Steel pricing

So sorting pricing out for a job today that was originally done in alloy 4 -1/2" diameter and about a 5/8" slice.

Rang up ASC at Lincoln and got quoted £90 a metre, seems about right. Trying to pare the pricing down and decided to look at steel, better wearing for what it has to do and cheaper.

Rang 3 steel stockholders in Derby and got similar quotes 4 - 1/2" diameter £130 a metre ???????

Hang on steel dearer than alloy, never has been, Corus is letting go

Hi John; I wonder why steel prices are so high considering that Corus actually stated in a BBC article today, that ;

"... steel prices have fallen by half since last September. "

I paid £70+VAT for a 3 metre length of 40mm square con-cast iron bar a couple of weeks ago. That's £1.84/kg for 38 kg of the cheapest to produce metal there is. I didn't feel too badly ripped off because 38kg is well below Macready's normal cut-off points for any decent price. Were I buying half a ton I would hope for a significantly better price.

If it's any satisfaction, eight years back one of the lads in the purchasing department was bemoaning the fact that we were paying £10,000/tonne for high temperature steel and only getting £1000/tonne for off-cuts and swarf in skip loads.

Mark Rand RTFM

Looking at a few websites it seems the bulk basis price of low grade steel is about $800 a tonne and aluminium about twice that, down half from $3000 a tonne six months ago. Taking the SG into account then yes it seems steel is more expensive per cubic whatnot than ally at the moment but I don't recall it actually being cheaper, or at least not much cheaper in the past by volume. Certainly it always has been by weight.

This may just be a stocking question. Bought it expensive then...

Black, sheer not fishnet, by preference,.

-- Peter Fairbrother

Is that to better obscure the feartures when you use them as a mask? ;-)

Regards, Tony

On 26 Jan, 22:32, John S wrote

John, been having the same arguments with Macreadys mainly but all the stockholders in general. I can buy 25mm dia ali a lot cheaper than I can buy 25mm mild steel. Never buy less than a tonne and still getting asked from =A31150 to =A32200 for mild steel bright bar. Got asked =A3900/tonne for 75mm dia black bar last week,should be =A3600. Bright mild rounds should be well under =A3900/tonne. Going for a tonne of 75 dia this pm,will let you know the quotes. Mark.

Sounds comparable to the recent shift in exchange rates...how much of this stuff is imported these days?

Regards, Tony

A large percentage of it is imported.Most of the big diameter black EN8 I buy comes from Russia and good stuff it is too. Bright flats come from France and Italy.There is only one company manufacturing these in the UK and it`s not Corus Bright round bar comes from everywhere. Todays prices 75mm dia 080A15 (mild steel) =A3671/tonne

Well...that probably accounts for much if not all of the price hike.

Exchange rates:

Currency Jan '08 Jan '09 ===== ===== ======

US$:£1 2 1.38 Euro:£1 1.35 1.06

So, a Dollar import that cost you £1 a year ago now costs £1.44; a Euro import that cost £1 a year ago now costs £1.27. I would guess Russia will price stuff in US$ (as does China).

So we can look forward to a significant price hike on imported Chinese tooling too...

Regards, Tony

Except shipping costs are going through the floor now far east exports=20 are down around 30%. Hopefully now is the time to get deals on heavy=20 stuff...