As Steel Prices Rise, Thickness Still Matters

It’s no secret that in the past year, the price of steel in the US has risen by a greater percentage than in all the previous steel making years combined. And in most cases, manufacturers of steel products have passed on the increase to the end user. There is always the belief that when steel prices increase, reconditioned drums are worthy of consideration. However, in this unique steel crisis, the available recycled raw materials that are used to manufacture drums are drying up as used drums are being crushed and sold into the global scrap market. Given the reduction of steel drums available for reconditioning, the reconditioned drum prices are high and reflect the shortage of raw drums. Therefore, the new vs reconditioned prices are not far apart. Some manufacturers are using the price of steel in the US as a means to reduce the necessary wall thickness of steel drums. Shipper’s probably don’t realize that reducing wall thickness increases the risk of drum performance – and a small cost savings on the drum exposes the much more expensive inner contents to greater risk. On the other hand, users contemplating reconditioned versus new drums will find that a reconditioned drum is going to be thicker and heavier than many of the thin-walled new drums that cannot withstand reconditioning and are being scrapped after a single use. When choosing the best drum for your product, we recommend that thicker steel (0.9mm minimum or 20 gauge minimum) is the best choice for risk-reduced transport and storage.