sounds like a monopoly in the making.

So Race Winning Brands, who bought 2 companies right by me (Trend - that makes Nascar pushrods and wrist pins and Diamond Pistons - who we all know. Both these company were own by a guy named Fox that had started in business installing glass block windows. Then started a high quality alum storm door company. I have 2 Fox doors on my house. Not sure how he got into the piston business. His daughter sold boxes too us and didn't work for the dad?) is actually owned by an even larger conglomerate/investment company called Kinderhook. Look at the bios of the "team" to see some of the companies they "manage". I deal with a couple of those companies and in recent years they have gone straight to hell. Quality of the two companies I deal with has dropped right off a cliff. A VP of sales at one company said the new CEO went to every salaried person and asked what they contribute to the bottom line. If they didn't have a good answer they were GONE. The VP of sales that told me this is now gone.

http://www.kinderhook.com/team/index.html

They probably bought the company because they were shown LS Chevy parts sales and growth numbers
I remember way way back when speed shops were presented with the "Import" market that was starting to roar--sadly many old school hot old guys could not stand young folks and the stupid things they were doing to silly 4 bangers
I was one of them---a real racer and steeped in the old school ways so we missed the boat on what would have been one heck of a ride--so I learned that lesson well
Engine shops that are not embracing EFI, LS Chevys and boosted builds will be like fossils before long
Thing is many are at an age where it is just easier to walk away and so machine shops will just wither and be fewer in numbers--
Embrace change or die

Direct result of tariffs and trade war , I saw a cage builder just post that his tubing prices are up 78% since January.

It has almost NOTHING to do with the trade war, the price of steel has not gone up %78 percent, import steel has only gone up %25 and that is only part of the steel being used, even if it all went up %25 in response that does in no way make the end product go up %25 as the tarrifed steel is only a small part of the whole operation.

It has a lot more to do with the extremly low un umployment rate, %3.9 percent nationally. In my experience one out of ten people dont really want a job, thats 10%, that means unemployment is so low that even people who dont want to work are being put to work (I know several first hand) and you got to pay em more than their really worth for sub-par performance and the only way to afford that is to charge more for your product or service.

Agree 100%

One item that was not mentioned is shipping. All and I mean ALL this stuff has to travel on a truck sometime. Shipping charges have gone through the roof. Not enough trucks or drivers. One of our suppliers told me their shipping expenses had doubled in the first 6 mo. of this year for basically the same amount of product shipped in. I know I had a 5 gal. pail shipped to me from Chicago. Weight was about 50 lbs. UPS shipping was $97.50. Just regular UPS ground.