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Steel Prices?

300sniper

300sniper

Gun Plumber
Joined
May 20, 2020
Member Number
695
Messages
426
Loc
Greenwood, CA
Have steel prices doubled over the last few months? I've been wanting to build a new heavy duty welding bench and a few months ago, priced out an 3/4" A36 top, 3' x 6', plasma cut with 1" radius corners, and it was something like $750. Today, I was thinking about just replacing the top on my existing bench, same dimensions but only 1/2" thick, nearly $1100. Maybe my price from a few months ago was a mistake?

What are you paying per lb for plate steel?

And where is a good place to get plate steel fabricated (plasma cut) around Sacramento? I'll drive to Reno or San Francisco if I can get a good price.
 
Yes it has! 3/8" 5'x10' I ordered over the summer was $400, needed another end of December and it was just shy of $800.
 
Plate I was paying $.39/lb for grade 50. Now its just under double. If I had my buddy cut stuff out for me (3/4 and up) he would charge $1.25/lb cut and delivered to me. Now he's $150
 
300sniper said:
Have steel prices doubled over the last few months? I've been wanting to build a new heavy duty welding bench and a few months ago, priced out an 3/4" A36 top, 3' x 6', plasma cut with 1" radius corners, and it was something like $750. Today, I was thinking about just replacing the top on my existing bench, same dimensions but only 1/2" thick, nearly $1100. Maybe my price from a few months ago was a mistake?

What are you paying per lb for plate steel?

And where is a good place to get plate steel fabricated (plasma cut) around Sacramento? I'll drive to Reno or San Francisco if I can get a good price.
Click to expand...

Sac waterjet in Rancho always had good prices, haven't used them in a while though.
 
prices here have gone up 60-70% in 8wks.

my suppliers tells me prices should stick close to where they are now and start coming down mid ish 2nd qtr
 
Not only did they double, they doubled literally overnight. We were paying .35 to .38 cents a pound, and it went to .70+++ and good luck even finding it. Combo of reasons. First, Covid. Then China is buying a lot. Also, U.S. Steel bought a couple mills and decided to only sell to large union contracts. Our service centers like Ryerson, Curtis, and the like can't even get steel from those mills anymore. Ford and GM aren't hurting, but the little guys are taking it in the shorts.
 
We get notified at least once a week of increases.

Got this today...

On Friday evening 2/18.
Beams & tubes have increased an additional 2.50 cwt
 
The rough numbers I just received to build a shop if/when we moved were painful. This makes sense.
 
Yep, the USA steel mills that went up under Trump, will now go down under PedoJoe.
 
Maybe now is the time to try and sell the old train oil tanker thats non my property. :stirthepot:
 
Fullsize80cherokee said:
Good idea to buy in bulk now, it’s not going down anytime soon
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think so? i should restock my gauge sheet material, but could wait up 4months ish, i also think now is the time buy, thinking that even if prices 'come down' we'll never see it in dollar amount because inflation.

however my sales rep (for bigger plate, shapes and beams. not buying from him so he shoudn't have a bias). he's telling me to wait as long as i can. i haven't made up my mind yet
 
All our metal materials have gone up a lot... Aluminum, Steel, Brass and Copper here in Canada. Quotes we did for jobs two months ago are no longer viable... Everything we quote is with a subject to change due to material costs.
 
It's high, but that's a fuck off price. Plate between 60-80 cents per lb at a service center is what think you would pay. The plasma cutting is what is probably getting your quote increased considerably.

As far as restocking, I'm told prices should begin dropping may/june.
 
jeeptj19992001 said:
https://www.metalbulletin.com/Artic...p-imports-expected-to-resume-in-Jan-2021.html

November
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So what happened here, steel ran from like 75t to 200t first week or two of the year, and sellers stocked the recycle yards, then China's internal paperwork fuckup came to light, and the yards all dropped to like 90t within a week, it's slowly rising to 120t so far, but I'm waiting till it's at least 180 to start hauling stuff in.
I imagine we'll see 300t by the end of the year
 
Fuck steel manufacturers. Their fucking price goes up, but they cut our fucking throats to haul it. Cost to produce hasnt gone up 60-80%, but the ****s keep dropping their rate to haul it.



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Steel/aluminum has gone up 25-40% here from quotes in November/December. Copper seems to be relatively steady up less than 10%, scrap copper has gone up from that time as well.
 
Anyone bought anything lately? Have the prices peaked? Gone down? Crashed?

Really wanting to get a 3’x6’x3/4” a36 plate, but it’s not a need, yet.
 
Last I checked a few weeks ago hot rolled plate was around $1.30 a lb when buying full sheets for at least the common thicknesses (1/8", 3/16", 1/4"). 1/4" is about 10lbs a square foot, meaning your 3/4" is about 30lbs a sq ft. If the pricing carried over, your 3'x6' 3/4" should weigh around 540lbs and cost around $700. Same place used to be sub-$1 a pound for a long while
 
Have not yet peaked. Just moved up again. Plate is nuts, simple structural shaped are only double, plate 3.5x what it was
 
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