Its Friday

Steel demand is a bit sluggish in the UK and Europe generally at the moment. This continues to be reflected in prices, which have slipped. Whilst I think it is unlikely that they will fall back further, neither would I expect anything like the increases being forecast earlier in the year.

I was speaking with Haddon Special Steels today and it’s perhaps appropriate to give them a quick mention. Haddon are based in Sheffield and the company is run by Paul Longmore, ably assisted by Darren. Both Paul and Darren are Metallurgists, with years of experience with British Steel (now Corus) as well as with the Thyssen Group and the old Firsteel. As well as steel strip, they do sell some engineering bar.

They are particularly specialised in classical narrow strip in carbon and alloy grades, with a depth of experience in supplying the “fine blanking” industry. They are a good company who really know their business, and well, worth a call for any specials, including close tolerance material.

I got myself one of those “DVD recorders” yesterday at the Aldi Thursday sale. Now I reckon to be pretty good with gadgets, but this has been a bugger to “set up”. The instructions run to about forty pages with the occasional “dodgy” translation. Anyway I did manage to get it working, although I am not sure how I managed to record the Tweenies.

If my good lady looks behind the back of the Telly then I am in bother. I have never seen as many wires outside of an old telephone exchange.

Ah well I had better “brush up” as I am meeting a customer for a couple of pints.