CLEVELAND — Apprentices at the Cement Masons Local 404 are learning the business.
But the business needs concrete, and Union President Paul Metcalf said there’s a shortage of it.
“Where we’re seeing the impact of it is with our contractors not being able to get the volume of concrete that they need,” Metcalf said.
He said since some contractors can’t get concrete, so workers simply look for those who do have it. That’s good news for the members, but bad news for a contractor trying to find people for a job.
“When work gets slow, you gotta go where the work’s at,” Metcalf said.
Metcalf said the delays in concrete orders cause contractors to stretch out the completion time for a job, as a way to give more time for the materials to arrive.
“Large accounts with batch plants, you know, they’re able to make that call within a couple of days or a week,” Metcalf said. “But now they’re having to wait 2-3 weeks to schedule out.”
The Structural Builders Component Association said concrete is the second-most used substance in the world other than water. It also found that the price of a bag of cement is more than 3% higher than it was this time last year.
Metcalf believes there are a number of factors behind the shortage. He believes the war in Ukraine is affecting shipping times since Turkey is a major supplier in cement. He also believes suppliers are still attempting to ramp up production levels since the pandemic, when many projects were halted.
“I just think it’s a slow go,” he said. “You gotta get the train moving again. The train just doesn’t take off. It takes time for it to build speed to catch back up.”
