Does anyone have a favorite supplier? Many years ago when my employer worked a lot with Albany Steel, in the Albany/Berkley area, we had an employee discount. It was a pretty good deal. Lately my employer is getting their stock out of Modesto, but that’s a 2-hr drive. A few years ago I discovered Alco Steel in San Leandro. I felt like it should be cheaper, but maybe I’m just stingy.
I wouldn’t mind buying drops and remnants, but it seemed like Alco was selling those for the same price as new steel.
Does anyone have a favorite place in the Bay Area?
I just gave Alco Iron and Steel Sales (in San Leandro, CA) a call.
It seemed pretty reasonable for the small scale items I’m making.
For 4’x8’ sheets…
11ga is $219 (or about $1.35/lb)
14ga is $139
16ga is $112
All prices before tax.
And roughly a 5% discount if you buy 10 or more sheets.
Not sure how volatile pricing is, but the call was made 10/11/2022.
At this time HRC (hot rolled coil) futures are trading at about $750/ton. (HRNV22 | HRC Steel Futures Oct 2022 Overview | MarketWatch)
I assume there is some proportion between the high volume commodity HRC price and prices we pay for a few sheets. Multiply HRC by 3.6 and get what we pay for retail? I’m just guessing, but it’s interesting for me and I’ll watch it to see what the correlation is.