Hoping this clears up the price jump for the 625+
I’m new to this site but I work for carpenter technology, we produce the 625 stock that ends up turning into headstuds and bolts. We technically don’t even know the buyer since it’s not listed until purchasing but it’s easy to make connections of 625 stock to arp 625. We make what’s considered the top 3% of premium alloys in the world. Almost everything we produce is proprietary and we have patents on creating the material. It’s also melted and rolled to order size. Who the buyer(arp) decided to sell it to is up to them but we will only sell it to them, which is why there are limited options when it comes to that specific grade. There is also a reasoning for the price, there is a lot of man power and energy used to make the material, then even more when going through our annealing departments and testing to verify no imperfections. I repair the equipment and our one induction heater to get back up to the rolling temp(most material is around 1800-2000 degrees F) uses more electricity per minute than the entire surrounding county combined. This doesn’t include the furnaces the size of a small house that the billets have to heat soak in for hours to be a consonant temperature through out. Or else I have a very very bad day at work when stuff starts to self destruct.
We are also producing the material in jet engines, rockets, drilling equipment, Tanks, medical components and stuff that’s permanently placed inside of you. you get the point. 625 is not produced in your standard steel mill facility. Hence the large price jump.