider discount compensates for. The mechanics of the benchmark, the margin and the tiers are set out in full in how copper pricing works, and the grade's background is in the mill berry (ISRI Barley) guide.

Packing, container weights and minimum order

Copper is weight-limited, not volume-limited. A 20ft container reaches its practical payload at around 22–24 tonnes with much of the floor still visible, so packing decides how close a load gets to that ceiling. Baled or big-bagged Barley typically loads at 21–24 tonnes per 20ft; loose coils and cut wire run nearer 18–22 tonnes because they fill the box first. The full planning table, with payload, road and VGM limits, is in the container loading guide.

• Minimum export order: 5 × 20ft containers, roughly 110–120 metric tonnes depending on packing. Domestic US orders start at one pallet.
• Packing: loose, baled or 1 t big bags, agreed before loading and recorded on the packing list.
• Weights: each sealed container is weighed on a certified weighbridge; that ticket is the VGM submitted to the carrier and the basis for the invoice weight.
• Photos and seals: loading photographs plus container and seal numbers for every unit.
• Mixed first orders: Barley can share a booking with other grades if each grade is separately baled or bagged and listed by weight.

Export terms and documents

• Incoterms: FOB Port Everglades or PortMiami as standard; CFR or CIF to a nominated port on request. The practical differences are explained in CIF vs FOB for copper scrap.
• Payment: for new relationships, an irrevocable letter of credit or an agreed deposit with the balance against shipping documents. Established buyers may qualify for other terms on their order history.
• Documents: commercial invoice, packing list with container and seal numbers, Bill of Lading, Certificate of Origin (USA), certified weight tickets, and the inspection certificate where a third-party inspector is appointed. Certified ASTM Mill Test Reports on request.
• Inspection: SGS, Bureau Veritas or Cotecna at the load port, at whichever party's cost the contract specifies. International buyers are also welcome to visit the Miami facility before committing.
• Import rules: scrap import licences, pre-shipment inspection mandates and duties vary by destination and change over time. Confirm the current position with your customs broker before you book.

How a mill berry order runs

Send us the grade (Barley), tonnage, discharge port and target Incoterm. We reply with an LME-linked offer showing the benchmark, the margin and the volume tier, plus indicative freight if you want CFR or CIF. Once the commercial terms are agreed we issue a proforma invoice. Payment security is put in place, either an L/C or a deposit, and the inspector is appointed if you want one. The material is then prepared, packed, weighed and loaded at Port Everglades. Documents follow the contract or L/C exactly, and your broker clears at destination. Typical lots ship within days of the commercial terms being settled, depending on vessel availability.

If this is your first container from the USA, read the step-by-step export buying guide first. Buyers who need certified 99.99% purity rather than graded scrap should look at LME Grade A copper cathode instead.

Frequently asked questions