Who else is seeing price gouging in metals?

[ornerynorsk]

With the tariffs a month on, I'm curious if anyone else is seeing blatant price gouging in ferrous and non-ferrous materials? I'm presuming that at least some on this forum are involved in purchasing and supply contracts.

The Coalition for a Prosperous America, a group that I must admit that I did not even know of until our board chairman called attention to it, has an article touting the minimal impact that these tariffs will have. I chortled (louder than I should have) when the numbers in the article were presented, because it is no where near the reality that we're seeing. Some of our material we buy mill direct, and others through distribution, and we've seen varying degrees of opportunism at all levels for US produced stocks. We don't have a lot of clout at around 2 million pounds of consumption annually, but we're not exactly a hobby shop, either.

I'm just wondering how widespread this has gotten. Our Chinese suppliers have always been top-notch folks to deal with, holding costs in line, dealing with any issue in a serious and forthright manner, extremely kind and hospitable during visits, and then to get flagrantly peed on by the people that are purporting to make American industry strong! It's a real kick in the teeth.

Please note that this is NOT an anti-Trump rant, so please let's not get that bandwagon fired up. I'm placing blame squarely on the gangsters who want to take malicious advantage of the interim political situation until Trump and Xi eventually call it off, which I believe will happen.

http://www.prosperousamerica.org/steel_aluminum_tariffs_produce_minimal_impact_on_jobs_gdp

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.

 

Inevitably domestic traders will use tariffs as a pretext for jacking up prices (while blaming government).

"Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts."

 

[EdStainless]

Some Stainless mills have pushed modest price increases, I am sure that they waiting to pounce.
But we have seen lead times push out some, and I am sure that they will go out further.
We have raise prices on some products, but that is largely being driven by backlog.
As backlogs grow prices will rise.
Yes, some of the players will see this as a chance for a big price hike, but I haven't seen that yet.

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P.E. Metallurgy, Plymouth Tube