Steel prices

[dphillips62]

I'm in industrial electrical equipment supply. We have a shortage of PVC materials right now not just conduit but panels breakers contacts anything made with pvc resin. The shortage is due to the hurricanes that hit Texas and Louisiana last year and the mandated covid shut down. Steel prices go up weekly, copper prices are higher than I have ever seen them. Crouse Hinds fittings is about to raise prices again for the third time this year, same thing with our strut manufacturer. Hold on folks I'm afraid we are in for a bad economic crash in our near future.

[Pineywoods]

I'm in industrial electrical equipment supply. We have a shortage of PVC materials right now not just conduit but panels breakers contacts anything made with pvc resin. The shortage is due to the hurricanes that hit Texas and Louisiana last year and the mandated covid shut down. Steel prices go up weekly, copper prices are higher than I have ever seen them. Crouse Hinds fittings is about to raise prices again for the third time this year, same thing with our strut manufacturer. Hold on folks I'm afraid we are in for a bad economic crash in our near future.

Sadly, I think you are correct. I think we are feeling the tremors of a big one right now.

[captainsling]

Why is metal so high/going higher?
China buying it all up?

Amazon bought a ton of steel to build out their new distribution centers all over the country. Couple that with COVID, and manufacturers can't keep up.

[CJ776]

Amazon bought all the steel to build out their new distribution centers all over the country.

As a warehouse developer. This is in fact partially true. Amazon hedged against the rising tide of commodities pricing and bought joist and deck in bulk and storing in existing warehouses for future use.

Already started to see deals getting killed over steel. Will come back down a bit by end of year IMO

[Laketex]

I heard through suppliers that US Steel bought a few mills and will now only sell to large union contracts. That leaves the service centers out in the cold and they have been scrambling to find sources. Don't know how true that is however. What I do know is steel prices went from .35/pd to .70/pd literally overnight a couple months ago and have been slowly creeping up since. We were quoted $1.12/pd last week, but I don't know if we'll take that offer or not. It's probably up to $1.20 now. Pricing on everything is going up. Lumber, steel, food, gas. Massive inflation, covid, poor government policy. I have a feeling that it may be something even more sinister in the background. It's a bubble that has to pop eventually, right?

[Daddy D]

Last September you could buy 3 5/8" 20ga metal studs at about 26 cents a LF. Right now it's selling for 60 cents. And we have 10/20/10% increases coming the next 3 months. Already seeing jobs going offline because owners are balking at the steel costs..