Robert,
You'll be amused to know that I work for a steel service center and just
spent 2 intense weeks recoding our sales order entry / invoicing system to
support Scrap Surcharges that we are now passing through to our customers.
This is on top of price increases, fuel surcharges, and freight surcharges.
During the last 8 weeks we have seen prices on some types of steel go up by
60-80 % via price increases and surcharges that we are getting updates on
from the steel mills almost every other day.
At this point in time, if we can even order certain types of steel, we are
being told that we can order now but the price will not be determined until
time of delivery. Hence we are now telling our customers the same thing.
Order steel for tomorrow and we'll give you a fixed price. Order steel for
delivery in 2 weeks and you are likely to get a different price on the
invoice then you were quoted upfront. There are a number of 'Typical' sizes
of steel that we cannot currently order because they are not available at
any price. We have customers who are trying to figure out how to keep their
production lines running without 'Stock' steel sizes. This is nuts!
Check out www.amm.com <http://www.amm.com> ... American Metals Market
website. They are posting news articles daily on these increases and what
is driving them.
You, can by the way, thank China and Korea for buying up all the scrap steel
they can get their hands on which is driving up the cost of scrap by a
factor of 3 or 4 over what it was.
Also, we asked a number of our customers whether they wanted us to simply
increase the base price of the steel they were buying or if they wanted it
as a surcharge. 90% opted for the surcharge since it allows them to leave
their base prices alone and send the surcharges off to a variance account.
Problem is, in my mind, that the surcharges are becoming significant so not
including them in the base prices can muck up your individual item cost
structure.
FYI .
Todd Anderson
-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Rodriguez [mailto:robert@...]
Sent: Friday, February 13, 2004 9:04 AM
To: VISTA@...; vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] Steel Costs Solution
Our company, just like every other steel manufacturer, braced ourselves for
the increase in steel costs that our suppliers were preaching. As expected
the costs started to creep up. But what was unexpected, in February the
steel costs fluctuated up and down (mostly up) every 12 to 24 hours. We
quickly put together an excel spreadsheet so we could update our prices on a
daily basis, but we soon noticed that most of our office staff were
inundated with quoting because they were forced to look up every part,
standard or not. That's when we started looking into a way to make the
changes in Vista/Vantage without 9,000 steps. We believe we have come up
with a solution that will allow us to change the costs, unit price, and
price lists of all Vista/Vantage parts in a single stroke.
We are actively seeking other companies that will assist in the development
and economic costs of building this new utility. Please contact me directly
for more details.
Thank you,
Robert Rodriguez, Asst. General Manager
Livonia Tool & Laser
936 Anderson Road
Litchfield, MI 49252-9600
Phone: 888-875-0833
Fax: 517-542-2427
http://www.livoniatool.com <http://www.livoniatool.com>
Email: robert@...
<click here for our catalog>
< http://www.livoniatool.com/downloads/livonia_tool_catalog_2003.pdf
<http://www.livoniatool.com/downloads/livonia_tool_catalog_2003.pdf> >
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Useful links for the Yahoo!Groups Vantage Board are: ( Note: You must have
already linked your email address to a yahoo id to enable access. )
(1) To access the Files Section of our Yahoo!Group for Report Builder and
Crystal Reports and other 'goodies', please goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/files/.
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/files/.>
(2) To search through old msg's goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/messages
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/messages>
(3) To view links to Vendors that provide Vantage services goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/links
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/links>
Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
ADVERTISEMENT
Click HereClick Here
<http://us.adserver.yahoo.com/l?M=274551.4550177.5718621.1261774/D=egroupweb
/S=:HM/A=1994230/rand=455372817>
_____
Yahoo! Groups Links
* To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/>
* To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
vantage-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<mailto:vantage-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com?subject=Unsubscribe>
* Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service
<http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/> .
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
You'll be amused to know that I work for a steel service center and just
spent 2 intense weeks recoding our sales order entry / invoicing system to
support Scrap Surcharges that we are now passing through to our customers.
This is on top of price increases, fuel surcharges, and freight surcharges.
During the last 8 weeks we have seen prices on some types of steel go up by
60-80 % via price increases and surcharges that we are getting updates on
from the steel mills almost every other day.
At this point in time, if we can even order certain types of steel, we are
being told that we can order now but the price will not be determined until
time of delivery. Hence we are now telling our customers the same thing.
Order steel for tomorrow and we'll give you a fixed price. Order steel for
delivery in 2 weeks and you are likely to get a different price on the
invoice then you were quoted upfront. There are a number of 'Typical' sizes
of steel that we cannot currently order because they are not available at
any price. We have customers who are trying to figure out how to keep their
production lines running without 'Stock' steel sizes. This is nuts!
Check out www.amm.com <http://www.amm.com> ... American Metals Market
website. They are posting news articles daily on these increases and what
is driving them.
You, can by the way, thank China and Korea for buying up all the scrap steel
they can get their hands on which is driving up the cost of scrap by a
factor of 3 or 4 over what it was.
Also, we asked a number of our customers whether they wanted us to simply
increase the base price of the steel they were buying or if they wanted it
as a surcharge. 90% opted for the surcharge since it allows them to leave
their base prices alone and send the surcharges off to a variance account.
Problem is, in my mind, that the surcharges are becoming significant so not
including them in the base prices can muck up your individual item cost
structure.
FYI .
Todd Anderson
-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Rodriguez [mailto:robert@...]
Sent: Friday, February 13, 2004 9:04 AM
To: VISTA@...; vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] Steel Costs Solution
Our company, just like every other steel manufacturer, braced ourselves for
the increase in steel costs that our suppliers were preaching. As expected
the costs started to creep up. But what was unexpected, in February the
steel costs fluctuated up and down (mostly up) every 12 to 24 hours. We
quickly put together an excel spreadsheet so we could update our prices on a
daily basis, but we soon noticed that most of our office staff were
inundated with quoting because they were forced to look up every part,
standard or not. That's when we started looking into a way to make the
changes in Vista/Vantage without 9,000 steps. We believe we have come up
with a solution that will allow us to change the costs, unit price, and
price lists of all Vista/Vantage parts in a single stroke.
We are actively seeking other companies that will assist in the development
and economic costs of building this new utility. Please contact me directly
for more details.
Thank you,
Robert Rodriguez, Asst. General Manager
Livonia Tool & Laser
936 Anderson Road
Litchfield, MI 49252-9600
Phone: 888-875-0833
Fax: 517-542-2427
http://www.livoniatool.com <http://www.livoniatool.com>
Email: robert@...
<click here for our catalog>
< http://www.livoniatool.com/downloads/livonia_tool_catalog_2003.pdf
<http://www.livoniatool.com/downloads/livonia_tool_catalog_2003.pdf> >
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Useful links for the Yahoo!Groups Vantage Board are: ( Note: You must have
already linked your email address to a yahoo id to enable access. )
(1) To access the Files Section of our Yahoo!Group for Report Builder and
Crystal Reports and other 'goodies', please goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/files/.
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/files/.>
(2) To search through old msg's goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/messages
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/messages>
(3) To view links to Vendors that provide Vantage services goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/links
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/links>
Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
ADVERTISEMENT
Click HereClick Here
<http://us.adserver.yahoo.com/l?M=274551.4550177.5718621.1261774/D=egroupweb
/S=:HM/A=1994230/rand=455372817>
_____
Yahoo! Groups Links
* To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/>
* To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
vantage-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<mailto:vantage-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com?subject=Unsubscribe>
* Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service
<http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/> .
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]