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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2021
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    Default Steel suppliers and prices

    I'm always looking for a better deal and price on steel , I've found prices vary across town for the same product i.e rhs , sheets , plate ect . Some retailers like Bunnings sell steel for more than the price of gold . I buy all my steel from Liberty via there retail outlets plus i used to live where they make it North of Adelaide so i figure it helps the locals but with the high prices lately i've resorted to buying 2nd hand steel advertised on the classifieds. Another problem is the steel suppliers won't advertise prices online so its tricky to compare prices without having to get a written quote, so its easy to pay too much if you don't shop around. Where do you guys buy your steel from and do they give you a good deal ?

  2. #2
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    You could try edcon.

  3. #3
    BobL is offline Member: Blue and white apron brigade
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    Depends what you mean by "steel"?

    Stuff for turning and milling I reckon its hard to beat places like Voestalpine offcuts even if they have a $50 minimum buy - I always end up with more than that anyway. It took me a couple of years but life to short to wrestle with with unknown steels for this type of work.

    This last year or so I've been able to get as much free construction type steel as I wanted from a mate closing down his large Steel Fab business. Apart from a sheet of 12mm thick steel for a welding bench and A dozen or so 3m lengths of SS angle which I could not resist, I already had too much regular steel stuff at my place and no where to put the bloody stuff to take advantage of this opportunity. Unfortunately he's completely shut down now.

    For construction type rod, angle, SHS, etc steels, I usually make small stuff so scrap bins at steel merchants is usually my port of call. The merchant I usually frequent is Midalia steel in Bassendean here in Perth. I usually stop by every time I pass their warehouse and rifle through their scrap bins. For time to time they have small bits of Al and SS scrap as well. Given the deals I get for scrap bits if I do need to buy long lengths I usually get it from them.

  4. #4
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    Steel prices are going through the roof at the moment. I was talking to the owner of a steel business that I've known for 15 or so years. I'd just bought some stuff and commented on the price. He was saying that to buy his next lot of stock, he was having to pay his supplier more than what he was charging his customers with the last batch - that is, the price increase was greater than the mark up he put on the last batch.

    Michael

  5. #5
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    Dec 2013
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    Default

    25 years ago I could buy a 8m length of 50x50x3mm for$50, I looked at online prices the other week for a project and it was $180 a length.
    I can get a better deal locally for cash sale, but boy prices have gone up on steel.

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  6. #6
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
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    N.W.Tasmania
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    I bought a 6M length of 50 x50 x5 mm angle iron some time in November last, and it cost me just over $70. I was surprised at the price, and the sales people told me that they had price rises of over 80% already that year (2021) and there was another price rise due in December. It could be worse I suppose, BOC told me that for silver solder, they had to check the price twice daily. Once first thing in the morning and a second price check around 2pm IIRC.
    I must say that I can't work out what is going on with steel prices as at two cement mills in Australia that I am aware of, one each in Tasmania and the other in Victoria, over the last few years they have both upgraded air filtration and built new baghouse filtration system. In and both cases the steelwork was fabricated and hot dip galvanised, then shipped out to Australia from Turkey, at a cost less than the local fabricators could buy the steel for. Some might blame the Unions, but I think that is complete BS as steel making is not a labour intensive operation. It is a highly automated process in todays world, and last time I checked there was plenty of iron ore and coking coal in Australia, and limestone is not in short supply either, but in Turkey they could get the steel, fabricate it and then get it galvanised, then ship it to Australia for less than we could buy the steel for. Those operations are quite labour intensive but the Turks could do all that for less than we could buy the raw steel for. In my view something smells here and Australia is being dudded, and I think that our so called leaders are complicit in these proceedings.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ropetangler View Post
    I bought a 6M length of 50 x50 x5 mm angle iron some time in November last, and it cost me just over $70. I was surprised at the price, and the sales people told me that they had price rises of over 80% already that year (2021) and there was another price rise due in December. It could be worse I suppose, BOC told me that for silver solder, they had to check the price twice daily. Once first thing in the morning and a second price check around 2pm IIRC.
    I must say that I can't work out what is going on with steel prices as at two cement mills in Australia that I am aware of, one each in Tasmania and the other in Victoria, over the last few years they have both upgraded air filtration and built new baghouse filtration system. In and both cases the steelwork was fabricated and hot dip galvanised, then shipped out to Australia from Turkey, at a cost less than the local fabricators could buy the steel for. Some might blame the Unions, but I think that is complete BS as steel making is not a labour intensive operation. It is a highly automated process in todays world, and last time I checked there was plenty of iron ore and coking coal in Australia, and limestone is not in short supply either, but in Turkey they could get the steel, fabricate it and then get it galvanised, then ship it to Australia for less than we could buy the steel for. Those operations are quite labour intensive but the Turks could do all that for less than we could buy the raw steel for. In my view something smells here and Australia is being dudded, and I think that our so called leaders are complicit in these proceedings.
    Agree

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  8. #8
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    Sep 2021
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    Western Sydney
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ropetangler View Post

    ... I must say that I can't work out what is going on with steel prices....Those operations are quite labour intensive but the Turks could do all that for less than we could buy the raw steel for. In my view something smells here and Australia is being dudded, and I think that our so called leaders are complicit in these proceedings.
    I think the reason for higher steel prices are , 1 the high base setup cost of retailing the steel i.e the place i buy steel from has 6 FT staff , operating out of a 3000sqm new custom built building in a new prime industrial area and transport cost from the mill 2000km away, add profits in ect ect and the 2nd reason is the increase in demand for steel as a result of covid , every second person is welding or renovating now. The steel companies are taking full advantage.

    Re Turkey their economy is buggered with hyperinflation and 12% unemployment , and they have a weak dollar , 10c to our $1 so its a good deal for them to import into Australia.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
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    near Warragul, Victoria
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    3,718

    Default Bins

    Some of the engineering places will let you go through their scrap bins but many will not. Things have changed a lot because of the OHS rules and other potential legal pitfalls. They are very reluctant to let anybody go behind the counter these days , some places even have designated parking places and they are strict about where you park.

  10. #10
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    Dec 2011
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    Lancaster, Ohio, USA
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    Default

    Same here in the good, old USA.

  11. #11
    Join Date
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    moonbi nsw Aus
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    I think it is about time for Australia to build NEW STEEL WORKS. We have the raw material so why doesn't moneyed people make steel and sell it back to the world at value added prices.
    How dumb are we as a nation to nearly totally rely on imports for us to live. I have heard that you can buy a tonne of Australian coal in Japan for a whole lot less you can here.
    Aluminium products are another commodity that should be made here and exported as finished product. The list goes on. We also need to train younger people to take on the Technical side of these activities so we can keep up with technologies
    Just do it!

    Kind regards Rod

  12. #12
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    Melbourne
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    Price wasn't an issue two out of the three times I have been to my local steel supplier in the past 18 months or so. The shelves have been pretty much bare up to about 100mmRHS.

    The guys I used to use have 50x50x3mm listed at $85 including but I have no idea if they actually have any.

    There are a couple of places in Melb with prices online but that seemed to be their max price, you would often do better if you just rocked up. Like so many of these things "price" is very flexible and has a lot to do with how much they like you, how bad a day they are having and how much of a PITA they think you are going to be(in the quantities I am dealing with anyway).

  13. #13
    BobL is offline Member: Blue and white apron brigade
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    The cost of a business like a metal merchant includes a lot more than employing workers.
    The cost of land, buildings, insurance, rates, energy, transport, OHS, etc will easily surpass that of wages and all those things in Australia cost a bomb.

    The other thing to consider is the more you buy the cheaper it gets. Unfortunately Australia is just a small time steel buyer on the world stage and doesn't even make it into the top 25 countries,Turkey OTOH is 11th.
    see https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/...importers.html

  14. #14
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    I had a fair bit of trouble sourcing material for work last year (4140, 1045), lots of delays getting stuff from overseas. i hope things settle down this year. I imagine that the delays and cost increases of overseas shipping is not helping either.

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