Aluminum Pricing and Availability

Mickey_D · Mar 22, 2021

I know this is the wrong forum but there are a lot more eyeballs here. I buy about 5,000 pounds of 6061 a month. At the start of the year pricing was between $2.05 and $2.15 a pound depending on shape, size, and amount ordered. My normal supplier is Trident and use Farmer's as a backup (they normally only carry Kaiser and it does not anodize as well with our guys). We have had three price increases this year and are now up to $2.65 a pound with Trident and Farmer's will be at least as high. Plus lead times have gone from a couple of days to 4 to 8 weeks on some of our common sizes (1.25" x 6" flat). WTF? Is everyone else seeing this or do they just hate me for paying my bills on time vs. all of the other deadbeats that the sales guys are always crying about?

I have heard stories from the Big Freeze and power outages trashed some extrusion presses to the mills are just trying to drive up prices because but this is getting painful. The delivery trucks seem to actually have less material on them over the last month so I am not sure if this is demand driven or someone is just being a dick in the supply chain. Is this happening in other parts of the country or is Central Texas just screwed again like my beer fridge in all of the power outages and rolling blackouts?

kustomizer · Mar 22, 2021

We normally use ThyssenKrupp and buy a ton at a time, end of last year we paid 1.85, January we were 2.35, end of Feb 2.45, I am about to order more and am not looking foreward to experiance.

lumley32 · Mar 22, 2021

the price has shot up in the UK as well, went up £0.75 a KG over the weekend a few weeks back.

I've got an order for 250KG of 44.45mm 2014T6 that was due the first week of Feb, latest is it's delayed till mid-April now. they cant get it from the mill by all accounts.

eaglemike · Mar 22, 2021

I just paid $2.48 for a pretty decent order of 6061 from Jorgensen.
It's up about $.30 to $.40 over the last year IIRC.

cnctoolcat · Mar 22, 2021

Mills are behind because of Covid-19 (quarantines, entire sections shutting down, supply-chain delays, etc.).

Steel included....

Alloy Mcgraw · Mar 22, 2021

I've seen price increases and low stock on brass, steel, and aluminum over the last couple months especially.

I've had to expand my vendor list by a couple because either no stock, pricing, or delivery.

Have seen 360 brass go up 20%-25% since October-Feb.

Some standard bar sizes of 1018 not in stock, from places I've ordered them for years without fail.

I'm an asshole for not loading up over last summer into early fall. Was trying to hold as much cash as possible during the unknown. Now it's time for them to make up their loses.

SND · Mar 23, 2021

The 316 I got yesterday is 34% higher than same order 3 months ago. I'll eat the loss for now but some things I have to readjust next time I quote. Thankfully I had stocked up a bit on regular sizes last year so may not have to buy much more for 2021.

I guess we'll see how long this continues, if the US passes a huge infrastructure spending bill to "stimulate" the ever more centrally planned economy, things will likely go even higher.
Right up until it all crashes and makes 2009 look like the good times.

david n · Mar 23, 2021

I do a large(for me) stainless job twice a year. 4000/lbs. Customer wants double the qtys.................must be thinking to get a better piece price maybe? I had to requote it from the last run that I just delivered yesterday. The 303 was up 30¢-60¢/lb just from a few weeks ago. They didn't get better pricing................oh well.

Oh and vendors are limiting quotes to a week or two from the normal 30 day window......................

Ries · Mar 23, 2021

The Trump 20% tariff on imported steel and aluminum is still in effect. That means that US prices automatically adjust to the global price, because no US mill wants to leave money on the table. Which means, as usual, global pandemic, slowdowns, recessions, and a shortage of shipping containers affects US prices on a daily basis.
Every metal dealer I have ever bought from knows today's London price. To which they add freight, and whatever they can get away with.

We are globalized, especially in commodity prices, whether we like it or not, and with a 20% tariff, we are actually paying OVER global prices.

edit- the tariffs are actually 10% on aluminum and 25% on steel.

Big B · Mar 23, 2021

Ries said:
The Trump 20% tariff on imported steel and aluminum is still in effect. That means that US prices automatically adjust to the global price, because no US mill wants to leave money on the table. Which means, as usual, global pandemic, slowdowns, recessions, and a shortage of shipping containers affects US prices on a daily basis.
Every metal dealer I have ever bought from knows today's London price. To which they add freight, and whatever they can get away with.

We are globalized, especially in commodity prices, whether we like it or not, and with a 20% tariff, we are actually paying OVER global prices.

Hopefully Biden will reverse a lot of policies from the last guy. Preferably all of them.

Ries · Mar 23, 2021

Big B said:
Hopefully Biden will reverse a lot of policies from the last guy. Preferably all of them.

That may or may not be true, but I doubt prices will automatically go down if the tariffs are dropped. Prices go down a lot slower than they go up. Plus, the US Unions, whose opinion Biden considers, are against removing the tariffs, particularly the steelworkers unions. Which are not a huge amount of people, but they are well paid and well connected, and make donations.
This is in addition to the actual US steel manufacturing industry, the steel construction industry, the tube and pipe industry, and other US industrial groups all being on the same side as the Unions, for once, in favor of KEEPING the tariffs.

Many people in the USA benefit from high steel and aluminum prices, and they usually have lobbyiests in Washington.

U.S. steel groups, union urge Biden to keep Trump'''s steel tariffs in place | Reuters

kustomizer · Mar 23, 2021

Our 6061 today was 2.25 @ 2000lbs delivered FedEx to the middle of nowhere. A bit better than the 2.35 last month.

SND · Mar 24, 2021

Ries said:
The Trump 20% tariff on imported steel and aluminum is still in effect. That means that US prices automatically adjust to the global price, because no US mill wants to leave money on the table. Which means, as usual, global pandemic, slowdowns, recessions, and a shortage of shipping containers affects US prices on a daily basis.
Every metal dealer I have ever bought from knows today's London price. To which they add freight, and whatever they can get away with.

We are globalized, especially in commodity prices, whether we like it or not, and with a 20% tariff, we are actually paying OVER global prices.

edit- the tariffs are actually 10% on aluminum and 25% on steel.

The Steel/AL Tariffs between the US and Canada were removed back in May 2019, prices I see here never dropped a cent, though some of us expected that.

Ries · Mar 24, 2021

SND said:
The Steel/AL Tariffs between the US and Canada were removed back in May 2019, prices I see here never dropped a cent, though some of us expected that.

Which is kind of my point- US prices for Steel didnt go down when Canada tariffs were removed either- the steel price in the US was still tracking global prices. The Canadian and US steel markets are intertwined, with mostly the same companies owning mills in both countries. And Canadian steel prices are also going to track the global market. And why would a Canadian mill sell steel for less, when its company owns US mills that are sending steel to Canada? The US mill is going to price at US prices, not give Canadian exports a discount. And Canadian mills are going to raise prices to match the US imports.

Guest · Mar 24, 2021

I haven't ordered aluminum in a while, I guess I need to get ready for sticker shock. Need to order some in a week or so.

Mickey_D · Apr 3, 2021

Yay, sales guy called on Thursday and said they were up another nickel a pound effective April fools day. This makes $.65 since the first of the year.

EnginCycles · May 10, 2021

Mickey_D said:
Yay, sales guy called on Thursday and said they were up another nickel a pound effective April fools day. This makes $.65 since the first of the year.

Just got a quote from EMJ at $4.40 per lb which is up from $2.98 per lb on 3/31/2021. Assuming this is not going to be different elsewhere and not worth looking for better quotes.

Milland · May 10, 2021

Nope, still worth calling around. Even places not too close, freight may be cheaper than local quotes.

kustomizer · May 10, 2021

Copper and brass sales was 2.31 today, 3000lbs

david n · May 10, 2021

I'm seeing $2.40-$2.50/lb 'round here for 6061. And that's for a ton or more. Quotes are only good for 24-72 hrs. Everything is climbin'..............and climbing fast. Stainless, low/med/high carbon, plastics ..............brass and bronze are unreal.......................

Aluminum Pricing and Availability

Stainless

Diamond

Cast Iron

Stainless

Diamond

Titanium

Diamond

Diamond

Diamond

Diamond

Diamond

Diamond

Diamond

Diamond

Guest

Guest

Stainless

Aluminum

Diamond

Diamond

Diamond

Similar threads