Metal Construction News, May 2018
SPECIAL FEATURE Top Metal Builders of 2017 By Paul Deffenbaugh Editorial Director For fi ve years we have been asking respondents to the Top Metal Builder survey what was the biggest challenge they had faced in the previous year Throughout that time the largest response was about a lack of availability of skilled labor In 2017 that shortage became acute Of the 127 people who responded to the question in the survey 60 percent mentioned the labor shortage as their biggest challenge That answer far outstripped all of the other answers which were relatively even Lack of fi nancing for projects managing company growth dealing with increased competition facing a diffi cult regulatory environment tough market conditions bad weather and rising material costs all were distant seconds to the labor shortage issue Of those several are directly related to growth and improved construction activity Surprisingly though of our 100 builders in the Top Metal Builders of 2017 we saw a modest 34 percent increase in their average tonnage over 2016 and a 108 percent increase in square footage Compared to last years respondents the average tonnage and square footage declined Thats not unusual as companies shift in and out of the listing There is however a clear trend line upward since 2010 that both refl ects the growth of the market and perhaps indicates some consolidation among the larger players The metal building industry at the contractor level is still a fragmented industry though and no major player has grabbed signifi cant market share By that measure the industry matches almost every other construction industry in the United States One thing we should be keeping an eye on going forward is the interference of weather in the construction process Six percent of our respondents indicated weather was their biggest challenge in 2017 Add that to another few listed under other who identifi ed keeping a schedule as their largest issue The weather in 2017 included a hurricane and fl ooding in Houston and unseasonably cold temperatures in the northern United States and Canada Meteorologists and climate scientists predict that the severity of weather events will only increase in power making construction schedules even more tenuous That challenge may not rise to the level of the labor shortage but it could become more prevalent Biggest Challenge Faced in 2017 16 METAL CONSTRUCTION NEWS May 2018
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