Metal related content, honest.
I have posted to this group in the past.
I do all of the purchasing for our 3-man job shop in Washington, PA. I have done so for at least 12 years. There has been much talk recently of the sudden and vioent spike in scrap steel pricing. The persistent rumour is that the Chinese have increased their steel production way beyond the point of their own supply of scrap steel, and have been buying all the steel they can get their hands on. Every local scrap dealer is selling off their inventory. One of my local suppliers informed me that they have spent days cleaning up their scrap area, because he was getting paid US$23/ton for #1 prepared steel plate scrap.
I can't ever remember getting more than US$.02/pound for our heavy scrap. For the last four years, I have been giving away my scrap to a local guy with a ratty pickup who feeds his family from the proceeds of his travels. It just was cheaper for me to not have to beat up my own truck and spend the time on the trip to the scrapyard.
Ok, that's enough background. I haven't had to make any significant metal purchases in the past month. I had an inventory built up that served our needs for current orders. People in our business told me about material vendor quotes only being valid for 48 hours. Last week, I called for pricing on 1000 feet of aluminum tubing, and the sales rep informed that due to volatility of the material market, the quote was only good for 24 hours.
Chew on that a bit.
When a cutomer asks me for a quote on a job, am I to tell then that the price is only good for something less than 24 hours?
There's your "global market" at work.
I have been been preaching for years the importance of buying domestic goods.
All these years of buying third world crap at unbelieveably low prices has a cost.
This is the cost.
The Chinese economy is so strong, they don't have enough resources to keep up.