Business View Magazine | July 2019

54 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JULY 2019 We have plate steel from a hot roll mill; then we have structural steel which is things like angles, I-beams, and shapes that are bought, generally, from a service center. Throughout the bidding process, when we submit a bid, we have to hold our price, regardless of what happens between the bid date and the time we purchase materials. Once we submit a sealed bid, we have to honor that price, if we are awarded the project. So, when the tariffs first came through, late last March to April, from April through July or August, we probably got updated pricing on the order of every two weeks and that just shows you the volatility we experienced when the tariffs were first announced and all the mills were trying to figure out who they were going to produce for, how they were going to provide timely deliveries, etc. So, for a period of several months, it was a very volatile situation. Somewhere around September, it kind of stabilized and we were back to the normal cycle of receiving a new price list on the order of once every two months.” “On the structural and pipe side, we didn’t experience too much volatility, initially,” Fuller continues. “But what we came to find is that, at the turn of this year, the inventory of pipe, in particular, has created a lot of volatility. The primary use for that pipe is in the oil and gas sectors and, as a result of low volume of inventory, the price continues to escalate, and we’ve been battling that since January of this year. The plate was directly affected by the tariffs; the pipe and structural was more affected by inventory available. We know our competitors, and we meet with the steel mills about every 45 days, and they experience the same pains and bumps along the road that we’re going through.” Another challenge is the shortage of a skilled labor force in the construction trades. “We have been struggling over the past three to five years, but nothing like we’ve seen in the past 12 to 24 months,” Fuller reports. “We can’t find qualified, good help and this isn’t all just welding in a factory; our guys travel throughout the United