The Chaos Continues
We have continued to monitor the steel market situation, and things are getting uglier. We would like to update you on the details.
What we are seeing:
Wire mills have been flooded with new orders in anticipation of the new tariffs that were approved by President Trump
Wire is becoming scarcer due to increased demand – murmurs of availability shortages and allocation persist in discussions about steel
Our wire costs have increased 17.5% since January, and another increase is coming as soon as this week
Our timeframes are getting shorter with regards to when the increases are announced and when we are seeing the higher prices
Prices for wire orders are now being handled on a week by week basis
Wire must be ordered a month in advance
Wire drawing mills will not accept orders over a month in advance
What we are doing:
We are keeping you informed.
We hope that news releases like this one give you a better understanding of the steel, and more specifically, metal rod industry as it grows more unstable.
We believe this information will help you to schedule orders and forecast needs in a way that helps us to avoid more increases.
Buying wire ahead of time.
Unfortunately, this practice only takes us so far.
Due to the increased demand on wire, orders are being booked months in advance
Wire mills are being given price increases by rod mills as their orders are shipped
By the time our orders of wire are shipped, the mills may have had to increase their prices to keep up with the rod mills
What we can do is book as much wire as we are able ahead of time and attempt to get our orders shipped before the price increases.
Please let us know your forecasted needs now so that we can book the wire ahead of time. That will allow us to try and stay ahead of these cost increases.
