Next up : Steel shortage in 2021

I work as a traffic manager for a steel company, prices are on the rise ..fast and we have been rationed the amount we can buy in 2021 , based off 2020 purchases .. it is our normal slow time of the year so , no affect currently we bought everything we could for Jan and Feb and they closed purchases until March 1st now .

The expectation is lots of new white appliances being sold and new cars .. they got the 1st priority so it appears



If you are planning a new steel building better sign the contract and quick

Interesting...Do you think scrap prices will go up bigdad?

The answer to that is no due to politics and tariffs , a certain amount of scrap steel needs to be used to offset the carbon footprint however but, not like previously ..

I work for an HVAC supplier and quite a few of the brands (fortunately not the one we sell) are having shortages due to Covid.

Lots of contractors can't get A/C condensers and furnaces from their other suppliers.

We haven't been able to get mobile home furnaces for about 3 months now and some heat exchangers are on intergalactic backorder.

Tariffs will be gone on the 21 st of January China will be sleeping with the politicians again like a bunch of paid prostitutes. We’ll pay what China decides we need to pay. Back to the old ways.

Scrap price is up in my area, a brand new steel plant is in the plans, the two steel stocks I had been day trading are now up in price where I won’t venture.

I have a couple of old buildings coming down. Has the old type wiring. I am going to strip the insulation before I sell the copper.

In Arizona they won't take copper wire if it's been stripped. This is the rule: Aluminum or Copper Wire
A Dealer shall not accept aluminum wire with a diameter of at least 3/8ths of an inch or any copper wire that has had the insulation removed and shall not remove insulation from the wire until after the 7 day hold period unless the Seller is an Industrial Account or another Dealer. Your state might be different but I thought I'd mention it.

Just a sample from a scrap yard in my are.

They will take it here in Iowa. I took a cat converter in off of the wifes Pacifica,had to show my drivers license. Reputable place so it is no big deal.

Top picture today, bottom picture January 5th. Check out the prices.

Yep - & unemployment will be on the rise as well. Here we go again. "Those jobs ain't coming back either so get used to it..................."

Several large iron ore mines have had production problems.

You may remember the large iron ore waste (tailings) dam at a huge iron ore mine in Brazil that failed.

Other iron ore mines all around the world have had to re-prove their dams are safe.

China and Australia are having a political “tit for tat” dispute over trade
(and the origin of Covid-19)
that has already affected exported wines and steam coal.
This could easily expand to iron ore and “metallurgical coal” used to make the “coke” (spongey carbon) needed for steelmaking.

Domestic steel production can be fully supported by domestic iron ore and coke production. I'm hopeful for a strong steel demand this year. Cliffs, the new and largest domestic steel maker's stock increased 5x from it's 2020 low.

I heard this week the T1 steel plate we use, the prices went thru the roof. How bad? We were out of inch and a half so the foreman had parts cut out of 2 inch then had them milled. Sounds like we'll eventually have to bite the bullet.

t
the chinese get 75pct of their ore from aussie - they ain't cutting off this trade... wine... big deal ... coal, they get a small proportion of their coal needs from aussie, and there is "plenty" of supply available from indonesia/soafrica/russians... or long haul from colombia


if i was the aussies, i'd cut off ore shippments to china.... but that's a lot more loss of revenue $$$ then the coal trade...

The steel mill I worked at once Allegheny Ludlum now ATI discontinued making silicon steel year ago. Several months ago they announced they were going to discontinue making low grades of stainless steel and concentrate on high grades of stainless steel and the titanium market.

I'm hearing the same discussion by market analysts -
Manufacturers are working hard to lock in supply contracts to secure raw materials to meet a rise in orders for product that was pent up by the pandemic.
.. demand for raw materials had fallen during the pandemic, so supply is now low.. and that is driving raw material prices up.
- Art

Cleveland Cliff's bought out most of the competition at the bottom over the last few years and will control the market resulting in higher prices. Very determined CEO.

only higher prices if there is demand... n steel tariffs remain... if demand is slack n biden lessens tariffs....

>we have been rationed
HAHAHA

This is war stuff.

we are getting hit with Huge price increases on steel and Alum. sucks because we use alot of it and we run at very thin margins as it is and customers dont like increase to the product line.

Cliff's acquired AK Steel in March with a stock swap, and purchased select ArcelorMittal mills in December. Although they are now the largest domestic steel maker, their capacity is less than 20% of the total domestic capacity. Plus, you cannot generalize "steel" although there is overlap in capabilities. Most of what Cliff's makes is automotive strip steel made with blast furnaces and BOFs. US Steel is a competitor in that space. Most of the structural steel is coming from Nucor and SDI made in EAFs.

What automation company do you work for? I programmed PLC's and robots for 30 years. I worked for VSI Automation, TA Systems and HA Industries. SO GLAD to be out of that pressure cooker

NVM I see you are with Welker in Troy. Very close to my former concentration camp I mean employer.

Look what’s happened to the price of copper jacketed lead...

"Look what’s happened to the price of copper jacketed lead..."

And all wood, select and clear especially.

I am finding random materials shortages across the board.
Tried to order materials for an office fit up last month, my supply house said he couldn't sell me the sheetrock, was only selling to his top 20 customers, so I buy the materials thru a friend who is one of his top customers and the load shows up without any steel studs, they're out, had to go to HD to buy them.
Just ordered materials for another fit up. Had to argue with the sales guy to get 4 bags of insulation.
Current price of 7/16" OSB $28/sheet
2x6x8KD $9/each.
Between all the shortages, lack of people who actually can work an 8 hour day and a new administration bent on turning us green in 15 years I'm fairly certain the building boom will crash and the supply shortage will ease up.

Roger that!