How metal is priced: sheet, plate and bar

What is in a supplier's price?

• A base price by weight for the grade and the form, per pound, per kilogram or per hundredweight (100 lb).
• Size and form: thin gauges, unusual widths and lengths, and cold-finished bar cost more per pound than standard stock sizes.
• Quantity: the price per pound falls as the order gets heavier. One sheet costs more per pound than a full skid.
• Cutting: shearing, sawing or cutting blanks to size, charged per cut or per piece.
• Surcharges: stainless and some alloy steels carry a surcharge that mills reset every month.
• Delivery and minimums: freight or a fuel charge, and a minimum order value.
• Paperwork: material with mill test reports, or to a named specification, can cost more.

What moves metal prices?

• Steel follows scrap steel and iron ore, and how full the mills are.
• Aluminum follows the London Metal Exchange price plus a regional premium, which in North America is the Midwest premium.
• Stainless follows nickel, chromium and molybdenum through the monthly surcharge.
• Copper and brass follow the exchange price of copper.
• Everything moves with energy, freight, tariffs and mill lead times.

Which metals cost more?

Carbon steel is the cheapest per pound. Aluminum and 304 stainless usually cost several times as much per pound as carbon steel. 316 costs more than 304 because it carries molybdenum and more nickel, and 7075 aluminum costs more than 6061. Copper alloys, tool steels and titanium cost more again.

Compare by the part and not by the pound. Aluminum weighs about a third as much as steel, so an aluminum part needs about a third of the weight. The metal cost calculator works out the weight of a piece in any of these metals.

How do you turn a price per pound into material cost on a quote?

1. Work out what you have to buy. That is the blank or the cut length plus the saw kerf, the drop at the end of the bar, and the part's share of the sheet skeleton. It is more than the weight of the finished part.
2. Multiply by your supplier's price for that grade, form and quantity.
3. Add what the supplier charges on top: cutting, freight and any minimum.
4. Add your material markup.
5. Decide who pays for the remnant. If the leftover is not something you will use, the job should carry the whole bar or sheet.

For sheet metal, the cut calculator gives the number of sheets and each part's share of the cost. The sheet metal quoting guide shows where material sits beside cutting, bending and finishing.

How long does a metal price hold?

A supplier's quote carries an expiry date, and stainless surcharges change every month. Date every price in your own price list, and say on your quote how long its price holds. A quote that stays open for months on last season's material price can turn a good job into a loss.

Where can you check metal prices?

The price that matters is the one on your service centre's quote for your quantity. Public reference prices show which way the market is moving: the London Metal Exchange for aluminum, copper and nickel, hot-rolled coil indexes for steel sheet, and the stainless mills' monthly surcharge postings. They are not what a job shop pays, because a service centre adds its own processing and margin.

How does OneThou use your prices?

Every OneThou setup is built on the shop's own material price list. The draft quote reads the material, the gauge or the stock size from the customer's PDF drawing and prices it from that list, so changing a price once changes every new quote.

Questions about metal prices