Titanium , Shortages and cost increases

[Smiley]

Don't know about what you guys are hearing , in my real job as a manufacter's rep , selling extotic plate and frame heat exchangers some made in titanium for sea water duty , our vendors are telling us of no discounting due to shortages and lack of supply from the mills .
I always can correlate this activity to the increase in business from the aero space industry that sucks up titanium for parts and tubing . At the Open House the I asked this question of Serotta and was told that yes their were price increases from their vendor and now with this new news from my manufacter's and I am wondering if Ti bike frames will see a jump in pricing come the fall . Look I am not nieve to this that Ti pricing is the only component in a bike but geez its the starting point for what Serotta does to so many of its frames .
Curious of what others with similar backgrounds are hearing , Ti Designs ??

[dave thompson]

Japan Metal Bulletin gives the shortage of titanium to the increase in aircraft manufacturing worldwide being on the rise, after flagging due to 9/11 and to general industrial use, particularly in China. And according to The Standard, China's business paper, China consumes about 12% of the world's total titanium output and had to import about 6% of just to meet internal demands.
They predict a shortfall of 10,000 tons of raw material. The price has risen fivefold in the last year alone.

[Ozz]

we had a discussion on this about a year ago..... :)

[dave thompson]

we had a discussion on this about a year ago..... :)
Yeah but it's fun quoting obscure industry sources! :D

[Ozz]

Yeah but it's fun quoting obscure industry sources! :D
shouldn't you be out on a ride getting ready for STP?

BTW - clear blue skies here this morning, 55 now, warming to 70. I'm gone as soon as I finish my coffee (and typing). :beer:

[dave thompson]

shouldn't you be out on a ride getting ready for STP?

BTW - clear blue skies here this morning, 55 now, warming to 70. I'm gone as soon as I finish my coffee (and typing). :beer:
Naw, I'm 'sagging for my wife this year. She's determined to do the STP this year. She tried but didn't finish in 2001. So I'm watching F1 'till she wakes up.

For some reason I'm not terribly cycle motivated this year, less than 1,000 miles and not to keen to ride a bunch. Don't know why, just not feeling very "bicycley" this year and I've got some of the best equipment ever. The most cycling stuff I've done all year is post here on this forum. That's pathetic! No accounting for taste, eh?

[TmcDet]

I know that when it came to steel prices going crazy last yr it did not effect the cost of bikes that much...just think this stuff is usually sold by the # so that means that a bike frame has very little material to it...the cost of a bike frame has to be mostly labor, I can not see a way that material prices could ever effect the cost of a bike that much.