Folks

Is it my imagination or has steel price got a bit ridiculous. I'm going to make a steel welding/work bench and want to use some fairly thick steel (to allow for clamping forces - we had a 2m square 1" think plate at work and it was brill), but even 5 or 6mm plate is going to cost a lot..

Or do any of you know where I can get something secondhand

Don't know what's going on with Parker Steel but Metals4U 1m x 1m x 8mm £156+ vat
Parkers 2m x 1m x 8mm £780 + vat (no price for 1mx1m)

Cheers

[Edited on 4/11/21 by Simon]

I bought some more hollow section not too long ago, I need to put together some outriggers for the bodywork. Same steel that I'd bought before from the same seller, it was slightly under double the price. I did wonder how I'd managed to get over the free delivery threshold with only a few lengths, when I checked I realised it was because I was paying so much more.

Exactly the same 1 month ago. At one time they were competitive . If you can collect go local, thats what I did. Can't you get through work ?

[Edited on 5/11/21 by Myke 2463]

At work our "procurement prices" for nearly everything have gone through the roof.

Aluminium alloy for example has gone up massively, because China is having difficulty mining and exporting enough Magnesium (responsible for 87% of the worlds Maagnesium output apparently) for Alumnium alloy to be manufactured.

Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) have in some cases quabdrupled in cost in the past 2 years.

Microprocessors we use have in some cases risen from £3 to £25 each with a leadtime of 9 months or more.

Manufacturing is hard work and damned expensive

All these things will wash through to consumer goods!

For metals you might try these people who have depots across the UK - I haven't checked their prices recently, but often you can just turn up an buy from them. They usually offer cutting services on site to help you fit the stuf in your vehicle too.

https://www.bmsteel.co.uk/index

More Brexit winning.

^^ yeah the last few months have been crazy for steel prices - they were going up more than £100/ton every week for a while
at work we've gone from offering quotes valid for 30days+ to now only offering 5days or less

the only advice is to shop around as much as you can - Parkers / Metals4U and the likes are never the cheapest options

have you got any fabricator's near you that might be willing to sell you some spare stock / offcuts ?

quote:

---

Originally posted by loggyboy
More Brexit winning.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by mcerd1
^^ yeah the last few months have been crazy for steel prices - they were going up more than £100/ton every week for a while
at work we've gone from offering quotes valid for 30days+ to now only offering 5days or less

the only advice is to shop around as much as you can - Parkers / Metals4U and the likes are never the cheapest options

have you got any fabricator's near you that might be willing to sell you some spare stock / offcuts ?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by David Jenkins

quote:

---

Originally posted by loggyboy
More Brexit winning.

---

Brexit doesn't help, but this is a world-wide problem at the moment.

---

There's some interesting stuff on youtube on how they are scrapping perfectly seaworthy ships simply because their worth more for their metal. Others on China building entire city's with no one living in them.

I always thought owning a scrapyard was a fantastic way to make money for doing very little.

Sounds like it's a good time to take some scrap steel down to the local breakers... I have some rough old bits & pieces in the garage...

quote:

---

Originally posted by David Jenkins
Sounds like it's a good time to take some scrap steel down to the local breakers... I have some rough old bits & pieces in the garage...

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by nick205

quote:

---

Originally posted by David Jenkins
Sounds like it's a good time to take some scrap steel down to the local breakers... I have some rough old bits & pieces in the garage...

---

You could try, but scrap dealers are wily old folk and won't pay much. They'll have some reason tucked up their sleeves about the upward costs of processing!

---

Not just Metal as the cost of timber has gone up aswell

Some of the prices being quoted now are just plain daft

One of the suppliers said that the Yanks are buying all the timber they can get hold of and its causing all sorts of supply issues

I'm also told the quarries have been told to prioritise HS2

Wifey has had this conversation at work. They use a lot of steel / wood / commercial white goods. America is driving it's economic recovery on building. They use wood to build. They've had fires and beetle (or fungus or something) infestation in the normal wood forests. They're buying European wood for more than we normally pay driving up or prices and reducing supply. China is building like mad hence the supply of steel. Everyone stick at home had driven demand on consumer electronics therefore lack of supply for industrial electronics as every chip manufacturer has targeting making what's in greatest demand.

All compounded by that bloody virus affecting everyone working normally.


How true any of this is, I don't know but it makes sense and isn't going away any time soon. Brexit isn't a cause but isn't helping as demonstrated by the American/Europe deal on steel tariffs imposed by Trump. We're not in Europe so excluded hopefully some benefits will arrive soon

quote:

---

Originally posted by Myke 2463
... Can't you get through work ?

[Edited on 5/11/21 by Myke 2463]

---

I had to get a bit of 1mx1mx10mm mild steel from a local supplier who are always the best on price. 110 quid! And that was from their offcut pile with plenty of surface rust.

I got my worktop steel from the local scrapyard and spent half an hour with a flap wheel in the grinder, came up lovely.

And yeah this has literally nothing to do with the B word, all keep telling yourself that

And plastics , like for bags, 30% increase on 18mths
And cardboard shortage, so can't box goods.....

quote:

---

Originally posted by ReMan
And plastics , like for bags, 30% increase on 18mths
And cardboard shortage, so can't box goods.....

---

In the UK we are hugely exposed to global pricing as we don't have the material production here. If we had the mines / sustainable wood, we would not have the same issues.

I work with manufacturers in China, things are still pretty cheap there. It's amazing in fact what they can do for what price. They are also alot better at communicating and producing top quality products. Cheap Chinese $h!t is not as common as it once was these days.

quote:

---

Originally posted by bi22le
Cheap Chinese $h!t is not as common as it once was these days.

---

Same for Chemicals. Chemicals come from oil... oh dear.
Spot pricing is what it is, a price on the spot. Competing against a global market, primarily the great US and Chinese consumers. As has been said, with little domestic production of anything useful, it's all about imports.
Hell, so many electricity extension cables coming over here (and planned) that cost effective domestic production of anything requiring energy in the future isn't looking great