Here is a small blurb about the increased prices in steel:
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/more-bad-news-steel-prices-nearly-double/
Here is a post on that page that has some interesting points about why the costs are skyrocketing, I quote:
"Gregzilla :
June 2nd, 2008 at 3:24 pm
I live and die with the price of steel in my job as a director of purchasing and inventory management for a national electrical distributor. There are several things driving the price of steel up:
1.) the weak dollar has driven up the price of cheap imported steel from Brazil, Mexico, Taiwan, Korea and China to levels just about equal to domestically produced hot and cold roll
2.) On top of that President Bush signed off on a pretective tariff 1/1/08 which is what caused the initial spike
3.) Domestic capacity is a fraction of what it was 30 years ago
4.) There have been a couple of mills who have had blast furnaces and open hearth furnaces go down. One in particular was the source of most automotive steel. As a result, the autos have gone out and bought futures anywhere they can find them, which has hit the manufacturers of other steel goods (in my case steel electrical conduit)
5.) with the weak dollar, more and more scrap is going overseas instead of being recycled here in the US. They can get more $$$ for it.
We have seen the price of steel conduit increase about 36% since January 1 with no reprieve in sight until at least the end of Q3. We were told to expect prices to soften at the end of Q2…..doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. Just be happy cars aren’t made of copper…"
haha
