What is Price of Steels - Costs of Steel Products - Definition

Carbon steel is about $500/ton, while stainless steel costs about $2000/ton. The more alloying elements the steel contains, the more expensive it is.

Medium-carbon steel is mostly used in the production of machine components, shafts, axles, gears, crankshafts, coupling and forgings, could also be used in rails and railway wheels and other machine parts and high-strength structural components calling for a combination of high strength, wear resistance, and toughness.

Steels are iron–carbon alloys that may contain appreciable concentrations of other alloying elements. Adding a small amount of non-metallic carbon to iron trades its great ductility for the greater strength. Due to its very-high strength, but still substantial toughness, and its ability to be greatly altered by heat treatment, steel is one of the most useful and common ferrous alloy in modern use. There are thousands of alloys that have different compositions and/or heat treatments. The mechanical properties are sensitive to the content of carbon, which is normally less than 1.0 wt%. According ot AISI classification, carbon steel is broken down into four classes based on carbon content.

Price of Steels – Costs of Steel Products

It is difficult to know the exact cost of the different materials because it strongly depends on many variables such as:

the type of product you would like to buy
the amount of the product
the exact type of material

Raw materials prices change daily. They are primarily driven by supply, demand and energy prices.

However, as a rule of thumb, stainless steels cost four to fives times much as carbon steel in material costs. Carbon steel is about $500/ton, while stainless steel costs about $2000/ton. The more alloying elements the steel contains, the more expensive it is. Based on that rule, it is logical to assume that the 316L austenitic stainless steel and the 13% Cr martensitic stainless steel will cost less than the 22% Cr and the 25% Cr duplex stainless steels. The nickel-based steels would probably cost at least around the price of the duplex stainless steels. There are obviously numerous kinds of steels from low to high carbon and a wide range of evaluations of stainless steels that change immensely in expense. For example, Inconel 600 (registered trademark of Special Metals), which is one of a family of austenitic nickel-chromium-based superalloys costs about $40000/ton.

References:

Materials Science:

U.S. Department of Energy, Material Science. DOE Fundamentals Handbook, Volume 1 and 2. January 1993.
U.S. Department of Energy, Material Science. DOE Fundamentals Handbook, Volume 2 and 2. January 1993.
William D. Callister, David G. Rethwisch. Materials Science and Engineering: An Introduction 9th Edition, Wiley; 9 edition (December 4, 2013), ISBN-13: 978-1118324578.
Eberhart, Mark (2003). Why Things Break: Understanding the World by the Way It Comes Apart. Harmony. ISBN 978-1-4000-4760-4.
Gaskell, David R. (1995). Introduction to the Thermodynamics of Materials (4th ed.). Taylor and Francis Publishing. ISBN 978-1-56032-992-3.
González-Viñas, W. & Mancini, H.L. (2004). An Introduction to Materials Science. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-07097-1.
Ashby, Michael; Hugh Shercliff; David Cebon (2007). Materials: engineering, science, processing and design (1st ed.). Butterworth-Heinemann. ISBN 978-0-7506-8391-3.
J. R. Lamarsh, A. J. Baratta, Introduction to Nuclear Engineering, 3d ed., Prentice-Hall, 2001, ISBN: 0-201-82498-1.

See above:
Metals

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