Aluminium prices that high ?

[winters]

Being new to this forum, i'll start with a short Hello! :D

I might want to build myself an aluminium boat (sometime in the near future). So I was looking for prices on 'marine-grade' aluminium like 5052, 5083 etc.

The few prices I found are something like this;
-Aluminium 5083 plate, (various length/width), thickness 4mm/5mm (.16/.19 inch), aprox 15 EURO per kilo (~$19).

According to my calculations, the minimum for an open 5metres/16feet (fishing)boat, would be around 600 kilo of plate. That's before cutting, so including waste material.

Well let's see, that makes 600 * 15 euro = 9000 euro (~11500 USdollar) ... minimum :eek:
And then there are all the other costs ...

Is it really this expensive to build with aluminium :confused:

[snal]

All metals are way up right now. Up until 6 months ago aluminum had been the bargain. We got hit with 2 20% increases so far this year. Copper has quadrupled in the last 18 months, and stainless is also way up.
They're blaming it on China and fuel prices.
It's a great time to be collecting scrap!

[Raggi_Thor]

I had a visitor from a small boatbuilding company, building workboats in aluminium. He said they paid approx one euro per kg... I have to call him and see if I understood it right :-)

[winters]

@snal
Indeed :eek:
A recent article from a Dutch newspaper;
"There's an explosion in copper thefts [..] Especially lightning protectors are popular, these contain 100 - 500 Kg of copperwire. This makes 500 - 2500 euro on the black market. An estimate is that 30 - 50 of those systems dissapear on a weekly base, in earlier years the score was around 5 a year."

@Raggi_Thor
Well that sounds like a great price to me :)
I'm very curious about which kind of aluminium he uses and where his supplier is located.

[Richard Hillsid]

Sheet can be bought at under 4 euros a kilo anywhere in EU if you a business, At least we can and we only by 50 tons a year.
Standard profiles are mainly under 4 euros but some tubes fetch as much as 6,5 euros a kilo.
Individuals can by most grades at 6-7 Euros a kilo from retailers.
A year ago September we paid 3,12 to for sheet 5083 and 3,37 for 6082 in june 2005 we managed to get under 3 Euros ocaisionaly.

[winters]

@Richard Hillsid
Thanks! that's some usefull info.
I Just received an offer on 5083 sheet for 4 - 4.5 Euro a kilo. So that's not bad when I read your reply. My earlier calculations for 600Kg bruto makes now 2400 - 2700 Euro instead of 9000 :D

[Richard Hillsid]

Good for you winters AL is a good chose.

[D'ARTOIS]

The actual price of 5083 is Euro 3,70 per kg ex. For special sizes, prices may come higher, above Euro 4,00. Prices are basen on quantities above 2000 kgs.

[winters]

@D'ARTOIS
Great! I see you are from NL too. Do you have tips on where to go for 'actual prices' etc. ?

[D'ARTOIS]

I can give you the NAW details of my supplier and you may ask him for a quotation: ALULAND, tel.: 078-6230020 - fax: 6230040 - they are supplied by Corus and Garfield Aluminium Industries
e-mail: info@aluland.com

[winters]

Ok thanks alot :)

[Richard Hillsid]

The actual price of 5083 is Euro 3,70 per kg ex. For special sizes, prices may come higher, above Euro 4,00. Prices are basen on quantities above 2000 kgs.

Is this with VAT or without?

[D'ARTOIS]

Ex VAT

[SolomonGrundy]

I recently was quoted $3/lb. for 4'X20" sheets in various th. from Alaskan Cu. here in Seattle, I know some builders get it for around $2.75/lb.

[Raggi_Thor]

I checked here, it's around 30NOK/kg, almost 4Euro/kg or 5USD/kg or 2.5USD/lbs. That is ex VAT.
Prices change (rise) every day....

1Euro=8NOK, 1USD=6 to 6.5NOK.

http://www.norskstaal.no/varekatalog/prispdf/nost_aluminium.pdf

Example:
Aluminium skipsplater, EN AW 5052/5754-H24/H34 (733-1) - NOK/KG
Varenr Dimensjon Kg/plate <199KG >200KG >1000KG
733008 4,00 X 2000 X 5000 MM 112.00 49.80 43.57 33.62

As you see, the price is 33.62NOK/kg for 1000kg while it's 50NOK/kg for small quantities.

[alumar]

Aluminium prices are not that high:
5083 approx. 4 euro
Sealium approx. 4.5 euro
Alustar approx. 6 euro
Any large aluminium supplier in Europe should be able to supply at these prices.
I was surprised to see that a plasma cut 5 mm deck in aluminium will only cost 22% more than the same in approved 3 mm ship building steel.

[Raggi_Thor]

Yes, the price is 4 Euro if you buy a ton, and it's (in Norway) 6 Euro if you buy small quantities.

[D'ARTOIS]

Right now 5083 is just under 4 euro, provided you buy at least quantities of some tons per order. A lot of aluminium is used in packaging, beverage, aircraft,
defence industries.
The arrival of RUSAL (Russian Aluminium Ind.) might bring some necessary competition, the more the Russians have cheap electricity that is a vital element in the production of raw aluminium.

On the other hand, with the present oilprice increases that are just beginning to roar up, polyester production won't be cheaper either.

This is one of the aspects of Globalisation.