What an unprecedented a year of material cost/availability issues and labor shortages. It is estimated that steel prices are still on the rise, with long lead times, and sheet metal may remain rationed into 2022.
To give an idea of what is on the horizon, this is from one of our suppliers of raw materials:
“…we are seeing a continued issue with supply of most materials in the market…Pricing remains elevated…we do not see them coming down anytime soon. We are projecting another tubing increase this month… The HR Coil and sheet market is very tight with mill performance driving the lack of supply in the market. Demand is solid…most mills are taking planned outages over the next couple of months to make repairs to equipment… We expect the plate market to continue to be busy due to the resurgence of the Agriculture industry as well as any new projects that will be greenlight due to an Infrastructure bill.
…we are still seeing a lack of truck drivers to make the deliveries… We are also seeing a labor shortage that is effecting almost everyone that I speak to….This leads most people to project that prices will stay at this level or go up and lead times will continue to be long for at least the rest of 2021 and most likely into 2022.
Below is the list of price changes that we have seen since last August.
1. Coil and Sheet Products
HR Coil up $74.05/cwt. since August 12th
2. Mill Rolled Plate
August 24th $40 a ton increase announced
September 10th $40 a ton increase announced
September 28th $50 a ton increase announced
October 16th $50 a ton increase announced
November 16th $50 a ton increase announced
December 15th $100 a ton increase announced
January 5th $100 a ton increase announced
January 27th $80 a ton increase announced
March 1st $80 a ton increase announced
March 26th $100 a ton increase announced
July 26th $150 a ton increase announced
August 23rd $85 a to increase announced
3. Tubing and Pipe
August 26th $50 a ton increase announced
September 14th $50 a ton increase announced
September 24th $50 a ton increase announced
October 13th $50 a ton increase announced
October 23rd $50 a ton increase announced
November 20th $75 a ton increase announced
December 4th $100 a ton increase announced
December 11th $100 a ton increase announced
January 6th $100 a ton increase announced
January 20th $150 a ton increase announced
February 19th $50 a ton increase announced
March 10th $125 a ton increase announced
April 14th $100 a ton increase announced
April 30th $100 a ton increase announced
May 18th $125 a ton increase announced
June 16th $125 a ton increase announced
July 13th $125 a ton increase announced
August 10th $125 a ton increase announced
4. Mini Mill (Angles, Flats, Channels, and Rounds)
September 14th $30 a ton increase announced
November 17th $30 a ton increase announced
December 4th $50 a ton increase announced
December 18th $60 a ton increase announced
January 12th $40 a ton increase announced
March 5th $30 a ton increase announced
April 16th $40 a ton increase announced
June 7th $70 a ton increase announced
July 12th $40 a ton increase announced
August 4th $50 a ton increase announced
5. Beams
November 2nd $25 a ton increase announced
November 17th $30 a ton increase announced
December 4th $70 a ton increase announced
December 18th $80 a ton increase announced
January 12th $40 a ton increase announced
March 5th $50 a ton increase announced
March 12th $50 a ton increase announced
April 12th $50 a ton increase announced
April 30th $50 a ton increase announced
May 24th $100 a ton increase announced
June 30th $60 a ton increase announced
July 30th $50 a ton increase announced
August 30th $50 a ton increase announced”