[TheForge] steel costs

[Ralph Sproul]

Fred,  I just returned from the steel yard and paid $ 0.59 per pound.  I
picked up a ton of steel to replenish the rack so that may be a bit of a
price break from a walk in on small amounts.

The steel supplier said to figure 75 cents across the board to be relatively
safe.  This price is hard to swallow - but it beats the fiasco of last
February when they wouldn't hold a steel price for 24 hours.  That
unpredictability was killing fabricators - where they bid a job, then go to
get the steel and find it had risen 10-45%.........this all had to come out
of their profits and it really killed many of them last winter.

I was in the Manadnock region last week where there used to be 10 major
steel erectors and fabricators last winter.  One was a huge multi million
dollar a year operation......9 out of 10 are out of business including that
huge shop.   This is something you don't see on the news, but with a 50%
rise in fuel, and double in steel.......seems to me we are headed to a real
bad place relatively soon.  The other sad part is the option of buying used
steel is now out the window - where China is paying $140-160 per ton for it
lately.  (I know because the 6,000 ton pile at my local scrap yard all went
to China over the last four months........and there are no pickings left!)

The other thing with selling your work is you have to ask for 50% down now -
just to cover this doubling of steel prices/coal prices/propane prices, etc.
in your jobs.............and that makes customers very skeptical when the
standard of doing business has been a third for so many years.

If you haven't noticed that diesel fuel is now up to $2.28 per
gallon........and everything moves at least four times by truck before it
gets to you...........the rise in cost on EVERYTHING is about to become a
stark reality this winter.  It has also driven firewood prices from $120 per
cord to $160-200 per cord in this area as all the generating plants are
going biofuel instead of oil...........so the home heating market in the
country just got slammed as well.

Sorry for the sad news Fred, but that's what's happening in the New
Hampshire area.

Ralph


----- Original Message -----
From: "Frederick Faller" <f_faller at yahoo.com>
To: "Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 3:49 PM
Subject: [TheForge] steel costs


> Just went to get some mild steel (1/2, 1/4, 3/8 square
> hot rolled A36). Price is coming in about $.90/ lb. Is
> this reasonable? I know the price has gone up
> dramatically, but ...
>
> Frederick Faller
>
> =====
> Frederick W. Faller
> Shiloh Forge Ironware http://users.rcn.com/ffaller/SFI_web.htm
> www.immerland.com
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