I just wanted to get further clarification regarding the substantial consolidation of the reloading component industry the past 30 years. It appears to me that a reloader, with some patience and persistence can obtain the powder, bullets and cases he wants and avoid the major gouging of opportunists. On the other hand, primers are almost impossible to obtain.
A quick bit of research reveals that there are only two domestic manufacturers of primers: Olin Corp (Winchester) and Vista Outdoor Corp (CCI, Remington, Federal). That is it! There were foreign suppliers for a time but I am unclear on their names and their current status. I don't know if they got caught up in the Trump tariffs.
I suspect that actual industry primer manufacturing asset capacity does not match the industry capacity to manufacture bullets and powder. My crude prediction is that at some point, active reloaders are going to face the situation that their powder/bullet stockpile far exceeds their primer stockpile. Then powder and bullets will fill the shelves again. Personally, my modest powder stockpile exactly matches my primer stock pile so I have no reason to buy powder unless I can add primers.
Only having two primer manufacturers is not a good situation for consumers. I have been in the supply chain business for 30 years and this is the classic case of bottling up the assets, restricting investment to regain pricing power. This is a savy business move so I am not critical of the owners, they want to run a profitable business. This means that neither Olin or Vista will expand their manufacturing capacity because there is no threat from a competitor to fill the demand, they can run the existing assets at full capacity and raise prices. It is a smart move because it is likely that at some point demand will weaken and they don't want to be sitting on excess capacity and have their product priced as a commodity. Of course this is not a good situation for the reloaders as they will continue to face extreme shortages and higher prices. The same can be said for the powder supply chain, but to a lesser extent. Hodgon recently added Ramshot and Accurate to their IMR, Winchester (Olin does not own Winchester powder), and Hodgon brands. That is about 80% of powder capacity in the US.
Does anyone have any specific knowledge or have connections in the primer supply chain?
A quick bit of research reveals that there are only two domestic manufacturers of primers: Olin Corp (Winchester) and Vista Outdoor Corp (CCI, Remington, Federal). That is it! There were foreign suppliers for a time but I am unclear on their names and their current status. I don't know if they got caught up in the Trump tariffs.
I suspect that actual industry primer manufacturing asset capacity does not match the industry capacity to manufacture bullets and powder. My crude prediction is that at some point, active reloaders are going to face the situation that their powder/bullet stockpile far exceeds their primer stockpile. Then powder and bullets will fill the shelves again. Personally, my modest powder stockpile exactly matches my primer stock pile so I have no reason to buy powder unless I can add primers.
Only having two primer manufacturers is not a good situation for consumers. I have been in the supply chain business for 30 years and this is the classic case of bottling up the assets, restricting investment to regain pricing power. This is a savy business move so I am not critical of the owners, they want to run a profitable business. This means that neither Olin or Vista will expand their manufacturing capacity because there is no threat from a competitor to fill the demand, they can run the existing assets at full capacity and raise prices. It is a smart move because it is likely that at some point demand will weaken and they don't want to be sitting on excess capacity and have their product priced as a commodity. Of course this is not a good situation for the reloaders as they will continue to face extreme shortages and higher prices. The same can be said for the powder supply chain, but to a lesser extent. Hodgon recently added Ramshot and Accurate to their IMR, Winchester (Olin does not own Winchester powder), and Hodgon brands. That is about 80% of powder capacity in the US.
Does anyone have any specific knowledge or have connections in the primer supply chain?
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