I’ve got a good sized order coming in (good sized for us, not for a bigger shop) and we were looking at our stock of 18 gauge sheet. Thinking we might be getting a little low I went to my normal vendor to see about re-upping and HOLY CRAP! I knew things were hairy but this is just nuts beyond nuts.
We were paying $94/sheet in December (and I’m glad I bought as much as I did then) but that same sheet is $366.72/sheet!!! The 2" .065" wall P/O we buy a lot of for our furniture we make was $34 per 24’ stick and is now $234.20.
We’re already not making a lot of money but I don’t want to raise my prices to match market conditions or we’ll completely price ourselves out of contention against the other shops doing the same thing who maybe are sitting on more inventory or work in volume with less profit per piece.
I kept up with steel prices…and lumber prices.
I have been adjustuing my prices all along…that way I did not find myself in a pickle of buying new stock and be out of money…
yes I made some money off the old stock selling at higher prices…but that will balance out when I have to sell product using costly metal at cheaper prices…
We’ve been staying on top of it too and our prices have gone up but I haven’t gone to the full weight prices yet since we had enough on hand. Thankfully on this particular order I limited it to 20 pieces at this price and any more than that we’ll need to adjust for current material costs.
we all know running a business is hard…but you need to think about keeping prices fluctuating like gas prices…price at the pump goes up and down regardless of what is in the storage tank in the ground (inventory)…that way you are in a better place to balance at the end.
16g 4’ x 8’ is costing me TT$685.00 (US$100.00) per sheet here, galvanized is about 5% more. That reflects a price increase of about 70% over the last 24 months. I do stuff for the medical and industrial sector, so no one really complains too much about the final finished goods prices. My plasma table paid for itself within the first two weeks of ownership, as we were installing a new OR and ER and I used it to make all sorts of anchor points, hanger fittings and such for that project.
my market is different…I do very little fab work…and when I do it is by word of mouth…special custom things.
for signage…not a lot of major competition here…just the peiople who say…“well I get can get that on Etsy and facebook cheaper”…go ahead…it is of lesser quality and you may or may not get it…plus I can make it more personal …
I ahve a nice little market going here…I am lucky…
This has always just been just a side business for us to help offset the rent on the shop a few of us share. The first iteration of the table paid itself off within about 2 months and was just printing money for a while.
Then it got expensive again.
Got super frustrated with the Razorcut so we upgraded to the Powermax45. Then we added a THC which was wonderful. Thinking we needed to step up our game (to pay back the aforementioned upgrades) I started looking at some of the bigger guys out there and saw what they were doing so we opted to get into powder coating as well. Well in true to us fashion we went a little overboard and now we have a full blown powder coating shop!
The attached image is one of our latest creations. Cut on the OG crossfire and then 2 tone powder coated. That is not a sticker at the top of that, it’s powder. We put the yellow base coat down, cured to 70%, applied a decal, applied the grey, gel out, remove the decal, and fully cure.
So how do you update the price when the supplier changes pricing daily? Call the supplier daily, weekly, monthly? When I call my supplier they always tell me the price changes daily. Do they use a market price listed online?
just like any supply chain they have a database/supply chain management system that brings the changes in prices right from the manufacturer down the line to the local supplier.
many years ago…in a not to distant galaxy we used to use phones…and when I ran a gas station we were called each day when to change the price…so we walked out when the call came in and changed the numbers…
today…the suppliers get it electronically into their pricing system…
I try to keep it weekly unless the markets are all over the place…it all depends for me on the orders…if I am using scrap to make stuff…I go with the last price…if it is bigger…I check the local supplier for prices…
Historically we charge what the batch of steel we’re using to make things cost and only update the pricing when we are ordering new batches. We generally buy 10-20 sheets at a time and they last us a long time when order just 18 gauge which keeps us pretty flush with materials. When we’re quoting out fabrication work we will price based on the current market value (we use Ryerson and Kloekner) plus some markup on materials. Ryerson is great because we don’t buy anything that they don’t usually keep in stock so I can always get a price off of their site.
Just got a quote for a 4’x8’x1/4" mild steel for just over $1,000. Prices around here are beyond ridiculous and fluctuate so much lately. Need to keep shopping for new suppliers.
