metal prices

[SA John]

A friend of mine collects assorted metals and has told me the price of copper has crashed - it's way down along with lead and stainless steel. So far I have not seen any of this reflected in ammo costs. Have you heard anthing with regards to metal prices?

John

 

[Sens]

I have seen the drop in junk copper prices as well. I think the consumers will be the last to benefit if ever.

 

[STRIKER-MA]

All my copper, aluminum and brass scrap prices/lb have all gone down the tubes.

8 months ago I was getting ~70 cents per pound on 6061, now it's ~30cents.

Everything is being thrown into bins on pallets to wait it out.

Our copper prices have gone up, but the aluminum and sheet metal haven't increased as much.

 

[Palladin]

Steel has dropped from $1100/ton to $500
Copper is at $1.43 (today) from $4.15 last July.

 

[SA John]

senators16u: I guess metal isn't the only thing that's bouncing up and down - love the avatar!

John

 

[Dick]

It's probably going to work the same as gas prices, i.e., when the price of crude goes up the gas prices go up overnight; when crude goes down gas sorta comes down eventually, but slowly.

 

[PaulD]

It's probably going to work the same as gas prices, i.e., when the price of crude goes up the gas prices go up overnight; when crude goes down gas sorta comes down eventually, but slowly.

Not really. I'll probably get the economic terms wrong here but gasoline itself is a commodity and the pricing at the pump reflects that. That's why gas stations adjust pricing on stock they already have (gas prices fluctuate even though the station hasn't filled their tank).

Ammunition is a value added product whos manufacturing cost is driven by the commodity costs of the raw materials but the cost at the time of manufacture is passed on through the sales channel. The distributors and retailers will pay a fixed cost and be reluctant to discount even if the cost of future inventory comes down. They might do it but it won't be a matter of course like repricing gasoline.

 

[drgrant]

IMO commodity prices will eventually influence ammo but because of erratic consumption, etc, and other weird factors in play, it may not have a real impact for quite some time.

Another big issue is the price of lead.. anyone know what's going on with that? I heard that lead went way up, a lot of gun shops stopped selling bags of shot, etc, because it was getting too expensive. This may play a bigger role in the price of ammo, because by weight, lead is probably the single heaviest component of most typical cartridges.

-Mike

 

[PaulD]

IMO commodity prices will eventually influence ammo but because of erratic consumption, etc, and other weird factors in play, it may not have a real impact for quite some time.

Another big issue is the price of lead.. anyone know what's going on with that? I heard that lead went way up, a lot of gun shops stopped selling bags of shot, etc, because it was getting too expensive. This may play a bigger role in the price of ammo, because by weight, lead is probably the single heaviest component of most typical cartridges.

-Mike

Lead, over the last year, is down by a similar percentage to copper.

http://www.thefinancials.com/commodities/FullReport.html?id=B2C_CM_Commodity_MetalsHome.html

I think you're basically right with what you've said. Also, remember that since ammo is heavy, transportation costs are high but those have gone down also.

Ammo is more like food. If wheat prices go up, the supermarket doesn't reprice the bread already on the shelves. The price goes at some point later when new bread is created from that expensive wheat. The reciprocal is true also when the prices go down.

Finally, there are political aspects to the price of ammo that I'm sure we're all aware of. Hopefully that situation doesn't get worse.