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What going on with steel prices?

Every time I send in a load,the scrapyard give me a $10/ton advance on the previous load...without me even asking.........they asked me to keep scrapping over the holidays to make up for the normal holiday shortfall ......but Im too old to work all the time ...cant spend the money when Im dead.
 
I dont think this is actually the Chinese- Chinese prices right now, in China, are about half of what US prices are.
$578 a ton, vs $947 a ton in the US.
And Euro prices are about $666 a ton.

US prices are probably based on pandemic shortages, and transport costs, and the fact that mills have less stock, and are running fewer tons, but demand is increasing.
We dont actually import that much steel, we depend on US mills for around 75% of our use, and US mills can charge what they want.
 
don't know why but my pipe supplier told me that truckload quantity of 6" pipe is going from 9.15 to somewhere around 11.00 per foot in late january. early febuary. but that's korean pipe, so who knows. kind of like osb at 28.00 per sheet for 7/16 they can charge what the market can bear.
 
I would think the west coast steel is mostly coming from China while east coast and middle of the country stuff is more often US made?
Bil lD
 
Where I am in Calif my main supplier of a36 shapes wont hold quote prices due to weekly price increases. Smallish sizes are around $1.00/lb where a few months back the same was around $.65/lb. Beams and such are staying about the same for now....
 
Rebar in Chinese construction???? HAH, I had (4) 20 ton air-con units installed in the shop and had the hangers made from 4" channel. Due to the superior skills of Chinese welders I had the 1/2" plates with a [ cut out for the channel to slip into as a safety incase the weld snapped.

I come in the next day to the sound of demolition hammers only to find they measured the length from truss---truss in one spot and made all the hangers the same length. Rather than remaking the hangers they decided to chisel out the floor trusses to the second floor of five floors of machine shops! Laughable but it was then I realized we were under 4 other floors of machines with no rebar.


As for metal prices? Dropping like a rock here. Im building some cottages on stilts now and for the floor joist i'm using 2x4x1/8 Steel rectangular tubing. The price has dropped to 340PHP per 20' stick (Delivered)! That works out to about $6.50 a stick, how the hell can they make it for that much less ship it internationally and deliver?





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Over here it has been reported the chinese steel makers have asked the chinese gov to intervene in the price of iron ore as they see it as too high.
Now they are cutting imports of Australian wheat....among the long list they have already cut or tarrifed so high its effectively cut, its just next.

From what i see demand for iron ore is high so the price is set to the market at the moment.

They are also not letting our coal ships unload to their port or let them leave so they can unload elsewhere, they are held hostage at the moment.
they rejected the coal so i see no reason for them not to let them leave.

BTW that weld does not look so great.....
 
They are also not letting our coal ships unload to their port or let them leave so they can unload elsewhere, they are held hostage at the moment.
I think the intended lesson is, knock it off with the political posturing. In the future, kowtowing to bigmouth assholes will have repercussions ... Canada learned the same lesson.

Mill is all concerned that China will be a big military player but that's not their style. They go for what counts, the pocketbook.
 
Mill is all concerned that China will be a big military player but that's not their style. They go for what counts, the pocketbook.

Yeah, through seizures and other gang tactics. Nothing like using your muscle, one way or another.

And they are going for the Big Stick too, as well as little sticks, political sticks, loan sticks (can't pay? No problem, we'll just take the port), spy sticks, etc.

Stickee, or Sticker, it's not going to be fun...
 
Yeah, through seizures and other gang tactics. Nothing like using your muscle, one way or another.
Yup, they do it just like the big kids do in the US - legally. They make up the rules then they play by them. You think it's great when the bigshits in the US do that, why is it so unfair when someone else uses the same tactics ?

Reminds me of the Ali-Foreman fight. George though he was so bad, but turned out Ali used the same tactics except did it better. Being convinced you're hot shit invincible doesn't always work out so well.
 








 
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