Understanding the Costs of Saw Steel
Steve Hartshorn, Peerless Saw

           Anyone that has spent time in a manufacturing environment has certainly had to deal with fluctuating raw material costs.  The saw blade business is no different.  Silver costs, tungsten costs and steel costs can fluctuate greatly.  Sometimes the changes can be dramatic from one month to the next.  Today more than ever these raw materials are sold and purchased in a global marketplace.  This helps contribute greatly to more pronounced price fluctuations.  Demand from other countries will help dictate what prices we pay in North America.

Steel prices are affected by a variety of factors.  Most importantly, worldwide supply and demand play a huge role.  However, for the saw blade user it is important to keep up with the costs of raw materials to make steel.  A general understanding of where costs are can easily be found on the web and through various printed newspaper articles.  A quick search through any search engine for “steel prices” or something similar will bring up multiple helpful websites.  Iron ore is the main component of steel and its cost affects steel prices directly.

The Wall Street Journal is one of the best sources of information when it comes to fluctuations in the price of iron ore.  Other than iron ore, multiple other elements that help make up saw alloy steel will affect the price.

One thing to keep in mind when tracking steel costs is to discern from alloy steel and carbon steel.  Alloy steel is used to make industrial grade circular saw bodies.  Alloy steel is carbon steel with specific elements added to produce a desired effect (harden ability, toughness, etc.)  On this note it is also important to know what elements are in alloy steel.  75Cr1 and 8670 are two commonly used alloys in saw blade making.  Elements that can affect the cost of alloy steel, and not affect the cost of carbon steel, are: Carbon, Chromium, and Nickel.  (Nickel is used in the 8670 alloy but not in the 75Cr1 alloy).

The web is a good resource to track the costs of these raw materials.

Saw blade companies should also keep a close eye on scrap steel prices.  When scrap prices are high, the cost of buying steel is typically high.  When scrap prices fall, the cost of sheet steel is generally in decline.  Scrap steel is used in many mills as a substitute to iron ore.  

Although pricing fluctuations do tend to coincide with one another, alloy steel prices may not fluctuate as greatly as carbon steel prices.  Part of this can be attributed to the fact that saw blade alloys are a very minute portion of the steel that is produced in the world.  Therefore, the prices are not as susceptible to changes associated with worldwide supply and demand.     

 Steve Hartshorn,


You can contact Steve at (614) 836-5790 / steveh@peerlesssaw.com
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