Is this true, steel trebles in price in 6 mths?

In a previous life when my limbs worked properly I used to cut and fabricate 2 chassis's and 2 sets of wishbones/uprights/pedals and engine mounts for a firm up in Sunny Sheffield so it would be a doddle to knock a chassis up in a day with it already pre cut for you....

[alga]

I've chatted to a steel stockie about prices, he told me they were at their lowest last summer, the price for some things fell three-fold! I bought all my box section then, ended up paying ~34 quid for all box section. It's Czech made, so the quality is OK while the price was perhaps a bit lower than Western European.

[davidimurray]

It really depends what you are looking at - strip production here in South Wales is currently flat out. We are selling as much as we can roll and regulalrly breaking production records. Interestingly almost half our strip now goes outside the UK. Structural section on the other side has been hit terribly and as a result production is well down. We are currently being hit by massive hikes in raw materials prices - potentially 80% in the next 6 months! The other big issue is the current security in the market. Where plants have been idled there is reluctance by manufacturers to reopen them in case we are simply seeing short term restocking demands and with suggestions such as a W shaped recession then companies are balancing risk of lost production against running a plant at a loss. The result - demand is high and so are prices. The redcar closure has had little affect on the market as it has been ticking over supplying Corus internal orders for the past year.

[ozzy1]

Most likely there will be large increases in steel because there will be large increases in the raw ore.This is down to bhp & rio tinto negotiating higher prices with china in the next few months.This will have a knock on effect to everyone because the other suppliers will be able to increase their prices upto or just below the bhp benchmark price negotiated as steel suppliers will have to pay it because they will not be able to get it any cheaper from anyone else.
Just as a note i work as a contractor to one of said large companies so this scenario is true unfortunately.