Posted on 04/04/2017 6:25:56 AM PDT by marktwain
Vista is the corporation that owns CCI and Federal brands. They have been increasing production of .22 rimfire ammunition. It was expected to be ramped up 20% this year.
Following the election of President Trump, demand for ammunition has dropped. According to an article from Lewiston, Idaho, Vista has laid off employees in both the Lewiston and the Anoka, Minnesota ammunition plant locations. From the postregister.com:
The number of people who work at Vista Outdoor’s ammunition-making operations has been shifting since February. A month-long voluntary, temporary furlough for about 100 Lewiston employees ends Thursday and will bring the number of employees at the operation to 1,465.
Vista’s Lewiston operations also shed about 10 positions through attrition in February.
The measures Vista has taken in Minnesota were more sizeable. That plant permanently lost 130 employees in early March. It had about 1,430 employees prior to the cuts.
Lewiston laid off 15 salaried employees. The Anoka facility laid off about 10% of its 1,430 employees. The presumption is that it is not employees at the rimfire production facilities that are being laid off.
Centerfire ammunition shelves tend to be well stocked. That is not the case with rimfire ammunition, especially .22 Long Rifle cartridges. The .22 LR continues to be the most popular cartridge in the world. Annual production for the U.S. market is estimated at 5 billion rounds.
There are many stores that have little to no .22 rimfire ammunition on their shelves. Prices are high compared to the historical average.
Only five years ago, .22 ammunition could be found at 3 cents per round in bulk packs. Now it is unusual to find .22 Long Rifle at less than 5 cents a round. A Dallas WalMart had 22 boxes of Federal Champion 40 grain
(Excerpt) Read more at ammoland.com ...
Finally, show me a place that sells CCI CP bullets in the 40 grain range at 4-5 cents/round and I’ll shut up and buy scads of it.
You, and perhaps tens of millions of other Americans. The demand is there, the demand is high, and supply has been slow to ramp up because .22 rimfire manufacturing capacity is expensive, slow to acquire, and heavily regulated in the United States. One European rep told me that he knew of an American manufacture of centerfire that had been trying to get into the rimfire boom for three years, and still had not satisfied the regulatory requirements.
Aguila in Mexico has nearly doubled production in the last three years. All of it is being snapped up. CCI/Federal have built new plant to increase production 20% (they supply close to half the U.S. market, near as I can tell) it is supposed to be on line about now.
Without visiting Lewiston, Idaho (home of CCI rimfire production), I cannot tell you for certain if it is on line yet.
There is a difference between a minimal three years and an extended period of over 5 years for sure.
I understand the need to garner resources and consider ROI in the short and long terms. What I am saying is they and other premium manufacturers take advantage of the shortage to keep the margins high and there really isn’t anything the common consumer can do about it. I don’t doubt that there are all these newer manufacturers that would like to get in on the ‘boom,’ who wouldn’t? The real thing here is about quality and consistency.
I have ceded CCI has among the best, perhaps the best. And Aguila or some other American or foreign producer rightfully covets that spot. But I know their ammo isn’t the same and that is what keeps CCI in the catbird seat.
What I am say is the prices aren’t what they were before and the only reason I see to keep them high is profit. I don’t have to like it, but that’s where it is. When we are inundated with cheaper 22LR ammo most of us can tolerate then maybe they’ll figure out that short-lived profits aren’t the long-term thing. Until then, we, you and I will have to take it and like it or do without or use/save what we have sparingly.
I’m not an excuse machine for manufacturers. I am a shooter and a user and I know what I’ve seen and see right to this day.
Lots with $7.88. Only thing Bimart stocks now is Aguila.
What I am say is the prices aren’t what they were before and the only reason I see to keep them high is profit.
I am sure that you understand supply and demand. Profit is what every manufacturer aims for and desires. Profit is what drives capitalism. What keeps profit up is demand. Demand spiked way over supply with the Obama gun control push.
Demand became so high that it pushed prices to insane levels. Prices can only go up if there is demand that is willing to pay the price. When demand drops and or supply increases, the price will drop. We are starting to see that now. It will come.
But there is enormous, pent up demand that was unleased by the Obama push. There are probably 50 million .22 firearm owners in the United States, maybe 100 million. Tens of millions of them went from being satisfied with having a half full box of 50 .22 cartridges to wanting a thousand rounds “just in case”.
1000 rounds times 10 million is 10 billion rounds of ammunition. Total production for the United States before the bubble was about 4 billion a year. It has bumped up to about 5 billion a year. See the problem? Sure, we imported as much ammo as we could from other countries. It probably bumped up the total to 6 billion a year in the U.S.
It would take at least 5 years to meet the extra 10 billion in demand.
I think we are finally getting close to meeting that demand.
Prices are starting to fall.
I suspect you will have your 4-5 cents CCI CP 40 grain ammo within two years, barring further political shock waves.
It’s almost break-even That’s why no one has stepped in.
Do not condescend to tell me I don’t know about supply and demand - it is insulting, frankly.
The thing is that I have the luxury now to sit it out and wait until they realize they aren’t gonna get that high of price much longer and it makes no difference about that other extra 20% capacity. They’ve had near 8 years to deal with this and they have not.
It doesn’t matter to me but there isn’t anyone that can honestly tell me it was just pure demand that prompts their actions now at this time. They know their stuff is premium and they are more than willing to capitalize on that.
I don’t own stock in that company or apologize for them with market this and that BS. I just use it and shoot.
I really don’t think you and I have any more to expound on this. We just differ, that’s all. Thanks!
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