In the fast-paced world of manufacturing, we understand that a small cost increase, a few days extra on lead-time, or receiving the incorrect materials can have an exponentially negative affect on your project’s progress.

At Continental Steel & Tube, we want to get you the right materials to your door at the best price as soon as possible (or, right on your requested date). In order to help us accomplish that mission, please make sure to provide us with the four things that we NEED to know in order to fulfill your order.

1. Specific Grade

We often get requests asking for “stainless steel” or “carbon steel”. If you want to move your project forward, you need to give us the most accurate grade number for that material. For instance, we need to know that you need “Stainless Steel Alloy 410” or “Titanium CP4 – Grade 1”, or “Inconel X-750”. This will help us understand your project better, as well as help us locate the correct material as quickly as possible. Doing research on this early, can help us make sure that we can fulfill your order successfully and on schedule

2. Complete Size Information

Each different metal form is sized in a particular way. Whether it’s the OD, wall thickness, and length of pipe, or the thickness, width, and length of plate – we have to know all of these factors in order to provide you with the material and form you are looking for. It also helps to let us know any defining factors of a specific form: for instance if the form is pipe or tube, we need to know if it’s seamless or welded. Basically, the more information you can give us on the correct form for your materials, the better we can fulfill your needs.

To help you measure specific forms, we have created a series of blog topics on the subject:

How to Buy Angle
How to Buy Plate
How to Buy Tube
How to Buy Pipe
How to Buy Beam

3. Quantity

How much metal do you need? This is done by weight or piece, and is greatly important in providing you the proper lead times, and information on shipping. Providing the quantity of metals in the initial order allows us to guarantee that we can get you the right amount, as fast as possible.

4. Shipping Location
Where are your materials going? We ship internationally, and have sent metals to almost every continent on earth, so we’ll be able to get it there, but letting us know the location at time of quote helps us estimate the cost and time to get it to your location. Additionally, please let us know if you have origin restrictions on the requested material, and we can accommodate your needs.  We carry both domestic and import.

Thank you for your cooperation. We hope to accommodate your orders in the near future!