Concrete in short supply

The largest manufacturers of concrete in Spokane and North Idaho are warning their customers of a product shortage even before the busiest part of the construction season hits.

The region’s larger projects, which are under contract and have been scheduled months in advance, likely will not be affected, suppliers say. However, some smaller contractors relying on the daily flow of business have already had their requests for concrete turned down.

“I already laid off one of my guys,” said Orlando Ferraro, owner of Ferraro Co., which does residential and commercial concrete work. He said if he can’t get concrete, he might have to lay more people off. “Next week, I don’t know when I can get concrete. I can’t let customers know when I can get concrete for them.”

Mike Wright, owner All Wright Concrete in Spokane, said, “It’s tough to get an order in and when you do, you’ve got to get it in a week ahead of time. It started happening a couple of weeks ago.” All Wright does mostly driveways, floors and patios.

Central Pre-Mix and Spokane Rock Products, the two largest suppliers of concrete in this area, blame the shortage on a housing boom that has boosted demand and a construction season that did not slow down. During the winter, suppliers usually stockpile cement, which is used to make concrete. However, the warm weather kept construction marching along.

Suppliers also blame a shortage of rail cars and heavy traffic on rail lines needed to ship the product. The Portland Cement Association, an industry group, said a shortage of ships also has slowed delivery from other countries. The United States’ top three suppliers of cement are China, Thailand and Canada, said Ryan Puckett, a spokesman for the association.

Mark Murphy, president of Central Pre-Mix, said the biggest competitive factor worldwide is increased demand from China, which is also the world’s largest producer of cement, manufacturing about 37 percent of the supply. Infrastructure improvements in China, including preparations for the 2008 Olympics, are gobbling up much of the supply. By 2008, Murphy said, the industry predicts China will use 44 percent of cement worldwide.

“I’m trying to get cement right now from Korea,” Murphy said. “I’m competing for cement.”

The Portland Cement Association reported in November that 35 states were experiencing shortages. But Washington was not one of them at that time. Then, within the past two weeks, Murphy said, both of the region’s major suppliers of cement began rationing supplies. Murphy said this is the worst shortage his company has seen in 75 years of business.

“You just can’t get it. You can’t get enough,” Murphy said.

Concrete is made by taking cement, a powder, and mixing it with water, sand and gravel. Murphy said his company is designing new concrete mixes to help stretch supply, using alternatives such as fly ash, a byproduct of coal-fired power plants, and slag cement, a byproduct of steel manufacturing.

Central Pre-Mix and Spokane Rock Products have given priority to bigger projects with contracts and schedules, such as the Monroe Street Bridge rebuilding, the Interstate 90 paving and the Convention Center expansion. Both also have capped the amount of concrete they will sell in a day, though neither company would say by how much.

“We’re trying to get some product to everybody,” said Steve Robinson, CEO of Spokane Rock Products. “You do the best you can under the circumstances.”

Relief may come as some of the larger projects are finished with concrete work, Robinson said. However, the heart of the construction season is also about to hit, which will boost demand from other quarters.

And even for the projects that have secured concrete, the price of the product has risen by at least 20 percent since last summer, some contractors say.

“It’s not a situation that anyone is going to be left untouched by,” Robinson said.