Hamond Times

January and February were a busy time. Many customers delayed their work out of December and advanced work out of March and into the January & February timeframe. We're not sure why this happened, not sure why it happened all at the same time, but it did, and to some extent it created a logjam on our machines and on the downstream processes (heat treat and plate). During this time, our lead times grew to be uncharacteristically long.

This logjam is now out of our plant (some of the work remains to be heat treated and plated, but that's proceeding well) and so our lead times are back down to normal.

Raw material prices remain high. Zinc & copper, while they have dropped a bit from the peak 3 months ago, still remain at relatively high levels compared to even 6 months ago. If you haven't ordered parts in 6 months, you may be surprised to learn what has happened to raw material prices.

You can see charts a few articles down the page.

Nickel (a major ingredient in most Stainless Steel) is high and climing and shows no sign of stopping. So if you need stainless parts, they're going to be expensive for the next while.