US Steel Shortage and it's affect on gun industry

[Armadillo]

I have been hearing of major supply problems with steel.

Does anybody have any information and details how this specifically the gun industry.

I'd imagine it's causing big problems with barrels.

There is a 2 years backup on orders for steel.

Anyone have any more info?

[gaijin]

Appears we’re reaping the rewards of outsourcing and Supply Chain On Time Delivery, in addition to DW I filing raw materials availability.

Anything to maximize profits and throw in the Bullshit “Pandemic”.

[T2C]

A local commercial HVAC contractor who employs 56 people told me his cost for steel has risen from 70 cents per pound to $1.60 per pound since Biden took office. He anticipates the cost will be driven even higher in the near future. We are reaping what we have sown.

[AndyLate]

Why would we have a shortage after shifting steel mills overseas? Do people expect us to believe that shipments of Amazon geegaws would take priority over raw steel at the west coast ports? That could never happen.

Andy

[AKDoug]

Steel prices are through the roof. Our retail on steel roofing products has doubled in the last 12 months, as have our nails and engineered framing connectors. I haul beer for a craft brewery and their price on aluminum cans has also doubled in the last 12 months.

[everready73]

There is definitely a shortage and pricing is going way up. It isn't our main business, but we sell steel drums where i work and supply is hurting. Facing long lead times and we sometimes recieve2-3 price increases per month from the manufacturers

I imagine the firearms industry is facing similar circumstances

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

I’d think that the firearms industry would be one of the last affected. Like right before aerospace. How much is a finished barrel? How much is the steel that goes into it? A free percent of the final cost. Maybe they have people on

416 steel is about $100 for four barrels, so $25 a barrel. And that is the second place I found online that sells a 96 inch .875 diameter blank.

A BCM SS 16 inch barrel is $324. So $25 (non optimized) for the steel isn’t the main driver. It’s important.

[T2C]

Why would we have a shortage after shifting steel mills overseas? Do people expect us to believe that shipments of Amazon geegaws would take priority over raw steel at the west coast ports? That could never happen.

Andy

Biden pushed EPA mandates have prompted the steel industry to stop allocating hundreds of millions of dollars for expansion and updates at mills in CONUS. The progress we made when President Trump was in office has been reversed by Joe Biden's administration. The Chinese can charge whatever they want for steel and we will have to pay it.

There are also dozens of ships waiting to dock and unload foreign steel and other goods off both coasts. This has been going on for several months.

[AndyLate]

Biden pushed EPA mandates have prompted the steel industry to stop allocating hundreds of millions of dollars for expansion and updates at mills in CONUS. The progress we made when President Trump was in office has been reversed by Joe Biden's administration. The Chinese can charge whatever they want for steel and we will have to pay it.

There are also dozens of ships waiting to dock and unload foreign steel and other goods off both coasts. This has been going on for several months.

You are, of course, correct - mine was a sarcastic post.

Andy

[mark5pt56]

As I recall a thread on barrel steel, Bartlein keeps a 2-3 year reserve on their barrels. For the precision guys, shouldn't be an issue. They also provide blanks and make AR barrels.

[Esq.]

Biden pushed EPA mandates have prompted the steel industry to stop allocating hundreds of millions of dollars for expansion and updates at mills in CONUS. The progress we made when President Trump was in office has been reversed by Joe Biden's administration. The Chinese can charge whatever they want for steel and we will have to pay it.

There are also dozens of ships waiting to dock and unload foreign steel and other goods off both coasts. This has been going on for several months.

And now, the Chinese can't even produce steel etc...because of their own energy crisis brought about in part by their trade spat with Australia and not buying Aussie coal to fuel their plants.....

[Grand58742]

Biden pushed EPA mandates have prompted the steel industry to stop allocating hundreds of millions of dollars for expansion and updates at mills in CONUS. The progress we made when President Trump was in office has been reversed by Joe Biden's administration. The Chinese can charge whatever they want for steel and we will have to pay it.

There are also dozens of ships waiting to dock and unload foreign steel and other goods off both coasts. This has been going on for several months.

The other half of that (putting on my enviro hat for a moment) is the almost complete and utter lack of recycling metals in this country. We produce a whole mess of scrap metals including steel that can (should) be easily recycled. But as a throw away society, we tend to not think about tossing the steel soup can or our Monster can in the trash.

I feel there's probably significant environmental regulations and laws that force people to ship scrap overseas to be processed, but it should be an organic industry here for certain. Same goes for plastics, but that's another rant, another time.

[Esq.]

The other half of that (putting on my enviro hat for a moment) is the almost complete and utter lack of recycling metals in this country. We produce a whole mess of scrap metals including steel that can (should) be easily recycled. But as a throw away society, we tend to not think about tossing the steel soup can or our Monster can in the trash.

I feel there's probably significant environmental regulations and laws that force people to ship scrap overseas to be processed, but it should be an organic industry here for certain. Same goes for plastics, but that's another rant, another time.

In my town, all trash goes through a central processing facility before being re loaded and transported to the dump. All recyclable metals are culled from the out going trash. They of course search for bodies and other in appropriate materials etc...at the same time....So.....if you are going to throw a body in a dumpster, make sure you chop it up really well and put it in sealed containers if you don't want it found.......Lol....

Part of the issue with recycling is that it doesn't pay. I saved aluminum cans for many years, crushed them, bagged them etc....Last time I went to sell them, they were paying like .25 a pound. Not worth the time and effort, so we just toss them now. That will of course change as we enter an era of resource scarcity where we as a society have to recoup more of the sunk costs in materials by recycling them.

[BangBang77]

The other half of that (putting on my enviro hat for a moment) is the almost complete and utter lack of recycling metals in this country. We produce a whole mess of scrap metals including steel that can (should) be easily recycled. But as a throw away society, we tend to not think about tossing the steel soup can or our Monster can in the trash.

I feel there's probably significant environmental regulations and laws that force people to ship scrap overseas to be processed, but it should be an organic industry here for certain. Same goes for plastics, but that's another rant, another time.

The problem with steel recycling in the US is that Chinese steel producers could make it cheaper than we could run arc furnaces in the US and EU. I used to work in that industry in the graphite electrode, cathode, and anode side. We produced those items for steel and aluminum companies to use in their smelt plants and steel plants. We used to call it black gold because we took carbon, pet/met coke, and petroleum tar pitch to extrude an electrode/cathode/anode then shunted 400-600vDC at 120+kamps across a column to create synthetic graphite. The profit margins were off the chart. Top salaries at all levels, bonuses ranging from 25-100% of your salary. I had entry level engineers and maintenance guys working for that made 6 figures on straight salary plus got 2x and 3x overtime to come in close too $200k per year.

Then (in the early 2000s), our company, and many western steel producers started "joint ventures" in China, whereby the Chinese govt basically stole the technology and process know-how to begin their own production. I personally built 1 greenfield electrode plant in Malaysia as the project manager and assisted with 2 electrode plant builds and startups inside China. Within 7-10 years, they had dominated the market with their new steel, which drove supply up and drove US and EU steel and electrode companies under.

Over the last 4-5 years, the electrode industry has started a resurgence but with the steel mills permanently shuttered, we will probably never see US and EU steel like it once was. I've had calls from industry contacts to step back into that market but wouldn't even consider it.

I'm in food and pharmaceutical packaging now and while the money isn't as good, the stability is off the charts.

[markm]

There was a MASSIVE over reaction at the start of the Madurna-demic. I read that the less efficient/older steel plants are VERY expensive to re-fire. So some of the steel companies are passing on that option in favor of waiting for the NEW plants that are in construction.

[T2C]

There was a MASSIVE over reaction at the start of the Madurna-demic. I read that the less efficient/older steel plants are VERY expensive to re-fire. So some of the steel companies are passing on that option in favor of waiting for the NEW plants that are in construction.

At the beginning of the Biden administration the steel companies made the decision to cancel contracts to update and expand many existing steel mills. Without President Trump in office, it was not feasible to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to update mills that would be closed by the Biden administration imposing Green Deal EPA regulations.

[Esq.]

I think I'll call my guy down at the local Heavy Equipment repair shop and ask him to cut me some more targets next week! Shop might get a little more concerned about where their T1 scrap goes in the future!

[eightmillimeter]

The price isn’t all shortage driven, it’s also a large group of nervous investors moving out of other asset classes and into commodities across the board…