I just got off the phone with some one from Crucible.
First a little background:
In the past, Crucible would smelt their steel and send big slabs/billets to Niagra Specialty Metals (NSM) to roll to sheets and plates. It would then go to the service centers. The service centers would cut the sheets to size and sell to distributors, end users and production companies. This was all under the Crucible umbrella. NSM was a contractor that rolled the billets.
Now, Crucible is broken up by bankruptcy court. Crucible Specialty metals (the smelting piece of it) is still melting metal but doesn't have a distribution channel. In steps NSM and they will now be rolling AND selling CPM metals. Their distribution channel is not yet clearly defined. This is new to them. They are a rolling mill getting into sales. Scott Devanna has been hired by NSM (in a press release earlier this week) to work with them in creating a distribution channel. NSM has made the statement publically they are going to sell direct. This has a different meaning to them than to us. When they say they say they are selling direct, they don't necessarily mean one bar at a time to a guy wanting to make a knife. It might... but that is unlikely and they are still working that out. It is my understanding they are currently not set up for small order, retail sales. (but any idiot can do that, look at me for example). They certainly could get into small individual sales. It's my impression a lot of this has not been worked out yet.
This leaves the Crucible service centers still out there for sale. These are the places that house the steel plates and cut to size for customers, big and small and sell to distributors like USAKnifemaker.com. Rumor (and we know how rumors are) is they are very close to being purchased by a large company that is interested in keeping the knife steel side of the business intact. This is good news for us. Look for something in the next couple weeks -- rumor again...
The service centers still have to negotiate a license with Crucible Specialty Metals to sell the stuff AND NSM to roll it for them. That isn't necessarily a huge problem but just another set of issues to work through. Crucible Specialty has bills to pay and needs to create a healthy distribution channel.
I would bet anything Crucible Specialty Metals would love to sell to the service centers no matter who owns them. Their job is to melt and move metal. Whether NSM wants to roll it for the service centers is yet to be seen. There are other rolling mills so that again isn't a deal breaker. It might add to the cost to go somewhere else but it isn't a deal breaker.
My guess is we will see the most popular CPM steels back for sale in January. At least some of them. I don't think we will see them all back. It's just how reorganizations work. The bean counters insist on getting the most back for their invested buck (ROI) and they have a debt to pay down.
There is currently a smelt of CPM154 scheduled for December and it is going to NSM. Where it goes from there is anybodies guess.
CruforgeV is the forging steel that was developed over 3 years with Dan Farr (not Fogg as I typed originally - sorry Dan) working directly with crucible and several other experienced pounders. There is 30 tons of it sitting around not selling all that well. It got off to a great start but some one on one of the forums stated they aren't going to spend time learning a steel that won't be around in the future. (I can understand that I guess.) Every one agreed with that bit of wisdom and walked away from it. At this point CruforgeV looks like it will be around. I now give you pounders permission to get back to using and learning CruforgeV.
I continue to talk to Crucible every week and will let you know more when I know more...
First a little background:
In the past, Crucible would smelt their steel and send big slabs/billets to Niagra Specialty Metals (NSM) to roll to sheets and plates. It would then go to the service centers. The service centers would cut the sheets to size and sell to distributors, end users and production companies. This was all under the Crucible umbrella. NSM was a contractor that rolled the billets.
Now, Crucible is broken up by bankruptcy court. Crucible Specialty metals (the smelting piece of it) is still melting metal but doesn't have a distribution channel. In steps NSM and they will now be rolling AND selling CPM metals. Their distribution channel is not yet clearly defined. This is new to them. They are a rolling mill getting into sales. Scott Devanna has been hired by NSM (in a press release earlier this week) to work with them in creating a distribution channel. NSM has made the statement publically they are going to sell direct. This has a different meaning to them than to us. When they say they say they are selling direct, they don't necessarily mean one bar at a time to a guy wanting to make a knife. It might... but that is unlikely and they are still working that out. It is my understanding they are currently not set up for small order, retail sales. (but any idiot can do that, look at me for example). They certainly could get into small individual sales. It's my impression a lot of this has not been worked out yet.
This leaves the Crucible service centers still out there for sale. These are the places that house the steel plates and cut to size for customers, big and small and sell to distributors like USAKnifemaker.com. Rumor (and we know how rumors are) is they are very close to being purchased by a large company that is interested in keeping the knife steel side of the business intact. This is good news for us. Look for something in the next couple weeks -- rumor again...
The service centers still have to negotiate a license with Crucible Specialty Metals to sell the stuff AND NSM to roll it for them. That isn't necessarily a huge problem but just another set of issues to work through. Crucible Specialty has bills to pay and needs to create a healthy distribution channel.
I would bet anything Crucible Specialty Metals would love to sell to the service centers no matter who owns them. Their job is to melt and move metal. Whether NSM wants to roll it for the service centers is yet to be seen. There are other rolling mills so that again isn't a deal breaker. It might add to the cost to go somewhere else but it isn't a deal breaker.
My guess is we will see the most popular CPM steels back for sale in January. At least some of them. I don't think we will see them all back. It's just how reorganizations work. The bean counters insist on getting the most back for their invested buck (ROI) and they have a debt to pay down.
There is currently a smelt of CPM154 scheduled for December and it is going to NSM. Where it goes from there is anybodies guess.
CruforgeV is the forging steel that was developed over 3 years with Dan Farr (not Fogg as I typed originally - sorry Dan) working directly with crucible and several other experienced pounders. There is 30 tons of it sitting around not selling all that well. It got off to a great start but some one on one of the forums stated they aren't going to spend time learning a steel that won't be around in the future. (I can understand that I guess.) Every one agreed with that bit of wisdom and walked away from it. At this point CruforgeV looks like it will be around. I now give you pounders permission to get back to using and learning CruforgeV.
I continue to talk to Crucible every week and will let you know more when I know more...
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