Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Cement Shortage?

...."a lot of the cement comes from Russia and China. "..... this is what happens when you go to a world economy and out scource your products ,and just in time deliveries .. that worked out well at my old factory ...not....

And only one can pass the piss test.

If a guy needs quick little hit to start or end the day...the concrete labors is where ya go. lol

That's not new. It's been coming from there for 100 years.

My brother is a ready mix producer. Cement shortages only allowed him to supply so much yardage a week which wasn’t near enough to keep up with demand.

Or have a drivers license.

We used to have a cement plant locally until about 8 years ago -- so some of it may have come from overseas, but there was local industry here from 1929-2012.

I bet there's some folks that wouldn't mind having a local supplier, now.

From Russia and China? My first reaction was disbelief. Limestone and clay are not rare materials. And it isn't a difficult process. It is very heavy so you'd think transport costs would be huge.

Guess what country the US imports the most concrete from??
Canada!!!

No shortage here, we are placing ~700 yds. a week.

That’s because there is a very large plant in Newfoundland that was built to serve the northeast part of the U.S.

Making cement is very energy intensive, so the price of energy, more particularly natural gas, determines the cost of the cement for the most part.

After the fracking revolution, our natural gas prices are very competitive worldwide. However, I doubt the current labor situation is inspiring anyone to build and operate new cement plants in this country anytime soon.

NAFTA killed off most of the American bulk cement production. That and onerous environmental regulations. The Bill Clinton NAFTA deal allowed Mexico to step up their heavily polluting cement production and subsequently flood the southwest readymix market with cheap cement. Cheaper than what could be produced here at home. And when Mexico started buying concrete batch plants they could undercut the local market with their cheap and dirty cement. Hundreds of Mom and Pop concrete companies went belly up or sold out.

NAFTA fuqked the American worker big time and this is why we are now at the mercy of foreign suppliers.

Logistics has a lot to do with the current shortage. Rail in particular has struggled to get the cement from the mills to the terminals. As you can imagine, the cost associated with transporting raw and finished materials has gone way up as well. The is certainly a regional component to the shortage. Some areas are ok, some are very short on cement. A lot has to do with the capacity of the plants that serve a given market. All it takes is one plant to break down for a shortage to occur in a pretty large geographical area. A good wet/miserable winter will likely solve some of this. It will allow the producers to build raw material inventory, and allow the rail to get the terminals full.

There are large plants all along the great lakes. I see the ships coming from Thunder Bay all the time.

trust me the excavation ended things ain't no better trying to find help. find somebody that's got some equipment experience in a valid CDL you just will be looking for a unicorn farting rainbows

I don't know about the Mississippi River but I went over the Cumberland this weekend and it is might low.

Sounds like another DNCC success story in action.. thank the DemocRATS....

They screw up anything they can, just so then they claim we need them to administer and oversee it all....

Give 'em more time... they have lots more plans for more and more of it.

Lots up here

Great Lakes freighters from Rogers City to Duluth? But shipping season will end in a few weeks. There was a USCG cutter working buoys on the Straits of Mackinac yesterday.

Me included. We do mix in a fair amount of Fly Ash from power plants.