The Armour Archive

My supplier told me that he was going to look into getting me a sheet of 14 gauge mild but that I was probably going to be shocked at the price because he said there is a shortage in the US because China is buying all available supplies. Anybody heard this? Or is it time for me to get a new supplier?

USA sell Steel in the whole galaxy... to get in shortage of steel the only chance is that chinese peolpe are buying a spaceship large enough to contain 1 billion people.
.. or they are buyilding the Death Star on the other side of the moon .. as i heard they are looking for an armourer who make the Darth Vader helm

I'm not sure if it is because of a shortage or other reasons. I deal with furniture manufacturers at work and one of them just contacted me this week about an across the board price increase as steel prices have gone up significantly.

Rob

A hot topic over at Anvilfire last week (Check their archives for either the Guru’s page or the Virtual Hammer in for last week). Even a note that a freighter of scrap steel on the way to Brazil was diverted to China due to a higher bid, and scrap yards emptying out. Also much grumbling that we have assumed the role of a colony or third world country providing raw materials overseas and importing manufactured goods.

Oh; brave new world…

Its true.. Its the price for Raw material that has went up. I know in the AL world that the price of alumina ore has went up 450% in the past few months. China has the capacity to make huge amounts of Steel and AL, but lack the raw materials, and are affecting the world market. What we are beginning to see is a turn from Flooding the world and causing the price per pound to plummet to causing the price to skyrocket, neither of which is a good thing.

We will charge armour prices and buy used cars

Well, just for my own information, can anyone tell me what they have payed for a 4X8 sheet of 14 gauge mild lately? The supplier hasn't gotten back to me yet which leads me to believe that the news is not good.

I too have heard of the steel shortage - it is supposed to be at it's worst sometime in April / May. The Chinese are only partially responsible for the shortage on the buyout. There have been a couple of major steel mills filing bankruptcy which is contributing as well as the problem compounding that the Chinese have increased their orders, smaller mini-mills are paying more for scrap steel, capacity has been cut in most mills so the demand is now exceeding the supply / allotment made to suppliers in the market - hence, the price sky rockets.

I heard about this a couple of weeks ago and went out and bought a bunch of steel as the pricing has doubled and tripled in the market around here already.

I paid $47 for a sheet of mild 14g prior to the cost increase - I was told that this price was likely to double this week - I know that a sheet of stainless steel that was going for about $125 from my supplier has gone to around $300 from another supplier that has already sold out their stock and is replenishing with the steel now on the market at the higher prices.

Helmut

My lamella stamper has increased the cost of my plates by 4 cents per plate, its a big increase.
But the price i pay at the scrap yard has not changed at all.
Ill be needing a sheet of 14 ga mild for monday so ill let you know what i paid

Stainless prices have been creeping up- based largely on a surcharge on nickle or so I'm told. The secondary market for stainless has dried up as well forcing me to by prime material rather than drop or heads and tails.
I had to bump up the retail prices of my Rough from the Hammer stuff in October as a result. When it come to affecting the cost of fully finished piece armour it shouldn't be to bad a hit since the material cost is a small percentage of the final cost.

I hope these prices rebound, I have a few projects I'm about to start.

Cet:

Yarde metals currently has 9483 lbs. of 13ga. and 2393 lbs. of 12ga. 304 SS cut offs for sale at $1.40 per lb.. I have ordered from them 3 or 4 times and have been very happy with the material and the turn around time. The cut offs are all square and clean material.

http://www.yarde.com/

Yup Yup... My guys have told me the same thing a couple of weeks ago... Same story... China is involved somehow... The U.S. is selling as much of its steel to them as posible I guess. My facts are fuzzy but I know I heard China needs steel. I seem to recall "Olympics" for some reason.?? I'll give my guys a call tomorrow.

Thanks for the heads up Craig. I'll have to check and see how that stacks up against the prices I'd be getting from my regular supplier. It's always nice to have a secondary source available.

I work in a grey iron foundry, and the only reason we're running 40 hours instead of 50 hours is the steel shortage. HMMM, a double edged sword, working 4 days per week and paying more for my hobby, or working 5 days per week and not having time to.....

Hrólfr

Willing Pell wrote:Well, just for my own information, can anyone tell me what they have payed for a 4X8 sheet of 14 gauge mild lately?

Today's willcall prices at Pacific Steel & Recycling
14ga 4x8 sheet of hot rolled steel
$ 51 in Billings, MT.
$ 43 in Salt Lake City, UT
$ 48 in Boise, ID
$ 44 in Rapid City, SD

Your dollar is actually depreciating is the problem. The exchange rate between the US Dollar and foreign currency is changing in response to a bunch of things. The Dollar is becoming worth less than it was before. Therefore other countries like China can pay the same as they always have in thier currency and have it translate to a higher US Dollar bid. As a result, you will have to increase the dollar figure that you are paying for stuff in order to compensate. On the plus side it is now cheaper for other countries to buy your products so you should see domestic exports increase, creating more demand for US products, then creating more jobs to fill the demand. Basically you are buying a rebound in your economy and decreasing unemployment. The trade off however for decreased unemployment is increased inflation.

Sorry that this post turned out to be off topic. Feel free to ignore it and go back to comparing prices.

China has been buying up all the scrap they can find. Which has driven up the scrap price. Also the major sheet and plate producers have put their customers on alocation.
We have not seen any thing like this in 20 years.

Oh...and the price increases have been sticking.

The Yaun is tied to the dollar so the exchange weakened dollar will not affect trade between china and the us, national steel and us steel have merged there operations so after one of them (cant remember which) was getting rdy to declare bankruptcy so there has been no drop in us production capacity