All steels are going up and becoming in short supply. US bar production is way off and getting worse. Overseas the bar stock is even worse in some areas. We were told by a supplier from Taiwan that the majority CS and Low Alloy bar was going into rebar for the mainline. I work with a fastener distributor and the supply of fasteners has just went south due to the bar situation both domestic and overseas. Discounting the price gouging and stock holding the immediate situation doesn't look good for the buyer.
All our deliveries are slipping and some quotes on quantity are good for only a few days and if requoted there is double digit price increase tacked on. In fact some suppliers are only giving daily quotes even on quantities of 40,000 lbs. Several larger suppliers are even limiting quantities.
Here are some 2 months price our price increases on domestic manufacturer.
3/8x3.5 A193 B8 $.58 to $.70
3/8x3.5 A193 B7 $.26 to $.32
3/8x32.5 B8 Hex bolt $2.02 to $2.47
CS all-thread both black and zinc plated has gone up 40% in the last 40 days.
Lately Copper has also come into play with double digit increases
A sister company is having the same problem with all flavors of pipe.
Another big problem is that a lot of SS scrap, in fact all scrap is being exported which is going to cause an onging problem with what little domestic (US) production left.
You can keep an eye on the SS (Nickel) situation at the following website
