after reading all of this , i am glad i got what i consider a lifetime supply of steel for nothing 25 years ago. i've only had to buy a few small pieces of something i didn't have , usually from drop offs at the local scrap metal place
Having a strong US dollar compared to other steel manufacturing countries also hurts trying to compete on pricing. If your importing from Canada your gaining 25% right off the top, why wouldn't you want to buy from them?
What is driving most of this increase in prices is the fuel sure charge . Average is 10% - 12% across the board . A company that I deal with regularly and spend over $300K a year sent me a letter explaining the increase cost of shipping . I also understand this , I am also a owner operator of a semi truck and do see a major expense in owning a over the road truck . So many government regulations and associated fees with owning a truck that many company's barely make it. I know I am one . Vic
You need to ask before you buy. The country of origin stamped in it the case of angle. Most aluminum and steel we get at work has paint mark with manufacture batch ect... . Is if is off shore from southeast Asia you can see it from 40' feet away. Bent twisted ect… We reject at least one or pallets a week of Aluminum at work As far as US/Canadian manufactures rising there prices this is the first I am hearing of it. I work in a large fab shop about 60 in the shop 40 in the office. The machine shop at work and my auto machinist have both said any machine tools (bits end mills ect) they buy made form US or Canadian materials have not gone up.
I buy a lot of used rusty stuff nowdays ,My time cleaning it isn't worth squat so I grind and blast.My car doesn't know the difference anyway.
For shorter pieces and stuff for gussets I usually hit a scrap yard that sells most everything by the pound when you go in to buy some. Most of what he saves to resell comes straight from some fab shops in the area and is good clean steel that hasn't been sitting around. One of the local places that sells steel has a rem rack that I get a lot of stuff out of and usually by the pound.
I just paid £300 thats roughly $400 for 2 8x4 sheets of 3003 H14 ally sheet last week. weighed in an old car battery $15 and 100kg of ferrous $ 30 last year I was sold some chinese (junk) steel sheet, I transport it on my roof rack, unfortunately there was a light shower of rain on the way home next day the sheet was bright red with rust, a week later it was heavily pitted .. TOTAL GARBAGE ..
Don't take it so personal. Blame the litigious society we live in for that. If someone brings a dog into a business and it bites someone (or sets off their pet allergy), guess who gets sued? US Steel does because they have deeper pockets than the dogs owner. It's across the board policy at all businesses because their liability insurance can't be had w/o such policy's. w/o insurance, you can't secure a business license. Same as when you finance a car or home-you need insurance. It's right in there with no smoking, no customer's in the shop area, etc. policy's.
Its due to everyone experiencing increases in everything remotely related to cost of production. Energy, insurance, taxes, all continually inflate. and of course there is some greed involved at times. I hope scrap prices rise. I have a few dozen import vehicles that I would like to sell to the shredder.
I`m self employed and work out of the garage behind my house. And my energy company sends me one of these every couple of months. It`s the cost of doing business. I was always told the supplier in town was high. So I never went there. When I finally did. I thought they were cheap. They had what I wanted and I didn`t have to search threw other peoples scrap. I buy full sticks when I need a piece. Cause I will need it again in the future and it will save me a trip next time.
ok you could before the Tariff buy cheaper stuff. I know folks who purchased a (low price) window air cond at Wal Mart. took it home and plugged it in. and it did not work. Went right back to Wal Mart and they wouldn't exchange it. Told the folks to take it to a repair place 50 miles away and If the problem was defective workmanship they could file a claim for the repair. They left the junk air cond at the service desk and called the bank and stopped payment on the check. Imported new steel you are welding and poof you hit a bad pocket and blow a hole in your work. When I buy new I will pay the extra for the Made in Americas label.
I like that energy report. Based on 100 houses in a 1 mile radius. Around here, you won't find 100 houses in a 1 mile radius, more like 10 houses in a mile radius. But you know what they say about being in business, it costs money to make money....
Energy costs depend a lot on who you get your energy from and how they produce it. I think my cat's heated water dish aka the local birds hot tub cost about 10 bucks a month to heat over the winter. Kept me from having to break ice out of his dish every couple of hours though. The local machine shop sells metal but he is pretty high compared to buying it at the steel yards 20 miles away. One is a scrap yard and sells new steel as half of their business and I have hauled a load of scrap in , sold it and turned around and used the money to buy new steel tubing before.
I have done the same. Now granted I'm not buying steel for a business. Needed a piece of 1/8 in 12 inch by 12 inch. He went over and found a 15x12. This work? Yeah. $10. Fair? I dunno, no complaining from me as a finished piece would have run me over $100.
One of the problems in the US is apparently the number of steel production plants has decreased over time and therefore supply has gone down. Imports from other countries were required. I can understand this tariff issue to a point but to lump Canada into it which supplies steel and aluminum to US industries doesn't make much sense. We do a lot of business back and forth and we get the old "national security" tariff line? And that was only to hustle up the new free trade agreement, CAMUS, which hasn't been ratified yet by any member and is looking like even the US is having trouble ratifying it. Couple that with our east coast steel and aluminum mills export to the US and our west coast imports from the US it seems rather seriously screwed up. However, "lets just raise our prices" is good for the bottom line.
We have steel mills here in Arkansas. the one at Newport makes plates and stuff for the Railroads, There is a huge one at Blytheville that is expanding. They make everything. However they don't make new steel from raw ore. They recycle scrap metal.
No doubt. Every time I fill my true 100% Argon bottle, I cringe. I guess squeezing it out all those little Argonauts is expensive.
A 100CF 75/25 mix of argon/CO2 is just a few cents under $65 here. The price increased about 6% March 1st this year over last years price. Gene
I recently purchased a cold rolled 16 gauge sheet of steel measuring 47 X 94 for $ 66 AU. We pay a fortune for everything here, but steel is not one of them as there is anbundance of iron ore and other precious metals all over the country. My grandfather worked for nearly 40 years in the Port Kembla Steel Works, one of two in the state, the other has long since closed, but there are others around the country. I made this up from it last week and it’s found a new home as of Friday.
What caught me off guard was while scrap steel and scrap copper is slowly going up, I thought scrap aluminum would too but it isn't, that is dropping. I knew plastic and bailed cardboard was going down fast because china isn't taking it anymore but never thought aluminum would drop. My thinking was it was going to go up because of the aluminum body trucks so I was hoarding it. Now I find out it is dropping because they don't want to use recycled aluminum in the new vehicles but they want new can sheet aluminum for the body panels. Scrap S.S. isn't moving in the right direction either. Good news is I got rid of 15,000 pounds of it a when the price was up so I don't have a whole bunch laying around right now that is prepared anyways. new steel the last few weeks now have been staying about the same price for us(up a few cents) but we still cannot put in a big order in advance and get it delivered later throughout the year. Still need to take delivery right away at whatever the price is quoted for that day.
Back around 1986 the shop I worked at repaired a late model Dodge pickup that had accident damage to the driver's door. The customer insisted on OEM parts only - no cheap offshore aftermarket crap for him! When the new door arrived from the local Dodge dealer the inside was stamped with the name of a Japanese steel maker. They have been buying offshore steel for a long time. Who can blame them if they have a better price? And the offshore makers will have a better price until domestic steel makers build new, efficient steel mills. And that will happen when they get approval from the EPA, local citizens groups and 40 other government agencies which will be never.
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