By the melt, not by a price list. A heat has a minimum weight, so the smallest order depends on the grade and the section size. Grades we hold in stock ship from stock; grades that have to be melted are scheduled into the furnace. We quote both figures as firm numbers rather than as a rule of thumb.
Why there is a minimum at all
A melt is a batch. The furnace has a working volume, the chemistry has to be trimmed and verified on a sample, and the whole heat is then cast, forged or rolled as one unit. If your requirement is a fraction of that batch, the rest of it becomes inventory or scrap, and the price per kilogram reflects it.
This is why the same grade can be cheap in one size and expensive in another, and why a small quantity in an unusual section may simply not be economical to schedule.
Stock against melt schedule
Grades and sizes we routinely hold move immediately, and the lead time is transport rather than production.
Anything outside that has to be planned into the melt programme: charge preparation, melting, refining, casting, then the downstream route for the form you need, then testing and documentation. Each of those steps has its own queue, which is why a firm date is better than an average.
What we will not do
Publish a headline MOQ that turns out not to apply to your grade, or an average lead time that turns out to be three weeks optimistic. Both cost more in lost trust than they win in enquiries.
Send the grade, the form and the size, and the reply carries a real minimum and a real date for that combination.