Why brass, copper and kansa utensils keep their value

Most of the cost of a plain brass or copper vessel is the metal. That is why the trade quotes plain pieces per kilogram, as our guide to per-kg and per-piece pricing explains.

When a vessel grows old, the value of its making fades, but the metal stays. Brass is copper and zinc; kansa, or bell metal, is copper and tin. All three have a daily market price.

Copper can also be melted and used again. The US Geological Survey notes that recycled copper and its alloys lose none of their chemical or physical properties. So an old vessel is still raw material for a new one.

India's wholesale metal reports carry their own lines for used utensils. Press Trust of India's daily non-ferrous market reports quoted brass utensil scrap and copper utensil scrap in rupees per kilogram.

Those rates moved both ways. Brass utensil scrap was lower in October 2017 than at the end of 2012, then rose again by mid-2018. The figures below are historical examples, not today's rate.

• A scrap buyer pays for metal, not workmanship. The scrap rate sits below the price of a new vessel, which also carries making, finish and kalai.
• Only solid metal counts. A brass-plated steel piece carries almost no brass, so check what you are buying.

The World Bank publishes annual average prices for copper on the London Metal Exchange from 1960 onwards. It gives them in current dollars and in constant 2010 dollars, adjusted for the price of manufactured goods.

In current dollars, copper averaged about $679 a tonne in 1960 and about $9,947 in 2025. After adjusting for prices, the rise is far smaller: from about $3,546 to $8,568 in 2010 dollars.

The path was not smooth. Copper fell from $8,828 a tonne in 2011 to $4,868 in 2016, a drop of 45%. In real terms, the 1966 price was not seen again until the late 2000s.

Brass follows copper and zinc; kansa follows copper and tin. Tin is the dearest of the three by weight: the World Bank's 2025 averages were about $34,059 a tonne for tin and $2,868 for zinc.

That is one reason kansa costs more than brass per kilogram. Tin has also seen deep falls: its average price dropped from $16,775 a tonne in 1980 to $6,161 in 1986.

Indian rates also follow the rupee and local demand. Market reports often tie a day's move to the London Metal Exchange and to buying by industry.

Metal value matters most when a vessel lasts. Brass and copper cooking vessels are lined with tin, called kalai, and the lining wears with use.

The US cookware industry's own guide says tin linings may wear off with frequent use, and that the cookware can be re-tinned. A kalaiwala does this in minutes, and the vessel goes back to work.

Polish, re-tinning and care add years. Kansa is the exception to note: it is hard but brittle, and Banglapedia records that kansa water bowls were brittle. A dropped kansa piece can crack.

Families have long treated these vessels as property. A 2017 study in the Odisha government's Odisha Review notes the custom of giving bell-metal utensils at a daughter's marriage, and calls them assets of a family.

UNESCO's listing of the Thathera craft of Jandiala Guru, Punjab, records brass and copper utensils made for weddings and temples as well as daily use.

Scroll's 2017 report on copper's return to Indian homes describes a woman who inherited her great-grandmother's kansa plate and bowl set. It was the only thing left from that ancestral kitchen.

Other kitchen materials are bought to be replaced. The cookware industry's guide says chipped or cracked glass or glass-ceramic cookware should be discarded.

For non-stick, the same guide says a ceramic-type coating's release may diminish over time, and that sharp knives pierce any non-stick finish. Its advice is about slowing wear, not renewing the coating.

Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety advises against using melamine-ware that is damaged on its surface, and against using it in a microwave or oven. None of these materials has a per-kilogram line in India's metal market reports.

This is not a case for buying utensils as an investment, and nothing here is financial advice. Metal prices fall as well as rise, and a used vessel sells at the scrap rate, below what it cost new.

Buy a vessel for the cooking, serving or pooja it will do. The metal value is a floor under that purchase, not a return on it.

At HV, plain vessels are quoted by weight and finished pieces by the piece, on the day of enquiry. Browse brass, copper and kansa utensils by metal, or send a list of codes for a quotation.