Why Does Steel Cost More Than Finished Parts

As often happens, this has turned into a China bashing thread, which I don't think was the OP's intent. It's not about trotting out the tired and out of date tales of why China products are cheap. It's about, at least to me, why we are being drug over the coals on the cost of small lots of materials. BMW, a company not known for dumping, will sell me a suspension press arbor set for less than the drill rod and good steel would cost me. And believe me, I tried making it out of 1020. it was comical. The answer of scavenging the scrap piles is laughable, not sustainable on a reasonable scale.
 
I have about 2000 lbs of "not sustainable" grade of steel for personal projects, commercial jobs get proper new stuff.
 
As often happens, this has turned into a China bashing thread, which I don't think was the OP's intent. It's not about trotting out the tired and out of date tales of why China products are cheap. It's about, at least to me, why we are being drug over the coals on the cost of small lots of materials. BMW, a company not known for dumping, will sell me a suspension press arbor set for less than the drill rod and good steel would cost me. And believe me, I tried making it out of 1020. it was comical. The answer of scavenging the scrap piles is laughable, not sustainable on a reasonable scale.

Maybe not sustainable for you, but it works for me, and I know it works for others. Its high quality structural steel and it's free, it's only for hobby use, not for production. With high labour costs it's cheeper to throw stuff out than pay some one to sort it. Not all, but many shops willingly let you take it.
 
Also can't forget that most place recoup some on their "waste" material that is sold to recyclers...and there are TONS of it, so that comes off the bottom end prices of the already bulk purchases
 
I visit our local junkyard weekly. I got more good steel than I probably ever use.
I can't believe what people trash today...
 
Guess I can count myself lucky.
There's a large scrapper only about 25 miles from my house. They keep piles that they will resell on a per pound basis.
I should probably buy more from there and stock up except for when I need a specific material to work with. No good way ti ID what you can get from them.
Been a few years ago, but I bought probably 20 some feet of 12" channel iron (3/8" thick if memory serves), some amount of 2" angle iron, a 3.5' x 6' sheet of diamond plate, and about a 4 foot piece of 2" diameter stainless steel bar stock for a grand total of about $150 give or take.
 
I buy new Mild and Carbon Steel in a variety of grades, Stainless Steels and Titanium and it's all remarkably cheap!
Are you buying full sheets/lengths or short sections?
 
Metal recycler yard near me don't sell to us. Unfortunately.

On why steel costs more than actual tools. This is a big United States problem. This problem is much bigger than that.

1. Raw material often costs more than finished products, this is not limited to tools.

Why? There can be many reasons. One of the reasons I can think of is that China wants to sell and sell and sell things again and again. If they sell raw material, US will make higher quality products, so they need to sell it at a price that the US can't produce.

Can China make a better product? Probably, but that's not their strategy. Dollar stores stuff break before they are used, or break after 1 lousy use.
Big problem.

Another reason I can think of is that the US people overworked like ants, have no time for hobby or anything else. Most do not fix their house, their cars. We're made to be robots. It's more efficient that way. Home owner association don't allow us to do much. County rules prevent us to do much (such as having a project car in my county).

So, we consume finished products, vs buying parts or raw materials. Hardware stores such as mom and pop are dying, not only because of Homedepot, it's because we don't consume odd and ends thing anymore. We buy a whole thing. Lots of time, a little thing fails and we don't know how to fix. Calling someone to fix would cost alot partly because they know we don't know, and ask for crazy price. I went to Acehardware the other day, and wish they don't die. They have things that places like Home depots don't have. It's rare and hard to find anything diy these days without going onto the Net and wait for several days.

2. We're a sick country.

Because of repetitive work (assembly line, robotic like work condition), we are over stressed with our mind and our muscle. We can't have hobby or trying to fix our car or our house. So, we're tend to be obese and unhealthy. We're sick. We pay for health cost. We work, we pay tax, pay for all kind of things and have no life.

This is a mess that the US must resolve.

People in this forum are probably few and far in between who try to save their lives with hobby.

People keep saying people in China make $1 an hour, bla bla. That's extremely misleading. Why don't they say how much they make per meal? How much they make per house? Per transport?

How about underage workers? Seriously? I used to work when I was 2nd grade in school. If kids were prevented to work, that's our dead sentence.

The US economists are just way off. Why didn't they look that way? Comparing dollar income is wrong and these Harvard graduates keep repeating them.

We need to see the truth. We need to find a way to bring manufacturing back to this country. We need to give the citizens lives again.
 
In the UK unless you expect to buy just enough material to make a few low quality parts material is cheaper than finished parts.
If you expect to buy just enough material to make only a few parts you have to expect to pay for the pleasure of someone else holding the rest of the sheet/bar until they have another customer who wants less than a full length/sheet.
 
How many steps are there in the sale and distribution of raw steel? I have no idea, but I would guess at least 3, if not more like 5 to 10, depending on location. In general, you can add 30% to the cost at each step. I imagine transportation also has a big factor in raw steel prices.

Now look at a lot of finished goods. Made in China, put in a container, and not looked at again, until it arrives at the warehouse. where it is sent to either the final purchaser, or selling retail store.

How does the new tariffs play into pricing?
 
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