Today, we will be sending out a survey to all our Aegis Fabricator Partners.  We are asking  you to help us identify opportunities on which we should  focus in 2012  for system/product improvement in the areas of fabrication and installation.  Our goal, as always, is continual improvement and enhancement of the “Ultra-Span experience” for you and your installation contractors.

Our Fabricator Partners have always offered  fresh and innovative ideas , so we encourage all of you to take the time to complete and submit the survey.  You have our commitment that we will act on those areas of consensus for improvement, and continue to deliver you the most complete cold formed steel truss system.

Thank you as always for your business!

Market sources appear to be split on whether additional increases will follow in the coming months with some buyers feeling scrap prices will continue to rise, while other express doubt that overall demand will be sufficient to support more hikes.  Regardless of the outcome, we will continue to provide our fabricator partners with the most current market data as it becomes available.

However, by shifting the splice nearer to the left end, when the moment from the overhang causes heavier material, the design can reduce the truss cost by about 5%.

Old school construction meets new building methods in Fort Thomas, Kentucky this fall as the Northern Kentucky Water Service District adds to its campus of facilities buildings.  Aegis Metal Framing Ultra-Span® cold-formed steel trusses were the product of choice for the latest building, a structure that will be capped with a live vegetative green roof.  Cold formed steel trusses were chosen for their ease of installation and versatility, while still maintaining Type II rated construction required for most commercial and institutional projects.

Aegis fabricator partner Superior Truss and Panel (www.superior-truss.com) supplied the steel trusses for this “Green Roof”.  Installation was handled by Building Crafts, Inc., Wilder, KY (www.buildingcrafts.com). According to Mike Schoborg, superintendent, truss installation has gone very smoothly.  He especially liked using The Stabilizer, a product unique to the Ultra-Span system.

“Using The Stabilizer allowed us to quickly and easily space and brace the trusses at the same time. Because they’re installed in plane, we didn’t have to go back and remove the, like we do with hat channel, in order to install the deck.”

This latest building will be a drastic contrast to other structures on site.  One building is a flat roof with many vented penetrations throughout the roof. Another building has a sloped roof which obviously sheds rain and snow quickly. This new structure will use the latest in green roof techniques. Local plants and sphagnum, held in place with a grid system, will grow on the 4/12 sloped roof. Using natural materials will help keep maintenance to a minimum while allowing the vegetation to thrive.

Be sure to keep watching our blog as we post more updates on this exciting project, as well as other structures taking full advantage of the sustainable properties of Ultra-Span cold-formed steel trusses and framing.

As expected, domestic steel producers have followed up their announcements of early November with additional notices of their intent to raise prices.  Led by Severstal NA, all major US-based mills began notifying customers Thanksgiving week of increases in the $40 to $50 per ton range, bringing the total announced rise to $80 per ton or more so far this month.

Aegis Metal Framing  is closely following these market moves, and we are in daily dialogue with our vendor base in an effort, to the extent that it’s possible, to minimize the overall impact.  At this time we do expect mill prices to rise further as we move into the historically busy first quarter, resulting in corresponding increases in all steel-based construction products.

As always, we will provide our fabricator partners with the most current market data as it becomes available.

Thank you as always for your business.

Aegis Metal Framing served as one of the sponsors of the USGBC- Missouri Gateway Chapter’s 2nd Annual ECORIDE, which provides green building educational opportunities. We support the organization’s mission of transforming the built environment, access to green building and green communities.

To learn more about the annual ECORIDE, please visit the USGBC- Missouri Gateway website at http://www.usgbc-mogateway.org/2011/06/2011-eco-ride-to-benefit-usgbc-missouri-gateway-scholarship-fund/

Within the past two weeks nearly all domestic flat roll producers have announced price increases ranging from $40 to $50 per ton for galvanized sheet steel.   The mills are basing these increases on stubbornly high raw material costs and a perceived improvement in forward order books.  Despite the poor market climate in construction, other flat roll consuming segments such as automotive, energy, and industrial equipment are relatively strong.  Thus, mills are “feeling their oats” and pushing to see what they can get.  All mills have closed their December order books and several are reporting lead times out into late January 2012.

At this time it is difficult to say how successful US steel companies will be in raising prices further, but there is little doubt that they will continue to announce increases until the market “pushes back.”  While there is not yet evidence to suggest the sheet market will experience the dramatic run up in prices that we saw late 4^th Q 2010/1^st Q 2011,  it will only take a slight uptick in demand and/or a reduction in capacity to kick off a potential flurry of activity.

As always, Aegis Metal Framing will keep our fabricator partners posted with the most up to date information possible, so as to allow you to better plan your operations.

Thank you as always for your business.

Aegis fabricator partner Builders FirstSource (http://bldr.com/) is currently wrapping up one of the largest cold formed steel truss projects in the southeast.   The brand new Colonel Robert L. Howard State Veterans Home is a massive 200,000 sq ft+ facility located in Pell City, AL.

According to website of general contractor Doster Construction Company (http://www.dosterconstruction.com/index.html):

“The home will have 254 private rooms in which 174 are skilled-care beds and 80 are domiciliary/assisted living units. Veterans will live in neighborhoods that will have two to three houses with 12 to 14 private rooms, personal bathrooms, living and dining areas with a complete kitchen for serving meals. Other features of the home include a community center, a barbershop and salon for both male and female veterans, and a sports bar. The home will also have a “Hall of Honor” dedicated to the men and women who have served their nation in uniform.”

Williams and Blackstock (http://www.wba-architects.com) served as the primary architect on the Pell City Veterans Home and Lane, Bishop, York and Delahay (http://www.lbyd.com/) provided structural engineering.  Gasque Construction was the truss installation contractor.

Congratulations to the entire BFS team on a job well done on this true showpiece of a project for Ultra-Span cold formed steel trusses.  We truly appreciate your accomplishment!

Image: Reed Construction Data

On October 13, 2011 Reed Construction Data held one of their very informative construction forecast webinars.  The title, Flat, Up, or Down, Where is Construction Heading?  was somewhat rhetorical, as the consensus of all the panelists pointed to little overall growth in 2012.

Bernard Markstein, Chief Economist, Reed Construction Data, kicked things off with a forward estimate of the US Economy.  Reed Data’s consensus for GDP growth is a very modest 1.5 to 3% in 2012 and 2013.  He expects total construction–driven mostly by non-building construction like highways, as well as the heavy industrial sector—to be up 5 to 7% over the next two year period.  By major building segment, Markstein sees Residential growing 2 to 5% annually and non-residential (again, mostly industrial and manufacturing) to grow in the 5 to 8% range annually.

The next presenter, Kermit Baker, Chief Economist for the American Institute of Architects, addressed the Residential and Non-Residential sectors.  The news, as expected, was tempered. Residential will likely to improve a bit in 2012, but coming from the worst levels on record, the growth will feel anything but robust.  The general consensus of the forecasters polled for Baker’s presentation was for total housing starts in the low to mid-600s next year, driven mostly by multi-family.  The growth that does occur will be regional, with higher levels of activity in Texas, Boston, New York and the Silicon Valley, and continued weakness in overbuilt markets like Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tampa and San Diego.

Baker did point to some hopeful demographic trends.  The Census Bureau is forecasting significant growth in several key demographic segments that should bode well in the coming decade.  Increased numbers of school age children (5 to 17 years of age) will mean more school construction, once local tax revenues recover.  Likewise expected strong growth in young workers (25 to 44) should bode well for multi-family and etnry level housing.  Lastly, a strong jump in potential retirees (65 to 84) will mean greater demand for active living, assisted living and skilled nursing projects.   All it takes it time—it would seem.

Lastly, Ken Simonson of the Associated General Contractors presented.  Those Aegis fabricators that had the opportunity to hear Ken speak earlier this year can attest that his fun, conversational style helps make a very dry subject (construction economics) a little more palatable.   Unfortunately, Ken’s presentation style could not mask his underlying negative outlook for many key segments in Non-Residential.    Lead by a projected sharp drop in Base Realignment and Closure(BRAC) activity, as
well as weak K-12 educational construction, Simonson expects total Public spending to be down 6% or more in 2012.  With Private non-residential forecast to be only flat or slightly up, it is likely demand for cold formed steel framing and trusses will be stagnant in 2012.

Construction forecasts are, as they say, “worth what you pay for them.”  Looking back at the past few years of projections, most have been off pretty dramatically.  So, we shall hope that is the case this time and, construction will actually improve nicely in 2012.

There is one thing that Aegis’ fabricator partners CAN be certain of.  That is, we are 100% committed to helping you through these challenging times.

Aegis Metal Framing just finished exhibiting at MetalCon International 2011 in Atlanta,GA.   Although attendance was well off historic levels, overall participation seemed significantly better than many other trade shows this year (AIA, BCMC, National Structures Congress, etc.)  Show floor traffic seemed steady with a diverse mix of engineers, contractors, fabricators and suppliers.  As in past years, there was strong representation from Asia and Latin America as well.

Aegis used the opportunity of MetalCon to officially “unveil” our exciting new Steel Engine modeling software. This exciting new product brings to fabricators and building designers a powerful melding of Auto Cad modeling and Aegis engineering software.   Steel Engine brings full BIM capability to cold formed steel truss and panel construction—a true whole-structure model!  To learn more about Steel Engine, click here.

Prior to the show floor opening, Steel Market Updatepresented the second annual Steel Market Summit.  Attendance was strong, with representatives from steel industry producers, consumers, analysts and economists all presenting their outlooks for 2012.  The basic tone of the presentation suggested that steel prices will climb as we enter Q1 2012, but with additional capacity and modest demand persisting, the run-up should not be as dramatic as early 2011.  OF course it’s steel—so all bets are off!!

Thanks to those Aegis customers and prospects that visited with us this year. We look forward to doing business in 2012.  It will be another challenging year to be sure—but we feel there is no better partner than Aegis and MiTek to help you weather the storm.