Rumours and Rumours....

[yknot]

Guess again. Common building materials like OSB that cost about $8 before Iraq have almost tripled in price since, and that was before hurricane season. All because most of it is going to Iraq. It's still on the shelves, but it is having a serious effect on the economy.

The materials in question are available, just not at prices we like. The recent increase in fuel prices haven't been driven by traditional supply and demand issues either. As far as scuba tanks and steel are concerned, regardless of what has caused the increase in steel prices, steel is still available. Say that steel is at $800 a ton today (which is nearly double where it was two years ago). That's 40 cents a pound, or $16 for a 40 lb tank. If prices double again, the resulting retail price increase could make the tanks cost prohibitive. PST is most likely being very cautious with their production, rather than simply being out of steel.

 

[lee3]

my lds ordered a faber 85 for me and it arrived within 30 days from overseas.

 

[Geddes]

China is buying a lot of US Steel. The costs of other steel items have been on the rise as well. I would suspect that a good portion of the building materials are going to the same place.

 

[Leadking]

I have heard a nasty couple of rumours and wonder if anyone can "confirm or deny"....

1) Faber isn't going to ship tanks to North America in the new year.

2) PST is sending all of thier steel tanks to the military and since there is a "shortage" of tank steel and they had some problems with galvinaizing- this will be *all* of thier tanks.

3) A new "unnamed" company will be starting up making steel tanks in the USA.

Once again, I heard theses as rumours and do not know any facts.....

Faber has changed to yet another distributor: Blue Steel

New SCUBA cylinder manufacturer is Worthinton Cylinders

Don't know about PST

 

[Boogie711]

Guess again. Common building materials like OSB that cost about $8 before Iraq have almost tripled in price since, and that was before hurricane season. All because most of it is going to Iraq. It's still on the shelves, but it is having a serious effect on the economy.

Rick, welcome to Scubaboard, but, um - I doubt very much it's all "going to Iraq."

China, on the other hand, is very open on the world markets about buying as much raw materials as they can get their hands on - thus driving the price of nickel, steel, copper and other resources through the roof.

 

[Paul Evans]

1) I bet they sell more steel tanks in the US than in Europe anyway.

You may be surprised, Al, Whats Al

 

[montyb]

I was in my LDS last week and they had a whole pallet of new 80 cu ft LP steel tanks made by some new outfit in Texas ( I think it was texas) they were putting the valves on them so I had a chance to examine the necks before the valves went on. It was pitiful. the holes were off center on many of them by at least 1/8 of an inch. So in some places thickness was 1/8 others it was 3/16th and so forth. They were bad. I wouldn't be buying any of those tanks and there were a number of store sales people standing around that agreed with me. So beware of the tanks from texas
montyb

 

[CRDiver]

On the question of new steel cylinders, according to http://www.seapearls.com , low pressure Worthington cylinders will be available in December and 3442psi cylinders (built to the same DOT-E9791 standard as PST's E-Series) will be available in March 2005. I'll be interested to see how close Worthington's buoyancy characteristics are to PST's... And it's nice to see some competition in the 3442psi category.

 

[RichLockyer]

Sport Chalet has been selling a new Norris steel cylinder made at Kaiser/California Steel in Fontana. It's an 80, kinda medium pressure (IIRC, 3000) and does carry a plus rating.

It's a beast! When I first saw it and picked it up, I thought it was a Heisler.

 

[derwoodwithasherwood]

PST settled their battle with the city. Apparently, their land was coveted for a re-development project and the city was trying to shut them down. Now it looks like they're building a new plant elsewhere. Perhaps this explains the shortages?

http://www.jsonline.com/news/Metro/jan03/108961.asp

http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/apr04/223497.asp

http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/jul04/244093.asp