price of aluminium

[mark smith 20Participant @marksmith20]

I recently bought some aluminium 1" x 2 1/4" x 1 metre flat bar off ebay for £12 + postage . Compared to every other source on ebay and elsewhere it was about 1/3 or 1/4 the price if you picked it up.

Even with £8 postage it was up to half the stated price as elsewhere.

Now this isnt some bloke in a shed as the invoice that came was from an aluminium extrusion  business.

how can they sell it so cheap? Is it left over stock or something, as its not on their website? Seems like   scrap value.

Are we grossly over charged for metal stock anyway?

 

 

Edited By mark smith 20 on 19/10/2017 16:58:52

Edited By mark smith 20 on 19/10/2017 17:01:21

[mark smith 20Participant @marksmith20]

[Barnaby WildeParticipant @barnabywilde70941]

I could go into a lengthy explanation of how demographics fits in with the target market . . . But yes, the home enthusiast is often paying well over the odds for raw materials, depending on the source.

IME, the stockists that deal with the trade often have a trade counter at the depot, try to visit one at an off peak time & you'll usually find them very helpful & very accommodating.

[MadMikeParticipant @madmike]

That is cheap indeed. Normally a piece of 12 x 2.25 inch bar I reckon would cost around £50. So don't be shy Mark tell us who, and where, this cheap aluminum come from.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Very cheap. You would be lucky to get that price buying in 3m lengths from a stockholder.

Neil

[mark smith 20Participant @marksmith20]

Its this seller they are based in Lanarkshire , just listed 2" diameter x 1 metre t6 aluminium for £20 + £5 shipping, that also sounds pretty cheap.

As an example at metals4u.co.uk  its £59.60 including vat and delivery,less than half price.

They actually have a similar name as one of the advertisers on this site , (Multi Metals-bespoke aluminium extrusions ,they are on google).

**LINK**

Edited By mark smith 20 on 19/10/2017 19:15:58

Edited By mark smith 20 on 19/10/2017 19:17:59

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

At £12 that's £3000/tonne. That's about the right price. £50 would either be daylight robbery or minimum quantity charges.

Edited By Mark Rand on 19/10/2017 21:02:15

[Carl Wilson 4Participant @carlwilson4]

Sorry to be a pedantic git. T6 is a heat treatment code. I take it this was 6082?

[mark smith 20Participant @marksmith20]

yes 6082. Either way their price is the cheapest by far ive seen. I dont buy tonne quantities of metals .

[Carl Wilson 4Participant @carlwilson4]

Very good. I don’t buy tonnes either. They only seem to do flat bar and extrusions though. No round bar or anything else.

[mark smith 20Participant @marksmith20]

People recommend m-machine. So for another example ,the ebay seller has 4 1/4" x 3/4" x 3 metres aluminiums flat bar at £35 + £9 postage =total £44.

At m-machine the nearest size they list is 4" x 3/4" (so smaller) at £1.56 per inch or for 3 metres including shipping,

which works out at around £190 with shipping. It doesnt take a genius to realise the price difference.

[mark smith 20Participant @marksmith20]

They have 2" round bar listed

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

You say it's from an extrusion place, so your 1 metre length is probably scrap, so they may sell at scrap plus p&p, better going to you than the scrappy.

Ian S C

[mark smith 20Participant @marksmith20]

They actually sell most of their stuff in 3 metre lengths and i think other sizes. The stuff is certainly new looking as well. For someone like me who buys in small quantities and struggles to cut up long lengths, i think its ideal for the hobbyist.

I prefer working in steel but without a powered hacksaw i struggle to cut the stuff. I was parting off a foot long 80mm round steel bar the other day with only a 15mm hole in the middle ,it was hard work to say the least on my southbend 9A

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Aluminium in bulk is about £1500 per ton at the moment. If only! We pay retail prices. Every time the aluminium moves, the price goes up. Markets, import/export, transport, wholesalers, and retailers all have costs, pay taxes, and need to make a profit. Cutting to size at point of sale costs money and the retailer has to cover wastage and off-cuts.

Quite a few legitimate reasons why stuff is sometimes sold cheaply. End of run, expensive storage space needed for something else, bankrupt stock, downsizing, urgent need to raise money, loss leading to break into a market etc. etc. If a bargain's to be had, grab it!

Dave

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

For reference, I recently paid £88 inc vat for 24kg of aluminium 6082T6 offcuts from the scrap bins of a local non-ferrous merchant. That worked out at about £3650 / tonne, which was considerably cheaper (by a factor of 2-3) than the stock in the racks. Good stuff it was, too, in all manner of useful sizes.

Murray

[Brian GParticipant @briang]

Posted by SillyOldDuffer on 20/10/2017 11:28:58:

Aluminium in bulk is about £1500 per ton at the moment. If only! …

I wish. The LME is currently at $ 2128 which is £1936 including VAT, so I think the OP's price of £3000 was pretty good by the time the extrusion premium and stockholder's costs are included. I wouldn't be surprised to pay a stockholder at least twice that, they have to fund a warehouse full of frequently slow moving profiles – aluminium isn't just stocked in rounds, flats, tubes and boxes like steel. When I was buying aluminium, I used to pay at least twice as much to stockholders as I would direct to the mill, but it kept the line going so I wasn't bothered

Brian

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Brian G on 20/10/2017 13:19:35:

Posted by SillyOldDuffer on 20/10/2017 11:28:58:

Aluminium in bulk is about £1500 per ton at the moment. If only! …

I wish. The LME is currently at $ 2128 which is £1936 including VAT.

…

Brian

I plead guilty! I left off the tax and rounded down the dollar/pound conversion.

Dave

[Brian GParticipant @briang]

I did that on a costing once Dave – ouch!

It doesn't seem so long ago that the pound was sufficiently healthy that the extruded price (without tax) in pounds was almost exactly the same number as the LME in dollars. Those were the days.

Brian

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