Steel Shortage/ price increase

Flat Rock Forge

Flat Rock Forge

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Feb 7, 2016
Messages
459
Is anybody else concerned about this?
steel prices are up 200% from last year, everybody is having supply chain issues,
Discuss
 
Flat Rock Forge said:
Is anybody else concerned about this?
steel prices are up 200% from last year, everybody is having supply chain issues,
Discuss
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I have a decent sized stash put back. Plus I hang onto pieces of steel that are large enough to be useful for other projects. Every now and then my scrap pile keeps me from dipping into my main bars of steel.
 
I don’t know all the ins and outs but it seems with COVID the volume of orders plummeted for a period of time. Then once everyone wants steel again things are greatly constrained and prices go up.
 
All materials are expensive right now. I don't know if that will ever recover. Inflation and such, you know?
 
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that the goods we have been seeing with extremely disproportionate price hikes are probably going to stay where they are for a while. Inflation is occurring and the price of everything else will catch up soon enough.
If you offer a solid product, don't be afraid to ask more for it. When the guys trying to ride the storm out are forced to restock, they'll raise prices too.
 
Larrin said:
I don’t know all the ins and outs but it seems with COVID the volume of orders plummeted for a period of time. Then once everyone wants steel again things are greatly constrained and prices go up.
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I am surprised at this. I would have guessed the inverse due to the nature of the making business. I suppose hobbyists must not account for as much of the knife steel consumption as I thought.
 
tkroenlein said:
I am surprised at this. I would have guessed the inverse due to the nature of the making business. I suppose hobbyists must not account for as much of the knife steel consumption as I thought.
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If the normaal steel price goes up, knife steel goes up with it.
 
Knife steel is not a separate market with its own economy. Even if it was, the price would be affected by knife companies not hobbyists.
 
i checked the steel baron website, seems to be about 90% up from last year. i think every business in the world is going to go thru the same thing eventually.
 
I was talking about order volumes plummeting, not prices raising due to short supply. While I understand order volumes dropping off from companies due to closures and what not, I kind of suspected that hobbyists might have offset that to some extent with more shop time. So again, there must be far fewer hobbyists than I thought.

In my real job, we use a few million pounds of (not knife) steel a year. Supply has been the issue, period. Price is never the issue when you have orders to fill.
 
tkroenlein said:
I was talking about order volumes plummeting, not prices raising due to short supply. While I understand order volumes dropping off from companies due to closures and what not, I kind of suspected that hobbyists might have offset that to some extent with more shop time. So again, there must be far fewer hobbyists than I thought.

In my real job, we use a few million pounds of (not knife) steel a year. Supply has been the issue, period. Price is never the issue when you have orders to fill.
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Hobbyists use a tiny amount of steel. It’s not enough to offset anything.

When supply is constrained price goes up, that’s ECON 101.
 
Steel is the cheapest ingredient in knife making. Don't sweat the cost. raise your knife price if you think you need to.
But supply is an issue right now.
So is leather. Wicket and Craig was shut down last summer with their entire crew sick w/ Covid. Their entire inventory was consumed.
 
Karl B. Andersen said:
Steel is the cheapest ingredient in knife making. Don't sweat the cost. raise your knife price if you think you need to.
But supply is an issue right now.
So is leather. Wicket and Craig was shut down last summer with their entire crew sick w/ Covid. Their entire inventory was consumed.
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I ordered 500 anvils when steel was under $1000 / ton, it's close to $1900 now. Glad I got the price locked in
 
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