May 13 (Bloomberg) -- At Belgium's biggest railway station, 770 of 800 steel luggage carts have vanished. In Pittsburgh, 400 parking meters were plucked from roadsides, and in Shanghai, manhole covers are disappearing from the streets.

From London to Kolkata, India, scavengers are plundering anything that contains iron, steel or copper, costing local governments and companies millions of dollars. Prices in the $85 billion global scrap market have tripled since 2003 as China has sucked in recycled metal from around the world.

``There is an almost insatiable global demand for scrap, mainly to feed China's steel mills and its booming economy,'' says Rick Wilcox, director general of the British Metals Recycling Association in Brampton, England.

China's gross domestic product grew 9.5 percent in 2004, the fastest among the world's biggest economies, increasing demand for metal to build office towers, cars and appliances. China this year will buy almost a third of the world's steel and account for 80 percent of the growth in demand, according to the International Iron & Steel Institute, a trade group for steelmakers.

The price of heavy scrap steel in the U.K. rose to 142 pounds ($265) a metric ton in December from 48.50 pounds in March 2003, according to Worcester Park, England-based Metal Bulletin Plc, which publishes prices and news on metals markets. Scrap traded for 90 pounds a ton on May 11, 47 percent more than the 10-year average.

Prices soared as China doubled scrap imports in the past five years to 10 million tons, representing one-fifth of the total seaborne market for the material, says Tony Trickett, general manager for raw materials at the Brussels-based steel institute.

Global Warming

Europe's attempts to cut carbon dioxide emissions are also increasing demand for scrap, which requires less energy to process than ore. Companies such as Luxembourg-based Arcelor SA, the world's second-biggest steelmaker, are melting scrap in electric- arc furnaces rather than smelting iron ore, says Trickett.

``Scrap is very much worthwhile for people to steal.''

Rising demand for scrap is boosting profits for legitimate recyclers such as Sydney-based Sims Group Ltd., the world's biggest recycler of scrap metal. Net income in the nine months ended March 31 almost doubled to A$151.2 million ($115.8 million), the company said in April.

Sims Group shares have almost tripled in value in the past four years. They have dropped 20 percent this year, closing at A$14.24 on May 12 in Sydney, because of slower economic growth in the U.S., Japan and Europe that has trimmed demand for steel. Also, China has tried to cool inflation by canceling construction projects and restricting loans to steel mills and power plants.

Growing Cities

``I'm bullish on Chinese demand in the medium and longer term, though it will not be a straight line,'' says Jeremy Sutcliffe, 47, chief executive officer of Sims Group.

Schnitzer Steel Industries Inc., a Portland, Oregon-based scrap steel recycler, in April said net income in the quarter ended Feb. 28 rose 94 percent to $36 million. The company's shares surged more than sixfold from the end of 2002 through February. They closed May 12 at $22.70, down 44 percent from their high.

Scrap shipments will continue to increase as an estimated 300 million Chinese move from the countryside to the cities by 2020, swelling demand for steel, says Schnitzer CEO Robert Philip, citing government forecasts.

``Prices are headed way up,'' says Philip, 57.

Stolen metal finds its way to the legitimate businesses when thieves sell scrap to small junkyards that don't check the origin of the material before they sell it to wholesalers, says Francis Veys, director of the Brussels-based Bureau of International Recycling. The bureau represents companies in 55 countries.

``It's falling through the chain,'' Veys says.

Security Guards

In 1994, Bruxelles Midi, the Brussels terminal for high-speed trains to London, Paris and Amsterdam, bought 800 luggage carts for about 500 euros ($644) each. Now there are only 30 left, forcing travelers to shoulder their baggage, says Anne Woygnet, a spokeswoman for the Belgian state railways. Each cart contains 40 kilograms (88 pounds) of steel.

``We think it's the value of the metal,'' Woygnet says. ``We hire private security guards for the station. They came across a gang loading some of them onto the back of a truck without any number plates, but the guards didn't have the authority to make arrests.''

In the east London borough of Newham, 260 drainage grates and 42 manhole covers have been stolen since October.

``This certainly put us on the map, but not in the way we would want,'' says John Page, head of the Newham borough council's crime and antisocial-behavior team. ``Two youths were spotted lifting out the grates with metal hooks, then chucking them in the boot of a car.''

The thieves were never arrested, he says.

Chinese Steel

Steel production in China almost tripled in the past five years as consumers bought more cars and refrigerators and the country built stadiums, subways and roads to prepare for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Wuhan Iron & Steel Co., Shanghai Baosteel Group and other steelmakers increased production to a record 30.7 million tons in March.

China surpassed Japan to become the world's biggest iron-ore buyer in 2003. Imports rose 41 percent last year to 210 million tons. Cia. Vale do Rio Doce of Rio de Janeiro, Rio Tinto Plc of London and BHP Billiton Ltd. of Melbourne -- the three biggest iron-ore suppliers -- raised prices by 72 percent on April 1.

Shanghai, home to Baoshan Iron & Steel Co., which supplies half the steel used by China's carmakers, already loses so many manhole covers that the local water bureau publishes a daily tally on its Web site. More than 4,740 have been purloined since the beginning of last year, including 99 this month. At least eight people have died after falling into uncovered sewers, according to the government-owned Xinhua News Agency.

Concrete Covers

Subrata Mukherjee, the mayor of Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta, says drug addicts in India's second-largest city steal about 1,000 manhole covers a year.

As a deterrent, Kolkata Municipal Corporation started using concrete covers, which cost 800 rupees ($18) each. Thieves now crack open the concrete to steal the iron reinforcing rods, which sell for 50 rupees each, says Mukherjee, 59.

``Rising metal prices have made the situation worse,'' he says.

China's demand for copper is also increasing, with domestic processing of the metal jumping to 382,900 tons in March, almost triple the level at the end of 2000.

Late Trains

Copper for immediate delivery rose to 37,100 yuan ($4,483) a ton April 26 on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, the highest since trading began 11 years ago. Two weeks earlier, copper for May delivery reached a 16-year high of $1.536 a pound on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Copper closed at $1.376 a pound Thursday in New York.

Those pressures are being felt 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of Brussels, where police helicopters patrol a stretch of railway along which thieves have stolen thousands of meters of copper cable from the signaling system.

In October and November, there were 20 heists a month, each involving about 100 meters of cable. Every time the cables are cut, commuter trains to Brussels from Charleroi, an airport used by Dublin-based Ryanair Holdings Plc, are delayed by four hours and freight trains by six. Damage to the state railways has totaled about 1 million euros, says Etienne Colls, chief of railway police for southern Belgium.

Parking Meters

``We thought at first it was some disgruntled former employee of the railways acting out of malice,'' Colls says. ``Then the thefts became much more audacious and frequent.''

Pittsburgh police in December arrested a man on suspicion of stealing as many as 400 parking meters, extracting the coins and then selling the 50-pound poles to a junkyard, says police spokeswoman Tammy Ewin. The suspect was initially pulled over for a traffic violation with a truck full of scrap metal, Ewin says. He is awaiting trial in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court.

Large scrap buyers such as Sims and Schnitzer record the name of everyone who sells them metal to ensure they don't accept stolen material and to discourage illegal scavenging, says Veys, the recycling-association head.

``None of our members are involved in this,'' he says.

To contact the reporter on this story: Peter McGill in London at pmcgill1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: May 12, 2005 19:20 EDT