Steel prices - what's going on?

[Luke]

I often use Parker Steel to get an idea for pricing up projects, over the last couple of weeks, the price of 1000x2000x10 has jumped from £110 to £185!

Is this an anomaly with their website, or are prices really jumping around that much?!

Luke

 

[brightspark]

scrap prices have risen coppers gone up twice in 5 weeks

 

[Luke]

Just checked another size. 60x60x4 box has jumped from 38 quid to 64, that's around 70% increase!!!

The jump above for sheet works out at about the same %.

Is this real, or should I trust the Parker website less?

 

[the snooper]

most stuff has gone up car batterys have almost trippled have weighed in three times in a week

 

[Hitch]

Its pre Christmas, now is a good time to weigh in copper etc.
All the manufactures buy it up October/November to start knocking out all the Christmas pressies.
#
Thats what i am told anyway.

Steel prices have risen recently, but 70%, seems rather a lot for a single hike

 

[bawjaws]

parkers deffo went up from last monday, was 22 quid for a length of 50mm box, now 28 , hope my local stockist hasnt gone up......

 

[the snooper]

i would think that is a big hike and would try other places just to get an idea if your current supplier is getting greedy

 

[Luke]

As I said, this info is from the Parker website, not a quote. I was after an idea on actual pricing for new steel.

 

[Paul.]

Stainless is going up too, in September a 2.5 x 1.25 1.5 sheet was £72, one ordered last Friday for Nov Delivery £96, .80p per mtr increase on 40 x 40 box too,

 

[Welderpaul]

Keep shopping around, they cut each others throats here to win the work.

 

[Marty2005]

To my simple understanding of economics of supply and demand it does seem strange. After all we're in a recession so demand for goods (including metal things) falls, manufacturers demand for steel would drop and so would the price. Unless of course the supply has fallen. Do steel producers play around with supply (a la OPEC) to maintain a price?

 

[TechnicAl]

Steel Mills are looking for about £50 per tonne for MS. Expect wire prices to increase. Chinese may hold their prices

 

[wyn]

Things are probably picking up a bit in China and all those countries where they actually have manufacturing industries.

 

[michael1703]

i scrapped a car friday, a car was £80 per tonne in suffolk

 

[chunkolini]

I had a delivey last week and was surprised at how cheap it was, eg £26.00for a 2.4x1.2m sheet of 1.6mm mild steel. Or 25x3mm strip £2.50 per 6m length. I was buiying a few pieces of each so not a huge order. maybe I should have upped my order.

Try Dyfedd steels, they seem consistently cheaper than elsewhere and dont mind dealing with smaller customers.

Chunko'.

 

[KTMMICK]

You will always get a better deal by picking up the phone, or faxing for a quote. Here in South Africa a written quote is valid for ten days which is normally long enough to know if you got the job. But you cover yourself by putting that on yours too.

 

[peterd51]

Hi,

I think the steel works are on 'short-time', ie, no overtime, cutting back on production and letting some staff go as they were worried they might not be able to sell their output.

I guess they hold a minimum amount of raw materials and it takes a few weeks to ramp up or down on production, so they have to try to guess the market in, say, three months time. Maybe they did this in July/August and got their figures wrong?

But I'm not an expert on these things!

Regards
Peter

 

[malcolm]

I expect the speculators are at it again.

On the face of it if speculators bump prices up way beyond the market value they are bound to fall again so what's the point.

But we'll have paid more for the steel during that bubble, and where do you think that money went?

The idea that a free market economy works at all, or is even a good thing is lost on me.

Yours,
Red Communist Malc.

 

[peterd51]

hi,

just like shares really, someone (or a group of someones) buy a load of whatever, corner the market, the price goes up and they dump it at a profit...

then they sell some that they don't have at the high price but for delivery in a few weeks time...

and as the price falls they buy it at a much lower price to supply their customers and make money there too!

Regards
Peter

 

[Weldingartisan]

I don't find Parkers very consistant with their pricing. I have an account with them but rarely use it, every now and again a rep will phone asking for any enquiries - give a good price for one job - then have your pants down on the next! W/A