Cass & York shelved

[Richard]

My steel supplier who also supplies the shipyard will not gaurentee a set price over 10 days.

My little indicator is the price of scrap,last time when there was high demand the price of scrap metals was through the roof,now the price of scrap is at the bottom but the cost to purchase the product new does not reflect that,which means that it is not a demand or supply issue,only a it’s time to make bank issue.

To me anyways,we went through 8 years of slow growth and are now seeing a sort of pent up demand,everything from food costs to construction materials have gone up,but not really because when I look at the 2006 books we are paying the same prices as back then.

When the recession hit people had to lower costs and forgo profits in order to keep the doors open,now costs are rising because everybody is trying to re coup those profit margins.

It is a trickle effect but based on what the market will bear,I have increased costs in supplies and materials so I increase the costs on my end,people are still paying it and actually offering more in order to be moved further up the waiting list.

Costs will continue to climb until it reaches the point where people are reluctant to pay and then we go back to the correction and do it all over again.

The trades were always hard to find help in,but what made it even worse now is during the last recession many just moved on into other fields and have not returned,the last downturn left a bad taste in many mouths.

Here in Florida it became even worse because others,immigrants,were willing to work for less so the big contractors started paying skilled trades less,It is not uncommon to see a apartment complex being thrown up with 95% of the workforce being Latin American or Mexicans.

But seriously would you as a skilled electrician go work for $15 per hour when you can go work non skilled flipping burgers for $15 per hour in the A/C.

They do not lower the price of the house or apartment building and are really not particularly concerned about quality and it is not uncommon to find a 3/4 inch gap in a bedroom door across the top.

Most skilled workers take pride in thier work and it is tough to handle when being asked to slap something together for $15 an hour.

Demand has a lot to do with it but also the younger generations are not entering the fields replacing those who are leaving,even in the machine shops or fabrication shops the adverage worker age is mid 50s.

Can you imagine what would have happened if Amazon had actually picked Detroit,very little else would have gotten done.

Which even brings up how this will impact your new free bridge construction,it is supposed to be a split labor supply aspect.