Lack of material and prices

At work we are now experiencing huge increases in price and lack of availability of materials.

Some stockists are only having quotes valid for 24 hours and lead times are unbelievable. 2" mild steel is on upto 3 months, from next day.

I'll continue to keep stocking up on the bar ends out the scrap bin!

Jim

I was talking to our heating engineer yesterday and he said that he was working on a building site when word went around that some wood had arrived at the local stockist. To a man, all the chippies downed tools and jumped in their vans.

Seems that wood may not grow on trees after all.

Friends of mine that own a small manufacturing company have seen the price of MDF jump by 40%

Ah, the wonders of brexit. 

Edited By John Haine on 11/06/2021 06:59:48

Mild winter in Scandinavia stopped them logging in a lot of the boggy ground can't see that being down to brexit.

I had to take my third choice on some veneered boards recently. Supplier had had orders placed but factory could not say when it would be fulfilled or even what would be on the next boat.

Similar problems getting some paints and cement.

Containers are also still in short supply which is pushing up the price, my cousin is waiting to move back from Singapore but delayed 6weeks waiting for an available container.

There is a big increase in demand, was on site yesterday and all the scaffolding was new, the reason was there is so much building work going on the scaffolders have all there existing poles and boards already on jobs so are having to buy more. Does not help if the job drags on while waiting for other building materials.

Edited By JasonB on 11/06/2021 07:11:38

Putting the customs and excise people in charge of Britains trade flows is a recipe for economic catastrophe

We all know there's TONS of dirt cheap stuff out there from the previous 10 years

and its not the suppliers who are stopping stuff arriving

So the supply problem isn't outside the UK or there would be a global shortage

So explain my cousins problem, seems to me it's the GLOBAL container shortage not just a UK issue? And it's a lot more stuff that comes into the country in containers than here furniture.

Same with my veneered boards, the factory is not producing at its normal rate and all old stock has been sent out now there is limited production that can't replace it fast enough.

Want another example back in March I ordered two saw blades which are made in Italy, UK supplier had them as 16day lead in which was OK as I was not desperate. One arrived in the time stated having been sent from Italy on their monthly delivery with no problems due to Brexit etc as I assume the makers had them in stock. The other I'm still waiting for as factory has still not caught up with being close due to Covid and it's not a particularly common spec so they are less likely to make a batch of them than better sellers.

Edited By JasonB on 11/06/2021 07:35:15

Northern Ireland has food shortages which is absolutely ridiculous

and it definitely isn't the food suppliers who will be holding up the flow of free trade

Look closer to home, to the people who control these flows

People who magically get 100% wages and pensions no matter how bad things get and cry "we were only obeying orders!" when they get called out on the mess they make of things

Meanwhile we get stories in the press about how the unga-bunga beetle has eaten all the MDF trees this year

Look at the last 20 years when our border guys weren't in charge, easy peasy

Here we are in year one and...

[This posting has been removed]

Border flow people should only do immigration and dangerous/illegal goods stuff and have no taxation duties whatsoever

Year one of our current system is choking trade massively and pumping up inflation, it's costing tens of billions, perhaps even a hundred plus billion

Edited By Ady1 on 11/06/2021 09:04:43

No good blaming border controls. That's what we voted for. If you want no border controls, then lobby your MP to re-enter the EU.

There is currently the perfect storm, Brexit border controls, Covid, possibly still the backlog from canal being blocked and from what I've read, the shortage of containers. A lot of our cheap labour, including vast numbers of HGV drivers, has gone back home to the east of Europe as well which won't help.

I think the majority of supply problems are down to there being an inability to manufacture and process due to the COVID restrictions on manpower, it is very convenient to blame Brexit but Brexit certainly wouldn’t be having an effect on supply problems throughout the world. Recently had a pergola built in our garden and the tradesman said getting hold of decent treated timber is not easy and the price has shot up. I need a few sheets of 50mm insulation to line out a new shed that I have built, the price per sheet has rocketed, there was a 30% increase in price in two months. Dave W

Nobody voted for morons to run the border

The previous 20 years proved that they are totally irrelevant to the inflows of trade and goods and the last 6 months proves beyond any doubt that they are a massive liability for a country trying to get going in the global market

According to the timber trade federation there is a global shortage

Global timber shortage

Steel prices are now on a day by day quote, held for 24Hrs. I was talking to my local supplier, he told me to order today as it may be gone next day. As for buying copper wire, best not ask the price unless sitting down with ambulance pre booked ! Noel

Yet another side to this is that some companies scaled back production thinking that the pandemic would cut demand. In truth the opposite has happened because no one went on holiday and instead many have spent this money on home improvements. The building trade is busier than ever.

A sadder and more serious (to us anyway) calamity is the Liberty Steel troubles. There is still no end in sight with this. They produced all of the EN16T (which I use a lot of and there is no real European equivalent), all the imperial hex sizes and most of the EN1a.

Even if there a buyer is found and production resumes (unlikely with a serious fraud investigation ongoing) it will take 6 months to be back to full swing.

It will be a very sad day indeed if this is not resolved!

David.

The shortage of materials, parts and finished goods isn't due to the border controls. The well-known company I work for which makes agricultural machinery has huge problems getting parts and materials we have over 80 million pounds of part finished machines waiting for parts, constant daily shortages resulting in production delays.

The border controls have added a day to the logistic pipeline which means adding a day to the lead time before the part is needed on the production line which hasn’t been a big problem. Finished goods into EU and parts out of EU has settled down to almost normal. We have registered as an AEO which allows unrestricted import of parts to us, which effectively makes us the border point for our parts.

The problem is getting parts and materials due to the months of backlog in supplier’s inventory due to Covid, this is around the world not just EU or UK. The whole pipeline from raw material to finished parts emptied out and have yet to fill, manufacturers have been reluctant step up production not knowing if more disruption is on the way, who wants to hold expensive stock if the market collapses as it did last year.

We stopped early on in the pandemic last March for 5 weeks, restarting at the beginning of May ’20 and haven’t stopped since, our order books are full, and production speed is up, the only thing holding us back is parts & material supply, and believe me we are prepared to pay the increased cost to secure supply.

This is a big business problem the plant I work in, which is one of 69 around the world, turns over nearly £1 Billion per year on its own, so the price we are prepared to pay to keep producing drives up the prices across the board.

To the argumentative bunch I know what I'm talking about, I’ve spent the last 15 months trying to keep a major UK factory going and in profit, you would not believe the amount spent in this effort.

Edited By Juddy on 11/06/2021 10:12:57

Edited By Juddy on 11/06/2021 10:13:23

So it's not down to Brexit then Juddy, thought not - but Ady1 will be disappointed!

You are wrong if you are trying to blame this on a single factor. It's a lot of factors all at the same time including firms buying whatever they can when they see it. (Just like the bog rolls).

regards Martin