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Monthly Mill Allocations for vendors?...........ugh.

david n

Diamond
Joined
Apr 13, 2007
Location
Pillager, MN
Monthly mill allocations for distributors?...........ugh.

So not sure what the Ali supply is like on the Coasts, but here in the middle it kinda sucks.............I threw a little wider net this time around for a RFQ..............the place quoted below is not one of my usual places, but I have ordered from them in the past 12-18 months.................The rest of yoos guys seein' this kinda thing too?:willy_nilly:

"Sorry David, we do not carry 7075 bar, and our 6061 bar stock is limited by mill monthly allocations. For this reason, we are unable to quote full bar to customers without a history of ordering specific bar sizes within the past 6 months. No quote.

Thank You,

Cari ########"


One local mom and pop shop will honor prices for at least a week and if'n you order something that is outa stock, they'll still honor the quoted price when it hits their floor...........the rest are only 24-48hrs.................price is based on the time of delivery..........:crazy:
 
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So not sure what the Ali supply is like on the Coasts, but here in the middle it kinda sucks.............I threw a little wider net this time around for a RFQ..............the place quoted below is not one of my usual places, but I have ordered from them in the past 12-18 months.................The rest of yoos guys seein' this kinda thing too?:willy_nilly:

"Sorry David, we do not carry 7075 bar, and our 6061 bar stock is limited by mill monthly allocations. For this reason, we are unable to quote full bar to customers without a history of ordering specific bar sizes within the past 6 months. No quote.

Thank You,

Cari ########"


One local mom and pop shop will honor prices for at least a week and if'n you order something that is outa stock, they'll still honor the quoted price when it hits their floor...........the rest are only 24-48hrs.................price is based on the time of delivery..........:crazy:

Midwest Steel & Aluminum? They sell full bars and pretty affordable.
 
Midwest Steel & Aluminum? They sell full bars and pretty affordable.

Yes, I already buy from Midwest....prolly 30-40k lbs already this year............and no they are not the mom and pop shop I mentioned above................A&C Metals is a great local vendor.(may not be a mom and pop there though)
 
I just bought a barrel of Cutting oil today (Mobil) and got the same story. Every time there is a shipment that comes through it is never enough for everyone. Everyone gets a little bit so it gets spread out, but it makes it hard to keep up and or expand.

I can still get material that I need, I just have to pay a little more and sometimes wait a little longer for delivery. I can always find what I need though.

I did have a problem with a larger order of 303 bar stock a while back. I was told 2 different delivery dates and they came and went. After calling about it they told me it was ordered but the mill didnt ship it. Hopefully it is on the next truck.

Allotments are happening in every industry. Its hard to plan for the future.

I have been cutting a lot of 2024 AL lately. It is supplied by the customer so I do not know how much it is costing. I did see the same part in AL and 303 SS with the same quantities have very close total material costs. Same price for AL as 303 SS fir these parts. Not same price per lb, but same price overall.

Good Luck.
 
I did see the same part in AL and 303 SS with the same quantities have very close total material costs. Same price for AL as 303 SS fir these parts. Not same price per lb, but same price overall.

Good Luck.

EMJ just quoted me $3.23/lb for 303SS(1.2k lbs) and $2.95/lb for 6061(9500lbs)..............:eek: that's gittin purty close to the same $/LB.................:willy_nilly:Customer ain't gonna be happy.................:leaving:
 
The last ping that I got from my custom extruder said that they were out maybe 36 - 38 weeks I think.
So $3/# for something on the floor is prolly a good deal?

I have some ETD150 doo in _ in 2 weeks. We'll see if it shows on time? (was 6 weeks out when I ordered)
(Good grief that stuff's expensive!)

Me and a chum bought 4 drums of coolant a day'r 2 after the big farr in Chi-Town. We didn't need it yet, but wanted to git while the gitt'n was good.
It took a cpl weeks for them to come in, but I didn't git over to pick mine up ratt away, and when I got there, they had sent one of mine to somebody else.
That was a month (?) ago. The replacement hasn't come in yet. I will be opening the other one tomorrow, so I still have plenty of time.

Took maybe 8 weeks to git in the particular stretch wrap that I use. It finally got here a week before I ran out.

Took maybe 6 weeks to git my custom printed boxes. They came in a week before I was out.

This gist aint the year to wait until you need it to order it...


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

Think Snow Eh!
Ox
 
this year its not how much work can we do its what can we actually get our hands on. we do a lot of non metals machining we can't even get our hands on baltic birch sheets anymore and when we do its split between everyone so lucky to get a pallet in. some laminated ply for a job can't even find it in the states. a 4x8 sheet of HDPE that is usually around $300/sheet we are getting it rammed up our arse for $800 last round and could only find a few sheets of it. list goes on and on this shit is getting out of hand....
 
We manufacturer medical/aerospace tubing (mostly 300 SS series)... it's a game of wackomole trying to pin material w strip providers. Grabbing whatever I can, even if it's for a few years out. Placed another 11k lbs just today, they won't take any more pulls on that spec wall until Jan. Competitors are even occasionally sending orders our way as they didn't stack inventory like we did. To echo above, its a mess. Has me quite nervous come late next yr wrt Kanbans w the some of the juggernaut companies we supply. Will need to be very proactive on keeping them in material availability loop.
 
think it's a global thing? I just ordered a load of 1 3/4 6082T6 plates, price is twice what I paid this time last year, and most places are a 4-week wait. need some 10mm plate next, looking like a 6-8 week on that, no word on price!

40mm plate seams to be available at the moment, but not cheep!
 
EMJ just quoted me $3.23/lb for 303SS(1.2k lbs) and $2.95/lb for 6061(9500lbs)..............:eek: that's gittin purty close to the same $/LB.................:willy_nilly:Customer ain't gonna be happy.................:leaving:

I have bought over 40,000 pounds of 6061 this year and the last batch came in at $3.35 a pound delivered. Sounds like I need to try EMJ when everything settles down. Is the $2.95 FOB or at your door?
 
It's everything. I ordered some stock standard off the shelf pico-(8mm) to micro (12 mm) 5 meter length sensor cables May 1. They showed up July 30. Got a quote today for some 80/20 extrusion cut to length by our distributor, 40 business days lead time, but I can get a full 4 meter stick in a few days and that is probably what I am going to do and we will just cut it in-house. From what I am seeing, you need to triple the lead time from anything you have experienced in the past and that still may not be enough.
 
I have bought over 40,000 pounds of 6061 this year and the last batch came in at $3.35 a pound delivered. Sounds like I need to try EMJ when everything settles down. Is the $2.95 FOB or at your door?

That's to my door.............Midwest came through...............'bout 12K lbs @ $2.85/lb.................................o'course it ain't all in stock though
 
I have bought over 40,000 pounds of 6061 this year and the last batch came in at $3.35 a pound delivered. Sounds like I need to try EMJ when everything settles down. Is the $2.95 FOB or at your door?

We have been paying $2.85-$2.90 a lb for decent orders. EMJ is usually higher than our preferred supplier.
Whats nuts is cut plate isn't much more these days. Used to be $1 per lb spread and now its closer to $.50
 
So what is supposedly causing the price spikes? I suppose I should feel blessed I don't need large amounts of anything, never more than a couple hundred pounds at a time.
 
So what is supposedly causing the price spikes? I suppose I should feel blessed I don't need large amounts of anything, never more than a couple hundred pounds at a time.

Its just supply and demand. During the early part of Covid, many companies were uncertain about the future and put off long term projects.

This resulted in most mills cutting back and adapting to the times. Now that companies are ready to go the supply chain has to catch back up.

When the mills do get around to making more product, they end up making just enough to get by. This is due to uncertainty. I have seen this in every industry. Allocations come in and everybody gets a little bit but not enough to get ahead.

It is very hard to plan for the future.

Shipping has a lot to do with it as well. Stuff gets tied up in ports, etc.

It all trickles down.
 
Its just supply and demand. During the early part of Covid, many companies were uncertain about the future and put off long term projects.

This resulted in most mills cutting back and adapting to the times. Now that companies are ready to go the supply chain has to catch back up.

When the mills do get around to making more product, they end up making just enough to get by. This is due to uncertainty. I have seen this in every industry. Allocations come in and everybody gets a little bit but not enough to get ahead.

It is very hard to plan for the future.

Shipping has a lot to do with it as well. Stuff gets tied up in ports, etc.

It all trickles down.

Wouldn't you figure aluminum scrap price would go up? After a big dip it, prices rebounded but have been flat for about a year. It seems a lot of remelting facilities have popped up over the last decade. 45 cents for clean solids in my neck of the woods for at least a year or more. I clean out scrap after I collect 300-500# pounds all totaled, I just check prices once in a while out of curiosity.
 
think it's a global thing? I just ordered a load of 1 3/4 6082T6 plates, price is twice what I paid this time last year, and most places are a 4-week wait. need some 10mm plate next, looking like a 6-8 week on that, no word on price!

40mm plate seams to be available at the moment, but not cheep!
I'm finding with some sizes of round bar that suppliers won't give quotes because delivery to them is so far off in the future, and if I want anything I have to pay upfront to secure it.

I ordered what I estimated to be a years worth of alu round bar last December, initially I thought maybe that was overkill but now I'm wishing I'd got more of some sizes of bar and some stainless too.

Next year my production will probably be determined by that material I can get, not what products are selling well or what I actually want to make.
 
Wouldn't you figure aluminum scrap price would go up? After a big dip it, prices rebounded but have been flat for about a year. It seems a lot of remelting facilities have popped up over the last decade. 45 cents for clean solids in my neck of the woods for at least a year or more. I clean out scrap after I collect 300-500# pounds all totaled, I just check prices once in a while out of curiosity.

I would have assumed teh same thing. Scrap yard by us is still offering $0.4/lb of scrap solids.
 








 
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