Page 21 - BusinessWest June 9, 2021

Construction professionals have called this an unprecedented time. Price hikes and shortages of certain building materials are nothing new to the construction industry, but no one has seen inflation and scarcity of so many supplies that go into building a house or a business.
BusinessWest spoke with several construction managers who said we are currently in a perfect storm of greatly increased demand, COVID- related manufacturing slowdowns, and, literally, storms.
For instance, back in February, ice storms knocked out the power grid
in Texas, shutting down several resin plants there and in neighboring Louisi- ana for several weeks. The resins from these plants are used in a broad range of building products, from adhesives to make plywood to the plastic that insu- lates electric cables. The resins are also used in many paints and primers.
Dan Bradbury, director of Sales and Marketing for Associated Builders, said the commodity price he follows closely is cold rolled steel. Most of the struc- tures his company builds are pre-engi- neered metal buildings for commercial and industrial use.
“This is the first time I’ve seen drastic increases and shortages affect this many products. In the past, we’ve seen oil prices drive up the cost of roofing shingles, but never across the board with nearly every building material.”
“Cold rolled steel prices have increased 225% since last August,” Bradbury said. Due to shortages in get- ting the steel, he tells customers the building they order today will be deliv- ered in about 20 weeks. Before COVID- 19, that same project would take 10 to 12 weeks.
Increases and shortages don’t end with commodities, but also affect other materials involved in construction. Craig Sweitzer, co-owner of Sweitzer Construction, said an electrical con- tractor told him about the price insta- bility of a heavy-duty cable used in commercial applications.
“His supplier would only hold the price for one day,” Sweitzer said. “Usu- ally, our material prices are good for 15 days, so we’re not used to seeing this.”
What makes this time different is the broad array of materials impact- ed, said Nick Riley, owner of N. Riley Construction.
“This is the first time I’ve seen dras- tic increases and shortages affect this
Nick Riley says shortages
are nothing new in construction, but so many types of materials being in short supply at one time is very uncommon.
LONGMEADOW COUNTRY CLUB - Longmeadow, MA
Bringing luxury homebuilding to the country club.
EAST LONGMEADOW - MASSACHUSETTS
(413) 525-6121
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