Steel prices going up - yet again

[MadReferee]

I just got off the phone with my steel supplier. To say that I am in shock is an understatement. Now I knew the price of steel has gone up since I last ordered in November 2003 so I kind of expected higher prices by at least 50%, but 165% higher was too much to take.

Here are a few examples of price increases:

1/4" plate up 165%
2" x 2" tubing up 100%
3" x 3" tubing up 110%
2.5" x 2.5" angle up 50%
rectangular tubing in general up over 125%
2" flat bar up 50%

The supplier told me that any boxed (square or rectangular) tubing and large sections of plate have more than doubled and he sees no end in sight. I was afraid to even ask what DOM was going for.

This sure makes "building it yourself" a lot more expensive and almost not cost effective.

 

[soarkrebel]

Madreferee i agree with every thing you said except for the do it yourselfer part.
The price of steel is also being slammed onto the big manufacturers so the stuff they build is going up to.
the doyourselfers will still come out better than those that can't. it's gonna get all of our bank accounts one way or another! /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

 

[Mark4510]

I dont use much steel other than building or improving my own implements so most of the time I get used stuff. It seems like that is following the same path.

It was just 2 years ago that I started looking at a covered arena.....now with steel prices I where they are I cant justify it.

Mark

 

[DK_Farms]

When I started pricing my proposed 40x60 storage shed project a year ago, prices were starting to go up then. Now, my project will cost me an additional 45%, thats if I buy and start today. I won't be able to start till January or so and no telling how high it will be by then. The local suppliers tell me that China has driven the market out of site. The Chinese government has started billions of dollars worth of construction projects that is tapping out the world steel supply. I really can't say if thats true or not or if they are just poor-mouthing like the oil companies just to get more money out of us.

 

[RMEADOWS]

/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gifWhy is this happening? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[rswyan]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Why is this happening? )</font>

China is a BIG DEAL. Hate to doom and gloom, but these are some facts:

China is moving out of being a backwards nation - largely undeveloped and primarily agriculture based, just feeding it's own population, into a developing industrial power. This happened here once, about 100 years or so again. China is beginning to develop a middle-class as a result of their unique implementation of a sorta government-run, market-based economy (an oxymoron if their ever was one) and more and more of it's production is for it's own internal use, instead of being exported for hard currency.

China's population is over BILLION people - more than 4x the U.S. population. Think we consume ? Just wait until that economic engine gets firing on all cylinders ......

China is a national security threat to the U.S. - not because they are going to invade or nuke us - but unless our governement implements the correct policies which will again make the U.S. competitive in the world marketplace, China will out-compete the U.S. economically probably within the next 10 to 15 years. And that ain't good.

 

[andyfletcher]

I've been ridiculed as a scrounger for decades. Picked up bed angle and pipe at the garbage collection day. Wife would be on my back at every turn. Picked up throw away equipment made of box steel and cut it up for later use. Anyone tossing out scaffolding and farm machinery I'd be there to take the "junk" off their hands.

Well, after 25 years of scrounging it's finally paid off.

 

[Taylortractornut]

Andy you and I must be kin I take every scrap i can. I took in 2 old cotton pickers and a combine in today about 300 feet of tubing in both machines plus one still has a running 250 Chevy engine in it. My local steel supplyers here havent had any tubing for months they have a few loads from Mexico come in but its mostlysplit in the welds. I have to go tomorrow and take up about 35 spud poles from the Marina so my rond pipe pile may get larger.

 

[CTyler]

Yep, I was suprised as well. Paid $156 last week for 2 24' pieces of .125 2x2 box tube and 1 sheet of 4x8 expanded metal, 9 gauge? I forget at the moment.

 

[MadReferee]

You did better than I did. I just paid $99 for one 24' length of 2 x 2 x 1/4 box. Last November it was $52. I also wanted 3 x 3 x 3/16 but at $125 I passed.

Box and rectangle has really gone out of sight but flat and angle has only gone up moderately. Last November 40' of 2.5 x 2.5 x 1/4 angle was $51 now it is $69.

I wonder why some types have gone up more than others?