Posts Tagged ‘coronavirus’
Tuesday, April 7th, 2020
Article source: ConstructConnect
- Traffic congestion in major cities has eased considerably. As a corollary, average driving speeds are faster. When the road ahead is clear, the temptation to put more pressure on the gas pedal is hard to resist. (This is not an endorsement of such a practice.) It’s odd to think that sometime in the future, driverless cars will show more discipline than humans.
- The humble parking lot, whether outdoor or indoor, is taking on a more important and expanded role in today’s economy. Real estate deals are being finalized in parking lots. Documents for signing are being passed back and forth through car windows. Then the pens are thrown away. (This is not an endorsement of such a practice.)
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Tags: banking, bids, cement, Construction, coronavirus, COVID-19, developers, Economy, lumber, recovery, shareknowledge, steel, tenders Comments Off on Notes from the Trenches (9)
Monday, April 6th, 2020
Article source: ConstructConnect
- The last three weekly initial jobless claims numbers in the U.S. have gone from 282,000 to 3.3 million to 6.6 million. Furthermore, the horrendous increase in the count of people laid off and seeking insurance relief isn’t the whole story. Many companies that are continuing to struggle on are asking their employees to take pay cuts. The economy depends on consumer spending, which has just been gut punched.
- The good news: the arrival in New York of the USNS hospital ship Comfort. The bad news: the crowds of people, not all of whom were wearing protective face masks, that congregated to watch it come into port. The Big Apple has since come under tighter lockdown control.
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Tags: banking, bids, cement, Construction, coronavirus, COVID-19, developers, Economy, lumber, recovery, shareknowledge, steel, tenders Comments Off on Notes from the Trenches (7)
Monday, April 6th, 2020
Article source: ConstructConnect
- CNN reported Wednesday night (March 31, 2020) that 350,000 retail workers had been placed on furlough since Monday (March 29, 2020), i.e., over a period of just three days. For an individual worker, a furlough may seem no different than a layoff at first, but there is an advantage. A furloughed employee will be able to qualify for unemployment insurance easier because he or she doesn’t have to prove they’re looking for a job. They still have one, even though it’s in limbo. For an employer, once the wheel spins fully around, it will be able to restore its workforce faster and without having to go through vetting hoops.
- In the Great Depression of the early 1930s, the U.S. unemployment rate soared to 24.9% (one-quarter of the workforce). In the Great Recession of 2008-2009, joblessness peaked at 10.0% (one-tenth of the workforce). Some analysts are projecting the unemployment rate this year, 2020, will reach 17.5%. Such a figure has the appearance of taking an easy route to the answer. It’s simply a calculation of the mid-point between 10% and 25%. As a ‘best case’ figure, 20% seems more likely.
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Tags: banking, bids, cement, Construction, coronavirus, COVID-19, developers, Economy, lumber, recovery, shareknowledge, steel, tenders Comments Off on Notes from the Trenches (6)
Thursday, April 2nd, 2020
Article source: ConstructConnect
- When the coronavirus crisis leapt up in China and many factories were closed due to worker shortages and to halt the spread of the disease, customers around the world were alarmed by the severing of component and final product supply lines. Now, it’s the other way around. Chinese factories are back up and running, but their customers have gone into hiding. Lockdowns in Europe and America have greatly cut into demand for China’s output. Seems no-one can catch a break these days.
- Except here’s a thought. Late last year, several of the largest milk producers in the U.S. slipped into bankruptcy due to a prolonged decline in the consumption of their product. Beverage tastes have been moving in other directions. But with so many families currently complying with instructions to stay in their homes for weeks and maybe months, perhaps there will be a resurgence in purchases of nutritious and low-cost milk.
- Canada and several American states have legalized recreational use of marijuana. It will be interesting to learn to what degree COVID-19 anxiety is impacting cannabis sales.
- Among the ‘things’ we shut-ins are buying over the Internet are computer hardware and software items (e.g., home-viewing entertainment packages) so that we can, in turn, buy more ‘things’ over the Internet. This is an instance of retail sales spiraling up, not down. Also, it’s sure to have implications for how most of us will perceive the world post-crisis.
- During the last period of extreme economic weakness, ConstructConnect’s grand total construction starts, in dollars, were -16% in 2008 and -18% in 2009. That’s a cumulative drop of -31%. Engineering starts weren’t adversely affected at all. The problem lay with non-residential building work and, even more, with residential groundbreakings.
Tags: banking, bids, cement, Construction, coronavirus, COVID-19, developers, Economy, lumber, recovery, shareknowledge, steel, tenders Comments Off on The Economy Under COVID-19: Notes from the Trenches (5)
Tuesday, March 31st, 2020
Article source: ConstructConnect
- What is one to make of half-its-old-price gasoline? In theory, it sounds great. But you just know there are a lot of ‘buts’ to go with it. The reason petrol is so cheap is because individuals are not commuting to places of employment and tourists aren’t traveling. And because Saudi Arabia is pumping out more oil than usual to grab additional market share. Certain states and provinces are quite dependent on tax and royalty revenues from energy production. Texas, Louisiana, Colorado and North Dakota in the U.S. and Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada are hurting. In the U.S., it’s the airline industry that needs rescuing. In Canada, it’s the fossil fuel sector.
- Some surprising enterprises are becoming public service companies. Take WalMart. WalMart’s initial expansion into communities far and wide across the U.S. and Canada was met with criticism on the grounds that it was driving main street retailers out of business. Now, with many smaller shopkeepers forced to shut down for a different reason, i.e., as a health measure, WalMart has become the nearest thing possible to a last resort for consumers needing essential personal care and grocery items. Not everyone is buying everything over the Internet.
- Bill Gates, a man who’s shown considerable insight in the past, is telling anyone who asks his opinion that he expects the coronavirus crisis to last six to ten weeks. Six weeks was the experience in China. The possible longer duration of ten weeks is presumably because the personal interaction restrictions in the province of Wuhan, China were more severe than are currently in place in North America. By comparison, we only think our movements are being seriously limited.
- Speaking of relaxed restrictions, Sweden is going a different direction than nearly every other nation. The Swedish government has taken a stand against gatherings of 50 people or more, but schools and restaurants are being allowed to stay open. There’s lots of concern that this will take Sweden to a very bad place. It’s not as if the country isn’t already struggling with COVID-19 cases and mortalities.
- The present circumstances present a substantial disincentive to commit a crime. Within its tight confines, a prison is not the place where you want to weather out the coronavirus crisis.
Tags: banking, bids, cement, Construction, coronavirus, COVID-19, developers, Economy, lumber, recovery, steel, tenders Comments Off on Notes from the Trenches (3)
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