Apex Aluminum Extrusions wishes all of our customers, suppliers and partners a Happy New Year! Thank you for your business and support in 2018. We look forward to working with you in 2019. Our regular hours and delivery schedule resumes on Wednesday, January 2nd.

Please note that Vitrum Glass Group will be closed on Monday, November 12, 2018, in order to demonstrate our deepest respect and appreciation for the men and women service people who gave their life for our freedom and to all of those that continue to fight for our freedom today. Thank you.

At Apex Extrusions we’re very thankful for our clients, colleagues and staff, who continually help us to achieve high quality standards for all of our extrusion products.

Please note that we will be closed Monday, October 8th to allow our team an opportunity to give thanks, but we’re back at it on Tuesday, October 9th.

Wishing everyone a happy, cozy, safe holiday weekend.

Market volatility hit an all-time high in the aluminum industry in April 2018 when geo-political factors created the greatest impact on access to billet. Following the announcement of US sanctions on the world’s second largest producer of aluminum, Russian company Rusal, the price of aluminum surged. Tariffs on many countries including China, and most recently Canada created additional economic pressure on the price of aluminum. In August, speculation has diminished but so too has worldwide supply.

Over the past several months Apex Aluminum Extrusions has worked tirelessly to collaborate and coordinate with suppliers from all over the globe to try to ensure we can satisfy order capacities and lead times. While we have gained access to additional billet from a truly global network, the price to access the reduced worldwide supply, in addition to the cost to transport, import, and to convert the billet continues to increase.

We are very appreciative of your business and we are sensitive to the fact that an impact on our business means an impact on your business. We write today to respectfully advise that we must, once again, increase our prices in order to offset the cost of our newly expanded supply network and the associated costs. We continue to work on our internal processes and optimization efforts to minimize the impact of the escalating cost of obtaining aluminum from our global supply network. As such, we will be increasing our conversion cost by $0.22/kg ($0.10/lb). For Canadian customers this increase will take effect on all orders received by our office after 4pm on Friday, August 24. For US customers this increase will take effect on all orders received after 4 pm on August 29. Orders placed in advance of this price adjustment must be shipped within current lead times, i.e., current pricing will not apply to advance POs. All orders currently in-house and those received prior to the above cut-off will not be impacted by the increase.

Apex Aluminum Extrusions is working hard to ensure lead times remain stable, however, due to new supply relationships and an overall reduction to the global supply of aluminum, lead times may escalate. Your Apex Sales Representative will keep you apprised of current lead times at the time of your order.

If you have any questions about these price adjustments or lead times please contact your Apex Sales Representative.

Thank you for being a valued customer. We appreciate your continued support.

Bill de Koning

Vice President, Apex Aluminum Extrusions

Aluminum Pricing Policy Updates for Apex Aluminum Extrusions 

Recent developments in the geopolitical climate has caused massive disruption to the supply of global aluminum. These developments are putting unprecedented inflationary pressure on the production of aluminum.  Specifically the US Government, on April 11, 2018, announced sanctions on the Russian firm of Rusal, the producer of approximately 6% of the global aluminum supply. Just prior to this announcement the US Government also implemented a 10% tariff on aluminum imports from several countries. For the time being, Canada is exempt.

As such, the global supply of Aluminum product eligible for American markets without a tariff penalty has been greatly diminished, leading to an aluminum price surge of +/- 13%. Experts remain uncertain about how the shortage will be met, and how much or how long prices will continue to surge.

With the current market conditions, and the vast reduction in global supply, we are being limited to our contractual volumes of billet. Therefore, we can only accept orders at current month pricing until our current allotment has been fully expended.

In addition, it is due to this volatility that effective Monday, April 23, 2018, Apex Aluminum Extrusions will be implementing pricing actions to reflect current market prices. We will be monitoring the May order intake to ensure we do not take orders in excess of our allotment. In fairness to all of our customers, we will limit each client’s May orders to the previous month’s average order. Please also note that lead times may be impacted due to supply shortages.

Despite the necessity for a price adjustment as well as the need to manage customer order capacities, we remain committed to ensuring that we evolve our processes and aggressively pursue optimization efforts in order to minimize the effect felt by you, our valued customers.

For up to date pricing data, please contact your Apex Sales Representative. Pricing will be updated on a regular basis to ensure any relief felt in the marketplace, is passed along to you.

While we can’t completely mitigate the challenges that the current geopolitical climate is confronting us with, we at Apex Aluminum Extrusions, are working hard to minimize these effects on you. Thank you for your continued support and patience as we navigate through these turbulent times together.

Yours Truly,

Bill de Koning
Vice President, Apex Aluminum Extrusions