MCAA Regional Report, Region H

Words: Ron AdamsCalifornia - Joel Guth
Hawaii - Brian Awakuni
Nevada - No State Chair

Workforce Development

California
The Masonry Industry Training Association (MITA) continues with its support of California High Schools offering those school students the opportunity to learn basic concepts of the masonry trade. Both BAC Local 3 and Local 4 apprentice programs continue with their apprenticeship training programs albeit with reduced counts of apprentices due to the significant economic downturn.

Nevada
No report as of this writing.

Hawaii
No apprenticeship training programs operating at this time due to lack of work. A few contractors are providing on-the-job training, but this on a limited basis due to lack of work loads.

Economic Conditions/Forecasts

California
Construction spending activity has seen some of the most dramatic pull backs experienced in over 75 years measured on a per capita basis. The pull backs in residential spending have intensified from last year’s (2008) pull back. This prior year has also seen dramatic cutbacks in commercial and industrial development further intensifying the deterioration of the construction market-place. Non-residential construction spending is down 47% year to date as of 10/31/2009. Most contractors are reporting sales that are 30% to 60% of what they had in 2008. Additionally, margins are near nil due to fierce competition among competitors for the few projects available to bid. One area of increased construction spending has come from hospital replacement projects as well as some new primary and higher education facilities. Although Congress’ stimulus spending has been arriving in the State, most of those funds are designated for highway and other infrastructure and not much set for new building construction.

Nevada
No report as of this writing.

Hawaii
An economic slowdown was expected to arrive in December, but actually arrived one month earlier. For 2009, sales were down 10% to 15%. Commercial and industrial projects were very scarce, but schools, public works and military projects provide some stabilization for the masonry market. However, expected overall work loads are anticipated to deteriorate another 10% to 15% through 2010.

Masonry Marketing Activities

California
According to December’s issue of Architectural Record, architectural firms are expected to add employees in 2010 to meet an uptick in work-load. Meantime, the Concrete Masonry Association of California & Nevada (CMACN) has been influential by its support as well as getting word out to the design community about upgrades for engineering software that are now available. This add-on software module named RISA-3D was designed specifically to simplify the masonry design process and is seismically friendly. This program is very sophisticated not only as an engineering time-saving tool, but it allows the engineer to coordinate directly with the entire design team for any type project in 3D. The purpose of this software is to help all design professionals design masonry efficiently so that masonry can better compete among other building materials available in today’s marketplace.

Nevada
No report as of this writing.

Hawaii
Limited budgets curtail any aggressive marketing campaigns, but the Masonry Institute of Hawaii continues to be a strong resource for architects, engineers, manufacturers and contractors.

Competitors/Trends

California
A tight market leads to stupid prices. The worst aspect about a dried-up market with many competitors is the stupid pricing that follows where bidding or pricing goods and services is below a company’s cost. The second-worst aspect is “below-cost pricing” which drives the entire market price down, down and down, and it takes many times as long for pricing to recover to a reasonable level. This is the expected trend over the next 12 to 18 months.

Nevada
No report as of this writing.

Hawaii
Architects are looking to increase the ‘R’ values of CMU, so they are designing with foam filled units which are new to the region. Questions have been raised about the stability of these type units used in the state. Another new product used on a commercial project recently is Haener Block. This has also called into question the ability of these “mortarless” type units to sustain high seismic events as well as providing substantial water proof barriers - research continues.
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