Thread: Dwindling steel supplies

The bloke at Robot Trading was telling me that steel is getting harder to get, cant get some sizes. Amongst missing sizes he said there is no 20mm shs in the country?
I ran into my BIL on the weekend and he was telling me he is being kept busy grinding round bar into square bar and grinding thicker sheet and plate down to sizes that are unobtainable.
This is a bit of a worry, has anyone else noticed the depleting steel stocks?
At least you can cut a tree down if you need wood but steel is a bit more dificult to grow.....

I haven't noticed a shortage, but I would guess that a lot of the cheaper steel (as sold in general hardware stores) probably comes from China these days. It would not surprise me if there are 'issues' at the moment causing shortages.

Michael

Hi Shedhappens,
I had not bought steel in a while but have noticed that fasteners in some sizes are unavailable.

Take a look at the our trading relationship with that country that most of the steel supply is manufactured from it becomes fairly clear.

The supply chain- in and out - is not once what it was and may not recover quickly in the near future.

That particular country is undertaking a huge internal infrastructure expansion and steel is king. Iron ore prices are high because of short supply.

Indeed ,Aussie iron ore is not flowing in to their steel mills because of local Aussie problems such as storms and and various problems possibly related to the bat virus.

South America their no 2 supplier is not in a position to take up the slack due again to the virus and local infrastructure problems, critical to their iron ore manufacturing operations emanating from a dam failure .

Steel being, in short supply will be earmarked in their own country and Australia will be seeing little of it.

Possibly hobby fabricators can get by with scrap but not so industry.

We, as a country, brought this on our selves by allowing our own steel mills to fail.

That's my slant on it.


Grahame

Hello from BC.
In the industrial supply market we have seen a shortage of some consumables. Now comes the crunch. If your favourite brand is not available do you stop work. Some of my suppliers have been chasing alternate sources for a few years and eastern Europe is a go as is Taiwan and South Korea. Both welding consumables and engineers supplies from those countries are top quality.
I've started a bit of made in Aus policy and find the buyers are happy with that.
What about you guys?
Regards
BC

Heard similar from a mate in a manufacturing workplace.
They believe there was a lot of issues getting steel out of China (Lack of available containers), Slow clearance through aussie ports (unions, and large volume), apparently up to a 5 week delay.
Most high-volume steel users / businesses would not keep 5 weeks of inventory on hand.

Obviously lots of socio-political issues going on.

Originally Posted by steamloco1954

Hello from BC.

Some of my suppliers have been chasing alternate sources for a few years and eastern Europe is a go as is Taiwan and South Korea. Both welding consumables and engineers supplies from those countries are top quality.

Good on them.
I too ,believe in buy Australian made or at the very least, buy from those who are friendly to Australia.

Talking to my steel fabricator mate and he doesn't seem to have any problems at the moment but he has heard the prices are going to rise in the new year so he's bought extra basic stocks. If others are doing similar that could add to the problem.

My local steel supplier stocks alot of steel made in aus including rhs.

Must admit I don't know what percentage of their steel is made in aus but much of the rhs and flat bar i buy from them has made in Australia and the steel mill stencilled on it.

Simon

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There definitely are supply issues with steel, both Australian made and imported. One example that comes to mind is 75X10 flat bar - you cannot buy a decent quantity in the whole state of Tasmania at present and unless I've been lied to by suppliers, there were a whole 20 lengths to be had in the whole State as at mid December. This was not just one supplier, I canvassed all three major players.I had 2 tonnes of it ordered with a delivery date of early December, only to be informed that it had not been shipped, it hadn't even been rolled yet and would not be until 2021. Y12 deformed bar is another item in short supply and as a result, I only just found out that all the Y12 bar that I've used in the last 3 years from our supplier has been IMPORTED. Nobody ever told me that A/ I was buying imported steel or that B/ I had a choice to pay more, but use Australian steel. Had I known, then I would have only sourced the local product.
Covid has played merry hell with supplies of both domestic and imported steels and there was a breakdown in one of the local mills that further set back production. Earlier in the year I had issues sourcing 25X25X1.6 Galvanised SHS and my order arrived 6 odd weeks overdue. I tried an alternate supplier and they wanted over double what I was paying from my regular supplier.
I would echo Grahame Collins comments - we are reaping what we sowed. Part of me looks forward to the crunch as I believe that we can still rise up and restore what we once had if our resolve holds strong, but much of me dreads what is coming as I fear that many will buckle and source not only raw materials, but also completed goods offshore which will further weaken our position.
I work for a not for profit organisation that works with disengaged secondary school students and places them in an industrial workshop environment (Metal Fabrication, Joinery/Carpentry and Commercial Catering). I know that my Metalwork area has lost business due to existing clients sourcing some completed components from China and the Joinery area has been similarly affected over the years. We can easily exceed the quality of the imported goods, but we cannot compete on price, even as a not for profit organisation.
As a matter of interest, when I first started my time as a Boily back in '92, my workplace sold substantial quantities of steel to the farming/building/handyman markets. Much of what we sold was Australian steel (back in the Palmer Tube Mills era), but one particular example of imported steel stands out in my mind. Way back then, you had 2 choices from our business if you wanted 20X20X1.6 primed SHS. You could buy Australian rolled for $22.80 per 6.5M length or you could pay $14.40 per 6.5M length for Australian steel, cast in a 2.5 Tonne billet, shipped to Malaysia, reheated and rolled into 20X20X1.6 SHS and then shipped back to Australia. There was a lot of greed and profiteering by the likes of BHP that allowed and in fact encouraged the use of imports.
Now, we are way too reliant on imports of just about everything and we don't seem to mind if we buy it from countries that are less than friendly to us provided it's cheap.

Don't seem to be having a problem where I am for 20x20, but they state Australian made for some of the steel.
This is the add from this week's local paper.
I have a mate with a trucking company who carts steel from Newcastle to Tamworth etc, his 4 semis are running as usual.

HI,

I haven't noticed steel becoming less available (at the moment) but I ordered 4 lengths of 20 x 20 x 1.5 mm RHS by 6 metres for work. Each length cost $14.75, not sure where it was made but that's cheap so I guess it's not made in Australia.

I agree with the "we've done ourselves a misfortune" sentiment. The greed from the past is catching up and it's going the be the younger generation who'll have to pay for it.

Ben.

Originally Posted by bwal74

HI,

I haven't noticed steel becoming less available (at the moment) but I ordered 4 lengths of 20 x 20 x 1.5 mm RHS by 6 metres for work. Each length cost $14.75, not sure where it was made but that's cheap so I guess it's not made in Australia.

I agree with the "we've done ourselves a misfortune" sentiment. The greed from the past is catching up and it's going the be the younger generation who'll have to pay for it.

Ben.

In my add above a 6.5m is $14.36 and advertised as Australian steel, so it may well be Australian made

Back in the 1980's i was doing structural steel, mostly double story and factory extensions, quite a bit of architectural steel work also. It was part of my job to quote the jobs and order the materials, every time without fail i would tell the suppliers if you send me anything other than BHP steel it won't be used or paid for and if it is unloaded you will have to re load it and remove it.
I dont know what the chinese stuff is like now but back then it was often bent and twisted and not always the same size, it could chew up quite a bit of time straightening or working around the faults.
These days for the little bit that i do i dont really care where the steel comes from just so long as i can get it, if the trade wars
continue and worsen then our industry should get moving again and BHP will likely produce more of the steel for us.
With a bit of luck i will catch up with my other BIL over crissy, he unloads the steel in melb from the ships and might have a bit of an idea about what quantities, or lack there of, are coming in at the moment and from where.

Thanks for your input fella's....