Aluminum Prices? What are you paying per lb.?

mitty38382 · Jan 1, 2008

Just put out a RFQ for Aluminum for our next production run and was getting quotes of 2.16 - 2.45 per lb. depending on shape and size. What are you paying per lb. in your area? Price is delivered to our shop in the country.

Frank in Tennessee

Airborne · Jan 1, 2008

What's the minimum quantity required for those prices and who's the manufacturer?

The best price I've seen for 6061-T6 was quoted a year ago, $2.065 for 5000lbs, $1.70 for 10,000lbs, manufactured in China by "Zhong Wang", FOB Los Angeles. This is the same stuff sold by Speedy Metals. It's decent material, can't tell it was made in China except for the name printed on the bars.

Small quantities around my area are upwards of $5/lb.

tigmusky · Jan 1, 2008

what does rfq mean? In minnesota small quantites or ramdom drops at the steel yards run $ 3.00 a lb. daye

PBMW · Jan 1, 2008

RFQ = Request for Quote

Machinery_E · Jan 1, 2008

$2.60 a pound for small quantity (110 lbs) several months ago...That was FOB warehouse...I was quite happy with that price!

Thanks!
Eric

metlmunchr · Jan 1, 2008

About $2.50 on small quantities delivered. Most recent was about a month ago, for 120ft of 7/8 round and 36 ft of 1/2 x 3 flat. Domestic material, certs supplied even if you don't ask for them.

I don't even ask EMJ or Ryerson for prices anymore. On the above order, either of them might be $3 today and $5 next week. If you ain't interested in my business on a $300 order, then I ain't interested in talking with you when I've got a $5000 order.

I've been dealing with Yarde Metals for the last couple years on aluminum and CF steel. I can call them, get a very predictable price on 3 or 4 items, and tell them to send it on in a couple minutes. Considering that, why would I want to waste half an hour calling any of the self-proclaimed big boys and then wait half a day for a price fax that'll likely only demonstrate their thought that I'm stupid enough to pay twice the market rate for their material? It seems Yarde must have the pricing that's to be quoted right there in the computer, since its consistent regardless of who you talk to there. I find this highly preferrable to the way some of the others operate, where the database price is just a minimum number, and some sales stooge who was selling beans last week and bagging groceries last month is free to multiply that price by whatever gouge factor he's decided you might fall for today.

Joe788 · Jan 1, 2008

I pay about $2.20-2.30 for flat bar and round rod in pretty decent volumes. The saw cut plate is where stuff really gets expensive.

fpworks · Jan 1, 2008

I have a question as to the origin of the materials. Are these recycled/virgin, Asian, etc?

For 6061-T6511, I'm paying $2.00-$2.35 a pound, at relatively low quantities. (800-1200 lbs at a time) The flat bar is pretty cheap, the larger diameter rounds (over 6" diameter) push the high end.

To be honest, I don't know the origin of my material. It comes from a service center.

Joe, I'm sure you order quite a bit more than me...I am especially interested to hear about the origin of your material.

Also, has anybody seen the 7075 rates lately? They are pretty nice.

metlmunchr · Jan 1, 2008

FP, just ask them to include certs with your order. The certs will show the country of origin and should also show representative test results for chemistry and strength for the lot your stock comes from.

I've never noticed anything on the certs indicating recycled or virgin, but with energy costs being as they are you can bet they're all running as much recycled stuff as they can get their hands on. IIRC, it takes at least 5 times as much energy to produce aluminum from scratch as is required to run material from scrap.

When you're getting decent prices, which you obviously are, the variations within the range will most likely be tied to the commonality of the particular shape and dimension. I make a part regularly that could be made from 1/2 x 2 3/4 6061 flat. That's an odd size, and while it is available, its quite a bit cheaper to run it from 1/2 x 3 because its common as dirt and always substantially cheaper.

Joe788 · Jan 1, 2008

fpworks said:
I have a question as to the origin of the materials. Are these recycled/virgin, Asian, etc?

For 6061-T6511, I'm paying $2.00-$2.35 a pound, at relatively low quantities. (800-1200 lbs at a time) The flat bar is pretty cheap, the larger diameter rounds (over 6" diameter) push the high end.

To be honest, I don't know the origin of my material. It comes from a service center.

Joe, I'm sure you order quite a bit more than me...I am especially interested to hear about the origin of your material.

Also, has anybody seen the 7075 rates lately? They are pretty nice.

You're buying about the same volumes as an average purchase for me. Usually we're between 1000 and 5000lbs. The prices I pay include saw cutting. The material is usually Alcoa or Kaiser, and always domestic.

The supplier I buy from isn't typically the cheapest, but I like the salesperson, they do a good job cutting, and they deliver when they say they will.

My previous aluminum supplier was cheaper, but sometimes the material looked like it dragged behind the truck all the way to my shop. It's kinda funny, in 2005 I spent 75K with them, in 2006 I spent about 20K, and in 2007 I didn't order a single piece of material. Nobody ever called to ask why I wasn't buying material anymore. That's customer service!

Airborne · Jan 1, 2008

Joe, who's your supplier? I could use a new one.

Tonytn36 · Jan 1, 2008

I've had good service & price for alum bar/round from specialty metals.

fpworks · Jan 1, 2008

metlmunchr,

Thanks for the suggestion...they're supposed to ship an order for me tomorrow, so I'll ask them to throw in the certs for my curiosity.

Another thing I should have mentioned, we buy ours in full length bars, so that may be a reason for the price discrepancy. I bought an automatic bandsaw recently and cut everything in house.

Good point on the price for odd sized bars...I never thought about that. I'll take a look at some of our products and use that to see if I can get my material prices down a bit. Generally speaking, I think all the sizes are relatively standard, but that is a valuable piece of information.

Mark Hockett · Jan 1, 2008

Airborne said:
What's the minimum quantity required for those prices and who's the manufacturer?

The best price I've seen for 6061-T6 was quoted a year ago, $2.065 for 5000lbs, $1.70 for 10,000lbs, manufactured in China by "Zhong Wang", FOB Los Angeles. This is the same stuff sold by Speedy Metals. It's decent material, can't tell it was made in China except for the name printed on the bars.

Small quantities around my area are upwards of $5/lb.

I had a small run of parts and ordered stock from a supplier that I don't normally use because I couldn't meet the minimum at my normal supplier. They sent me some of the Chinese 6061-T6 aluminum. The finish coming off the lathe was really bad so I stuck a piece of Kaiser aluminum in the chuck and the finish was perfect. The Chinese aluminum cut like it was pure aluminum. I sent a piece out for testing and it came back barely in the specs for 6061 and not T6. I wont use that crap again.

Mark Hockett

mitty38382 · Jan 1, 2008

These are the prices per item and you can see how they compare to your area. From EMJ

4 Bars-113 LB 1 X 2 RECT X 12' $244.00 2.16/lb
8 Bars-848 LB 3/4 X 10 RECT X 12' R/L $2,060.64 2.43/lb
8 Bars-1,018 LB 3/4 X 12 RECT X 12' R/L $2,448.72 2.40/lb
4 Bars-677 LB 1 X 12 RECT X 12' R/L $1,661.96 2.45/lb
1 Bar-100 LB 3" RD X 12' $220.00 2.20/lb
1 Bar-178 LB 4" RD X 12' $391.60 2.20/lb
Total 2934 LB $7026.92 2.39/lb avg.

These have separators between to prevent scaring and gouges - they know that we reject junk. This is all domestic producer. In our state we have Alcoa in the city of Alcoa, TN

and TennaLume is in Jackson (20mi away) but won't sell direct unless we buy 200,000 lb at a time

(Hell if I could afford that, my shop would have Central Heat and Air).

I guess the plus is that our metals rep. looks good in high heels and short little skirts.

The info above is for sharing within the group to better inform each other about the differences in supplier and location. Similar prices indicate that we aren't getting screwed or at least screwed uniformly. :eek:

I did compare with last years prices and found that a few items actually went down in price from a year ago. We will buy like this five times a year, so we aren't a huge account. I appreciate the responses.

Frank in Tennessee

Cannonmn · Jan 23, 2017

Would someone update this info please, I have an aluminum-intensive project and need to know.

chip_maker · Jan 23, 2017

Cannonmn said:
Would someone update this info please, I have an aluminum-intensive project and need to know.

Here's what you do:

1) pick up phone.

2) call someone who sells aluminum.

3) tell them what shapes and sizes your looking for, and ask them for current pricing.

Did you really dig up a 9+ year old thread just to have someone do your job (or homework) for you?

Cannonmn · Jan 23, 2017

chip_maker said:
Here's what you do:

1) pick up phone.

2) call someone who sells aluminum.

3) tell them what shapes and sizes your looking for, and ask them for current pricing.

Did you really dig up a 8+ year old thread just to have someone do your job for you?

Yes, obviously I did, and the snotty replies that pencildi-ks need to make to feel manly don't bother me a bit! I kept looking after posting that and probably answered my own question. Found this site, and a page that includes some sizes of interest, and it looks like I'll need to pay about $4.00 per lb. plus shipping. If that's way out of line maybe someone will comment.

Speedy Metals 1" x 6" 661 Aluminum Flat

powerglider · Jan 23, 2017

Cannonmn said:
Yes, obviously I did, and the snotty replies that pencildi-ks need to make to feel manly don't bother me a bit! I kept looking after posting that and probably answered my own question. Found this site, and a page that includes some sizes of interest, and it looks like I'll need to pay about $4.00 per lb. plus shipping. If that's way out of line maybe someone will comment.

Speedy Metals 1" x 6" 661 Aluminum Flat

how many pounds are you wanting to buy and is it all in 1 common shape and length. If you want to buy 50 lbs at the same rate that some other memeber buys 3000 every month or 2 then you are going to be challenged to find it.

Comatose · Jan 23, 2017

We're still in the $2.00 to $2.50 range for a thousand pounds or so at a time. I saw a few quotes recently that started with a 1.

Speedy and their ilk are fine if you need less than a stick, but for real quantities that would be a little like a restaurant buying their hamburger at 7-11.

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