Post by 3040Kraig on Apr 8, 2014 12:55:37 GMT -5
This was posted to PV's facebook page.
Followup to Matt's 22LR letter: I have a few tidbits of "opinionated statements" to make regarding the powder shortage. Matt makes some great points on how the primary problem is demand driven. The difference between 22LR and components is that manufacturers must make a choice on what components go to their ammo or other manufacturers ammo and what goes to reloaders. If you look at the supply of Winchester and Remington components you will find that there just aren't hardly any to be had anywhere. Based on that the only logical interpretation is that Winchester and Remington are allotting their components to ammo. In order to produce their ammo and leave the reloaders with nothing they must have a great supply of powder. I believe the primary supplier of powder to Remington and Winchester is St Marks in Florida. All of Winchester powders are produced by St Marks. St Marks also produces powder such as Titegroup, H335, H110 and you can pretty much say if it is a spherical powder it probably comes from St Marks. Every US packager of powder I have spoken with states they have received hardly any canister powder from St Marks since the third quarter of 2013. In addition, Hodgdon has been limited to one container of power per vessel out of Australia since December 2012. Typically Hodgdon had two containers of powder on each vessel. This is due to port authority rule changes in New Zealand and now Australia. Why these changes were made is anybody's guess. However, in a recent conversation with Hodgdon they believe this is going to be resolved in the very near future. Hodgdon is the largest player in the US market for smokeless powder. You just took the largest player in the market and cut their supply in half. Take into account the fire at ADI that burned the Clays and you can see that the high demand is not the only driver in the supply shortage for smokeless powder. Thankfully the supply out of General Dynamics in Canada has been much better. However no increase in production from a single manufacturer will make up for the drop in supply to Hodgdon and the extreme powder allocation St Marks is making to the ammo manufacturers vs the reloaders. Again this is one mans opinion. So, feel free to fire away and I will provide you my two cents.