Steel prices - Yikes!

[dragoneggs]

25% tariffs, even if in full effect, should not force a 50% to 70% increase at the end user :confused3:

 

[LD48750]

Steel prices jumping 50% or more the day after tariffs go into effect being justified, why didn't SCRAP STEEL prices jump up also?
You KNOW there is going to be a shortage of scrap & what you have on hand is twice as valuable as it was the day before.

 

[Ritothebull]

Steel prices jumping 50% or more the day after tariffs go into effect being justified, why didn't SCRAP STEEL prices jump up also?
You KNOW there is going to be a shortage of scrap & what you have on hand is twice as valuable as it was the day before.

All the scrap metal down here ends up down at the port and gets loaded on ships going overseas so I'm assuming that China is not going to be needing as much now. I don't think the US mills will be having much demand for that scrap anytime soon especially with the high cost of new steel to the end user as it is now.

 

[ArlyA]

Guys, scrap iron goes to mini mills and in general, normally becomes other products than structural steel. Mini's make a wide variety of items that can better utilize scrap iron. Whereas the large integrated steel mills use pellets which is made from processed tacnonite ore. This is an over simplification of the industry but the price of rolled structural steel is not as closely tied to the price of scrap, as you might imagine. If we all start use X,Y,C products which are made at mini's, then the price of scrap will go up.

 

[radios1]

I think we should make our own steel, right here, in the U.S.A. why should we let China make all the profit?. we used to make all our steel right here!..

 

[ArlyA]

Gee guys, we do make our our steel here and so does our good neighbors to the north, in Canada. This past summer, multiple boats passing through the locks at the Sault set record tonnages. That was 73,000+ tons of pellets per load heading south (downbound its called) to the steel mills. Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan - Wikipedia

Our mills have been ramping up production slowing for the past X years since the economy had crashed. Much of what we import is specialty steel and other products, we can't efficiently produce in small volumes.

 

[radios1]

Gee guys, we do make our our steel here and so does our good neighbors to the north, in Canada. This past summer, multiple boats passing through the locks at the Sault set record tonnages. That was 73,000+ tons of pellets per load heading south (downbound its called) to the steel mills. Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan - Wikipedia

Our mills have been ramping up production slowing for the past X years since the economy had crashed. Much of what we import is specialty steel and other products, we can't efficiently produce in small volumes.

tell that to Bethlehem Steel.. they were the second largest. it's like the whole town shutdown after they did..

 

[Ritothebull]

Gee guys, we do make our our steel here and so does our good neighbors to the north, in Canada. This past summer, multiple boats passing through the locks at the Sault set record tonnages. That was 73,000+ tons of pellets per load heading south (downbound its called) to the steel mills. Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan - Wikipedia

Our mills have been ramping up production slowing for the past X years since the economy had crashed. Much of what we import is specialty steel and other products, we can't efficiently produce in small volumes.

I haven't seen a peice of steel with made in usa on it in years, plenty of China, Korea, India, Africa, Russia, Mexico, even Poland. Got a pipe fitting recently that had Africa etched on one side and a made in Mexico lable on the other, no doubt it was shipped in through S. America to take advantage of NAFTA.

 

[cabinhollow]

11 years ago I was paying $79 per sheet (5' x 10') for 14ga, steel.
This week I paid $109 per sheet.
11 years ago, pound stock was selling for $0.25 per lbs, now it is $0.40 per lbs.
I have raise my prices by over 400% in the last 11 years and the numbers of orders I receive keeps going up.
I keep 20,000 to 30,000 lbs in stock most of the time. And that's not a very big pile of steel.

 

[MickeyDBC]

Steel prices jumping 50% or more the day after tariffs go into effect being justified, why didn't SCRAP STEEL prices jump up also?
You KNOW there is going to be a shortage of scrap & what you have on hand is twice as valuable as it was the day before.

We make about 4K pounds of aluminum chips and turnings every month. Aluminum is up 80 cents this year a pound for new and we get a whopping 2 cents over what we were being paid last year when it was almost a dollar cheaper. Our scrap buyer said that since china has stopped importation of scrap, we now make more than the foundries can process and it is just piling up looking for a buyer. Starting to feel like five years ago when steel turnings got down to a penny a pound and often we just gave them away to get them out. Nobody wins in a trade war.