Are Steel Prices Down?

[Kelvin]

Hey all you fabricators out there, anyone know if steel prices are down right now? Seems like I heard that somewhere.

I've got a couple decent-sized projects I've been wanting to do that I've back-burnered for a while, and if steel is cheap right now, I'm thinking it might be time to put in an order.

Thanks.

[Broccoli1]

I know scrap is WAY down.

I don't know about new steel- haven't had a need to buy any lately.

[mikecwik]

Scrap is not worth even taking in.

Economy is crap. I don't know what the steel prices are though.

[7A749]

That's no joke there Mike. It's ridiculous right now.

I did pick up two 20' lengths of 2" X 2" 3/16" angle for about $36 each. The scrapyard wanted more for their new stock.

I'm quite sure that's less than it was a year ago. I remember when the same piece of steel used to be about $12-14 bux.

Still, it's at least affordable now. Fortunately useable scrap (for purchase) is still around .40 cents a pound, which is a lot better than a lot of places.

IMHO of course

[bigcreek]

That's no joke there Mike. It's ridiculous right now.

I did pick up two 20' lengths of 2" X 2" 3/16" angle for about $36 each. The scrapyard wanted more for their new stock.

I'm quite sure that's less than it was a year ago. I remember when the same piece of steel used to be about $12-14 bux.

Still, it's at least affordable now. Fortunately useable scrap (for purchase) is still around .40 cents a pound, which is a lot better than a lot of places.

IMHO of course

Oh ya steel prices are way down. I am buying my steel in the 40 cent range, some in the high 30 cent range for new steel, whereas at the peak I was paying in the 60's and 70's cents per pound.

[Mark's Welding]

Oh ya steel prices are way down. I am buying my steel in the 40 cent range, some in the high 30 cent range for new steel, whereas at the peak I was paying in the 60's and 70's cents per pound.

your making me wanna look at my old bills for last job, that's a damn good price, I'm usually .70, give or take a few depending on order.

[7A749]

Oh ya steel prices are way down. I am buying my steel in the 40 cent range, some in the high 30 cent range for new steel, whereas at the peak I was paying in the 60's and 70's cents per pound.

That's cool. Back in the day, the scrapyard sold useable steel for .20 cents a pound.

They raised it to .40 when the big scrap value explosion hit, but haven't raised it and said they weren't going to since. Padnos (the scrap recycler) does it mainly as a sort of tradition for the local guys and they don't really make a ton of money off it in comparison to the recycling end of the business. I think they do pretty well tho, but they do a huge service for the local fab ppl who don't wanna pay retail price for steel from Alro.

Glad it's come back down for you guys. Hopefully it won't go back up again any time soon.

[Pavinsteelman]

Import plate .25/lb bridge pl. 34lb.50w cvn tested beams .55/lb.cheap and no demand thank you ny Hudson Yards 100000 tons none made in USA. ! Port Authority and MTA no buy American.

[denrep]

How about steel building components?
Such as roll-formed light-gauge shapes, Cees, Zees, etc.
Deck and roof and side-wall panels.

Their pricing sure shot up fast on steel's upswing, now what's with the disconnect?

[Jason280]

I know scrap is bringing around $3-4/100 lb right now, down from a high of around $12/100 earlier in the year. We have two salvage yards in town, both pay the same out, but sell their stuff for completely different prices. The larger of the two is flat out loaded with good steel, and sells for $0.30/lb. The smaller of the two, which doesn't have really much of anything on hand, sells for $0.10/lb. Just about everything they get stays just long enough to get it loaded on a scrap trailer, and its hauled off. I usually check it a couple times a week, as they do get some pretty good stuff from time to time. Lately, I've been buying up pieces of stainless for $0.50/lb, and have accumulated a decent amount of stuff. I now have enough 6" 304 pipe to run a vent from my wood burning stove and never have to worry about it rusting...even picked up a 6" 90* long throw elbow for $6 (weight was 12 lbs). No telling what that thing cost new! They had a 2x3' piece of 1" thick stainless plate that I almost bought, until I saw it was over 100 lbs and was going to cost $50. It would have been neat to have, but not $50 neat.

[Turbotweaker]

Import plate .25/lb bridge pl. 34lb.50w cvn tested beams .55/lb.cheap and no demand thank you ny Hudson Yards 100000 tons none made in USA. ! Port Authority and MTA no buy American.

Are you telling me they scraped 100,000 tons of imported steel?

[Pavinsteelman]

No they are putting 100000 tons in one building, 80000 from Corey in Mexaco ,10000 ADF in Canada 10000 from Chimala in Italy. Erected by W W Steel Erectors. Hauled by us Harris Camden Trrminal Co.

[richey]

I was offered 39.00 per long ton for my scrap week before last by Progressive Steel Processors. They are owned by Caterpillar. Not sure what they were going to charge for picking up a container of scrap steel. Last time it was $200.00 fee that one of the other yards wanted for hauling. Richey

[Kelvin]

Thanks for the replies, fellas. Glad to hear it.

[old-iron-habit]

Fabricated steel has not gone down here hardly at all. There are not many fabricators left that can do the bigger jobs and they have been holding their prices. With low fuel prices one would think the iron range would be booming but just yesterday another 200 mine worker layoff anounced in northern MN.

[whtbaron]

Was going to say I hadn't noticed any price declines in the new metal I'm purchasing, but I'm paying full retail. My neighbors were getting up to $240/tonne for scrap over a year ago, but it's down around $100/tonne now. For them to go into a yard and pick it up, it would obviously be much less to the customer.

[Dualie]

Scrap is down, new steel prices arnt. IF you read the trades theres a glut of capacity in the steel mills right now and theyre running at 60% capacity nationally here in the USA. but steel prices do not reflect that.

[wornoutoldwelder]

Scrap dealer buy prices here have steel scrapping no longer worthwhile to the area meth heads.....Yet the same recycler's scrap selling prices have remained high, yet not nearly as high in comparison to new steel prices as they were when he bought those acres of scrap steel.

I last week went to the recycler yard to shop scrap HRS 2X2X 1/8" angle iron.....Hell, his prices for new was only 25 bucks/20' stick, so I bought the new stuff in full sticks.

I noticed his yard was mostly full of scrap he bought at the older, higher prices, so I understood why he was demanding the old prices for it. He is for now stuck with it waiting for mill demand for scrap steel to recover....Which it will not anytime soon....And the mills are presently selling new stuff close to what he paid for the scrap stuff.

His stock of new stuff is steel he recently bought at lower prices, so he can sell it with just routine markup cause it moves fast.....(in this area)

This whole steel price for new or scrap steel, is a situational/location thing...Just depends on your area and supplier....at the moment.

[wornoutoldwelder]

The metals market today, and for quite a while is/has been rather volatile....Even gold and Silver.

Experienced metal consumers here on this forum have seen the past rapid increase in both new and scrap metals that until now both rose together....But now we(if we are paying attention) see scrap buying prices dropping off a cliff, while new metals too are dropping in price, but new not as quickly as old (in most markets).

Depending on your area and your supplier, you might not yet have noticed the recent huge drop in material costs....If your supplier has acres of new materials he purchased at the old higher prices, then he simply cannot discount them to reflect new prices....If however, he is a high volume, low inventory sort, then he can offer you materials close to the latest prices.

I have been a very active, successful and aggressive market investor for almost 20 years, but I have NEVER risked a penny in the metals markets....I do however consume certain metals where I understand and can predict prices based on supply and demand....Metals are not like other consumables....We don't eat metals, so their demand and prices rise and fall in reaction different to other consumable commodities.

Metals are also different in that most of them can be recycled, whereas Wheat cannot...but Wheat will forever remain in demand, whereas metals are only in demand when an economy is sloping upwards....and it's only in an upward sloping economy that metals can be produced cheaper(and priced higher) that recycle prices increase, because we need new metals faster than we can recycle them, so production goes up with price increases as production costs decreases, and so follows scrap prices....And yeah, I said that then metals can be produced cheaper, but they can then demand a higher price when the world is building stuff...lots of stuff.....but not war stuff.

[mad welder 4]

Scrap is down. Prices at the local metal mart have not changed for quite some time.

I am in the middle of no where with one location to buy new metal, so if you have more than one metal store and they compete with each other then I don't see why prices wouldn't be down.

[Insaneride]

Metal framing studs are down around here and compared to wood price is a better deal. Scrap is hi at $0.70/pound.

The stock price for us steal is also at a low. I think I read it has something to do with the supply from China flooding world markets.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=x

[Teggy1]

Fabricated steel has not gone down here hardly at all. There are not many fabricators left that can do the bigger jobs and they have been holding their prices. With low fuel prices one would think the iron range would be booming but just yesterday another 200 mine worker layoff anounced in northern MN.

Ore is in a huge overabundance right now (world scale) hence the reason the major mining equipment manufacturers sock prices are in the tank (Joy and CAT). China demand has dropped significantly, and have huge surpluses of new steel, with no where to go. They are still overproducing the demand and are dumping it here. US mills are shutting down because of the flood of China materials.

From what I've read, the major steel suppliers contract price and qty. agreements with the mills. I wonder if this is why we haven't seen priced come down? I'm not a large purchaser of materials, so I don't get any price breaks from who I purchase from. The cheapest I have found locally is about $.88/lb for HR squats &flats. CRS is over $1/lb. Pipe is around $1.20/lb for me. Scrap yards won't sell around here, once it comes in its loaded on truck or rail, and there's no if/and/but (BEHR and a smaller local yard).

[Lis2323]

Was going to say I hadn't noticed any price declines in the new metal I'm purchasing, but I'm paying full retail. My neighbors were getting up to $240/tonne for scrap over a year ago, but it's down around $100/tonne now. For them to go into a yard and pick it up, it would obviously be much less to the customer.

Our scrap yards yesterday were only paying a cent a pound. ($20 / ton ).

[Fat Bastard]

down .05-.10 depending on the shape and when milled.

Some research will show a connection between China steel pricing and a drop here in the USA. Fuel pricing has helped.

[WNY_TomB]

That's no joke there Mike. It's ridiculous right now.

I did pick up two 20' lengths of 2" X 2" 3/16" angle for about $36 each. The scrapyard wanted more for their new stock.

I'm quite sure that's less than it was a year ago. I remember when the same piece of steel used to be about $12-14 bux.

Still, it's at least affordable now. Fortunately useable scrap (for purchase) is still around .40 cents a pound, which is a lot better than a lot of places.

IMHO of course

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i just bought 2 lengths or 40 feet of 2x2x3/16 angle and it was about $57 or $28.50 each
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i have rack for truck and i did not need cut in half ($2 for each cut if i ask for it). place i buy from they discount more the more you buy. like $1.50 lb and you have to buy over 100 lbs before it gets down to $.65/lb
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tubing cost more per pound than flat, round, angle