Loading ...Concrete Blues
One of B.C.’s largest cement plants has temporarily cut production, exacerbating Metro Vancouver’s shortage of concrete and forcing some construction companies to halt projects.
Lafarge’s Richmond plant is a major supplier of cement in B.C., Alberta and the Northwestern U.S., producing about a million tons of cement a year.
USA :
Concrete providers are shut down, there’s several plants that have shut down, they are not making cement. There is no one who’s not being impacted anywhere right now, because they are only producing so much cement out of the plants that are still open. I’m hearing that the cement plants are hoping to overcome this maybe by September and October. Concrete companies won’t commit to that, but that’s what they are thinking,” Ragghianti said.
In the past week alone, AGC has received reports from contractors and concrete suppliers nationwide documenting quotas, delays and possible layoffs due to cement shortages in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri and Florida.
On the plus side, I’m seeing so many new cars painted in a kind of dull, grey colour. Perhaps we can pretend that all of our cement production is being commandeered by those nasty auto companies. They’re like Mikey. They’ll eat anything!
No concrete… no anything. Construction stops. Not real good for jobs! That’ll help the Dems!
Pretty significant.
One of the first big cases that put our economic consulting shop on the map involved portland cement. Client was Southdown (since bought out by Cemex, IIRC).
Very energy intensive. Very pro-cyclical (boom or bust).
So are the shortages driven by lack of profitability due to energy costs?
Southdown was centered out of Victorville CA, and our case arose out of the 1990 Cali housing sector bust, coupled by Cemex exports out of (Baja) Mexico to coastal markets like LA.
The shortages look to be mechanical issues and labour strikes and labour shortages from what I have read but to involve all of North America seems a bit odd, this is probably the same for most industries hence the inflation effect.