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Aluminum Prices

Mickey_D

Stainless
Joined
Apr 18, 2006
Location
Austin, TX
Over the last year I have seen aluminum go from $1.70 a pound to $2.25 on my last order (I buy between 2 and 5K pounds a month) and my sales rep said to expect it to go higher due to threatened tariffs by the Trump administration against imported aluminum. We don't use any imported aluminum but just the threat is making prices go nuts. Be careful quoting, not good to get burned. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/16/com...s-on-foreign-steel-and-aluminum--sources.html
 
Fact is that all the metal suppliers who are bringing in garbage from 2nd-3rd world countries, never passed the savings onto us to begin with, they pocket the extra profit while we're left with the mess and extra costs of trying to make parts with this shit, and that is that. If they can get more $ by blaming Trump, true or not, they will do that too.

Reality is that if it goes up, its probably because demand went up, y'all can blame Trump for that one too :)

And yes there should be high tariffs and penalties for countries that dump their junk on us, and the companies who bring it in instead of using domestic suppliers who make somewhat better stuff, its bad enough dealing with some North-American made stuff as it is.
 
That's exactly what the government is doing. In whatever report the government released, I think it was 232 or 323, whatever, they want to raise tariffs on basically junk nations. Some good countries would be effected depending on which way they go.

China is already threatening to take it to international court which would delay any hike for years while they can flood this country with their stuff.

Sent from my 2PS64 using Tapatalk
 
I just bought 30# of .19 x 2 6061 T6 and it was $2.30 a lb. delivered. I thought that was pretty good. It was import material and it was top quality.
 
I just bought 30# of .19 x 2 6061 T6 and it was $2.30 a lb. delivered. I thought that was pretty good. It was import material and it was top quality.

My salesman said that extrusions aren't really in question - it's pretty much a problem with sheet. My orders have reflected that. That said, the company that told me that only stocks domestic extrusions, so maybe mileage varies at other distributors.

In December, he told me to anticipate a 5-8% increase. Just a general price increase. In January, we were blindsided by a 38% increase. In February, I noticed another, but didn't have the heart to check the percentage. I have been told to possibly expect more.

His claim is that in response to the threats of embargo or tariffs, China simply quit sending aluminum over, to avoid the risk of containers of it being turned away at port.

He said at one of their branches, a customer caught wind of the news a day before they did, and bought their entire inventory of one item at that location. They went to reorder, and found there wasn't any available.

Admittedly, I wasn't in the best of moods when I called to inquire why my quote was suddenly out of this world, but after calming down, I casually remarked that I understand that he's got to make money too. At that point, he's the one who hit the roof, and mentioned that they aren't (at least the 'they' that are in distribution - I've got no clue about the mills). He said they are trying to operate at about break even just to keep metal moving, and keep customers serviced until everything equalizes. He said depending on how second quarter goes, they may have to ration us to the tonnage that we purchased in '17.


How true that is, I don't know. I don't usually buy the line of bull most salesman are pushing, but with this particular individual, I am inclined to trust him.


For what it's worth, Aluminum Association has been strongly praising this administration for this effort and NMMA (National Marine Manufacturers Association) has sharply criticized it. All of the small boat companies that I deal with have had to announce immediate price increases.
 
Fry's steel is quite often out of stock on some common 6061 barstock sizes (3" x 1" for instance) that I use, I guess I'll expect this to get worse.

Everytime I ask why XX"xXX" isn't availible the excuse is 'waiting for deliveries from the mill in China'
 
Fry's steel is quite often out of stock on some common 6061 barstock sizes (3" x 1" for instance) that I use, I guess I'll expect this to get worse.

Everytime I ask why XX"xXX" isn't availible the excuse is 'waiting for deliveries from the mill in China'
I've been able to get decent prices from EMJ most of the time. I try to get at least a few hundred lbs, seems to help....
 
Fry's steel is quite often out of stock on some common 6061 barstock sizes (3" x 1" for instance) that I use, I guess I'll expect this to get worse.

Everytime I ask why XX"xXX" isn't availible the excuse is 'waiting for deliveries from the mill in China'

When I was in So Cal Industrial Metal Supply in Riverside was my first choice for 6061, unless the sizes were huge it was all high quality domestic. Good prices also and a nice showroom of precuts. For the record I fled Cali in 2011 and haven't used them since. They also had a good selection of drops at low prices.
 
Hopefully it'll help restart the US's aluminium production again. Looks like that industry in the US got decimated the last few years.
These industries are vital to a country's strength and independence.
 
Some of these stories just blow me away...

I ordered 5000# of custom extrusion about 6 weeks ago (?) and it was somewhere around $2/#. Was quoted 5 week delivery. 2 weeks out I get a mail to come pick my Shiite up. It was 3 weeks early and they poured me around 6500# instead. They certainly weren't swamped!


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox
 
Teriffs on raw materials are an absolutely terrible thing to doo to manufacturing!

If Finished Goods are not already teriffed at least the same amount, then the import countries have an even greater advantage!


Maybe scrap will go up some more?


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox
 
Hopefully it'll help restart the US's aluminium production again. Looks like that industry in the US got decimated the last few years.
These industries are vital to a country's strength and independence.

Careful. We do get quite a bit of aluminum you folks...
 
Some of these stories just blow me away...

I ordered 5000# of custom extrusion about 6 weeks ago (?) and it was somewhere around $2/#. Was quoted 5 week delivery. 2 weeks out I get a mail to come pick my Shiite up. It was 3 weeks early and they poured me around 6500# instead. They certainly weren't swamped!


---------------------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox

My sales guy said sheet only. Extrusion price hasn't changed much for me.
 
Careful. We do get quite a bit of aluminum you folks...

Yep, you actually get more Al from Canada than from China, about 65% of your AL imports are from here but some of the Canadian plants have Alcoa as part of the name... not sure how tariffs work then when the plant is US owned anyway. I would imagine they talked about it...

Either way, Canada is Not Trumps Problem. I only wish Canada had a leader that would put Canada first once in a while, but I won't hold my breath to see that happen.

As to tariffs, I'm all for fair trade, and I would hope any $ collected goes back to helping domestic manufacturers. Either way, its not like the last 20yrs of policies made the industry any better, maybe time to try a different approach for a while

That all said, it doesn't look like the US has mined much Bauxite in years, even for the new Al you make you import 99% of the bauxite to make it. I'm not sure if its the deposits that are running low or just again become too much of a pain to mine it with regulations and all that? I guess time will tell if any start digging it up again.

Canada doesn't need AL or steel for its strength and independence, apparently our strength is our diversity as a post nationalist country with no core identity.
 
As to tariffs, I'm all for fair trade, and I would hope any $ collected goes back to helping domestic manufacturers.


Frying pan / Fire !!!

That's Big Gov gitt'n in the business and then it ends up being that you can apply for this or that to git some of your money back. (or in any other way - having an edge on some other shop that doesn't apply for what is essentially the dole)

I was farming back when Jimmy Carter decided that it'd be a swell idea to try to starve the Russians into submission. (1980 Grain Embargo) Trouble is - even growing up on the farm - he wasn't counting on Argentina! What a huge jump start for them!

Prices held OK for a cpl of years, but then tanked - and for a long time! Enough so that now I doubt that there is any farmer that can opperate without being on the dole in one way or another. Many fought it for many years, but in the end, the guys who doo jump on any opportunity will be able to overtake those that don't. He with the most scruples loses every time!


I have an idea! Maybe any $ collected could go towards the deficit! Remember that?
Of course now-a-days, there's really no point in being concerned with it anymore as there is no possible way that we could ever pay that off anymore. Just wait 'till interest rates go up aggin... LOL! :bawling:

Thanks W for my $200 cheque! :rolleyes5: (or was it $400? IDK)



I'm sorry. My overactive ethics are a major stumbling block for me in this world! :o


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox
 
It'll be interesting to see how it works out, its not like things weren't headed downhill or pretty much done over for that industry anyway. I just hope there was some proper business plan talk prior to this for them to sort out how to actually make it work, but yeah, efficiency and not sucking the gov tit at every turn is a thing of the past in most industries. If it goes like what happened with Plywood the last few years, it won't be good.

Now this got me thinking that if they get into a real trade pissing contest maybe it'll be even harder to get USA material up here... :(

But don't worry about the deficit, we've been well assured in Canada that budgets balance themselves...
 








 
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