your prices are not out of line.
when we are working on a big project, its not uncommon for me to spend close to a grand a month on gas.
the problem is- welding gases are not a big enough market to even exist on their own.
The infrastructure to extract most of these gases costs tens of millions per plant.
industrial gases are made for other, much larger and more profitable industries- plastics manufacturing, for instance.
welding is a tiny percentage of the total- well under 5% as I understand it.
So we are simply a blip on the radar.
If all welding argon sales ended, the plants would barely notice.
Also, shipping is a big price factor.
The plant that makes your argon was sited where it is because its near a huge industrial user. Doesnt matter if you are in a huge urban area- Chicago's welding companies use less than a single big factory does.
Praxair had built large oxygen extraction plants (of which argon is a very minor side product) in the south to supply new steel mills in the mid 2000's.
If steel production slows down, oxygen demand slows, and argon production is less as a result, so argon prices go up.
And the largest single user is the oil and gas industry- and to them argon is not even a product- its waste material.
If the US production shifts, as it has, from oil to natural gas, it affects who wants industrial gases, where. And it affects our prices.
All of this doesnt care one whit what I, or other small argon users, say- we are so small in the scheme of things they dont even see us.
