Do you buy USA Steel?

[Amark Engineering/Manufac]

Just came across some information and thought I would ask and see what others were doing.
Do you try and source your steel and other raw products manufactured here in the USA?
If you do, does it make you less competitive? Is the quality any different in your opinion?
Should the US trade commission be more involved in making our products more competitive to be sold in our own markets?

I would like to do everything I can to help the economy recover here in the US and was just wondering what others in the trade was thinking.

Have a great day!

 

[Dualkit]

90% of what I buy right now is aluminum that is what I focus on. I have switched vendors 5 times over the last 10 years to keep getting domestic.
The Chinese 6061 is garbage, I pay more for the USA made, but I can run it over twice as fast, so it is actually cheaper. Problem with metal suppliers unless you ask for certification they won't tell you if they stopped carrying domestic stock. It is easy figuring out where the aluminum came from because it is marked. I will have to start checking the sources of steel as I buy more.
It is funny how people complain about the loss of USA manufacturing jobs and the high trade deficit, while filling their cart full of imported junk at Walmart every weekend. I guess you could post sources for USA made metals. I get my USA made aluminum from Industrial Metal Supply, and Coast Aluminum.

 

[megafrenzy]

We always specify "domestic" when ordering aluminum. We never work with steels. It machines better (not so gummy, you can fly thru it) and it doesn't warp after machining. Dualkit is right, it saves money to buy the good stuff.

For us its mostly a quality issue. I doubt the amount of metal we buy each year is going to make a dent in national or global economics.