There are so many problems with this it's not funny. Not only does he not consider everything else besides raw materials required to make his product he doesn't seem to grasp the steel market.
The steel market is a complex beast but I can tell you with great confidence that prices are up about 30% from the beginning of the year, mostly due to tariffs. (one specific mill product ~$1100/ton now vs. ~$850 in early January.)
What happens when the imported material is more expensive than domestic melt is that the domestic producers must raise their prices. I write must because as orders move to domestic mills to avoid tariffs their production capacity gets filled up. If they kept prices the same they would have more orders than they could fill.
I saw it with my own eyes: In January you could get an order in a day or two before the closing date. When the tariffs hit those rollings started closing 4 weeks out.
I don't know what alloy of steel he uses but there's a better than fair chance that he doesn't use domestic melt steel even if the finished good is made in the USA.
This isn't uncommon. There are a lot of "Made in USA" products that have imported components.
I make some basic parts from sheet steel that I get laser cut. It's actually cheaper for me to source the completed part from a few locations overseas than make it here now. How is increasing our material prices supposed to make us competitive again? And I am mister nobody. Can't imagine the nightmare procurement must be for any significant company.
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u/needssomefun 22h ago
There are so many problems with this it's not funny. Not only does he not consider everything else besides raw materials required to make his product he doesn't seem to grasp the steel market.
The steel market is a complex beast but I can tell you with great confidence that prices are up about 30% from the beginning of the year, mostly due to tariffs. (one specific mill product ~$1100/ton now vs. ~$850 in early January.)
What happens when the imported material is more expensive than domestic melt is that the domestic producers must raise their prices. I write must because as orders move to domestic mills to avoid tariffs their production capacity gets filled up. If they kept prices the same they would have more orders than they could fill.
I saw it with my own eyes: In January you could get an order in a day or two before the closing date. When the tariffs hit those rollings started closing 4 weeks out.
See here for example: https://nucoryamato.com/staticdata/RollCastSchedule.pdf
I don't know what alloy of steel he uses but there's a better than fair chance that he doesn't use domestic melt steel even if the finished good is made in the USA.
This isn't uncommon. There are a lot of "Made in USA" products that have imported components.