Steel prices through the roof!!!

Remember, its all because someone ate a bat.

I run a small machine shop in the states and can confirm that pricing has been going up a good 10% a month for the last few months.

Even worse than that is the price of lexan and uhmw plastic. I've noticed an almost 400% price increase on it! Being blamed on all the sneeze guards being made but still a MASSIVE increase!

It might be time to load up the scrap and get to the salvage yard. This could be a good thing. I could line my pockets while helping the iron shortage.

I just ordered some steel from one of my metal suppliers.
Part of that order was 2 lengths 24 ft long of 1 1/2" X 1 1/2" X 1/8" wall square tube. 4 months ago, this would cost me $115.00, today the price was $176.00 !! I asked the steel wtf was up wth that price, he said they have had 4 price increases over the past 3 months, and supposedly Monday it will go up again.
He said China is holding/using the iron ore. He said a lot of the material they usually carry is out of stock, and the bigger company they sometimes deal with are scrambling to get stock as well.
Frigging crazy.

Demand dictates price...They want iron right now apparently...

Demand will go down once COVID has significantly reduced the planet's population.