[TowerTalk] Supply problems

[Wayne Kline]

Locally Mack trucks my have to shut down  the LOW entry line ( mostly garbage trucks ) the Cab manufacture is shut down for lack of sheet steel. And  I’ll give you three guesses    where it is coming from !
The other cab co. that produces the convential cab ,   suposidly only has a 35 day inventory on hand ! and in the past use to carry 100/150 production day supply.

Wayne ,
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From: Lux, Jim<mailto:jim at luxfamily.com>
Sent: Friday, October 1, 2021 12:21 PM
To: towertalk at contesting.com<mailto:towertalk at contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Supply problems

On 10/1/21 8:58 AM, k7lxc--- via TowerTalk wrote:
> Howdy, TowerTalkians -
>       I have a customer that just ordered a Heights crank-up. They quoted him 12 months delivery. They can't get the aluminum. Probably not the only company with problems.  Cheers,Steve    K7LXC

I'd be a bit skeptical unless it's some exotic alloy or shape. Our local
suppliers (LA area) don't seem to have any problem unless you need
gargantuan quantities.  It *is* more expensive than a few years ago (as
in 50-100% more).  Very noticeable at the Home Depot, Lowes, Ace retail
too, for stuff like small angles and architectural shapes.  I've noticed
that some extrusions have longer lead times too, whether from reduced
staffing, or reduced overall demand, I don't know. Extrusion companies
tend to work in batches, and they don't want to buy expensive raw stock,
when there's a possibility that prices will be coming down, and they'll
be stuck with a bunch of extrusion that is expensive.

Chemical conversion coating places seem to be having longer lead times
too.  You used to be able to get almost overnight service for small
runs, and now it's "a couple weeks" - For those folks, it's workforce.
They don't want to ramp up too quickly, only to see another downturn.
Wages have gone up, too, but that's less of a factor - that sort of
becomes a pass through - getting something alodined or iridited just
costs more, and in my industry (aerospace, generically) we're not trying
to eke every nickel out of the price.


Maybe Heights needs to hit a price point and had "pre COVID, pre tariff"
aluminum prices built into their cost structure.  I don't know what the
raw material vs labor split is, but I suspect raw materials are a big
fraction of the cost.


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