Cement Shortage Leaves Builders, Do-It-Yourselfers in a Bind

Sculptor Robert Fida doesn’t love cement as much as he once did.

In 1998, he mixed concrete with pulverized marble and poured it into molds to build a five-story statue of the Virgin Mary that overlooks Interstate 80 near the Nebraska line. It’s the largest sculpture in Wyoming, containing 180 tons of “cast-stone” concrete.

But lately a nationwide cement shortage has Fida, small contractors and do-it-yourselfers wondering where, when and sometimes if they’re going to get their next batch of concrete.

Ed Sullivan, chief economist for the Skokie, Ill.-based Portland Cement Assn., said cement is in tight supply in 28 states, especially Texas, Florida and the south Atlantic area.

Demand has risen worldwide over the last year. Reasons include the U.S. housing boom, China’s economic growth, and reconstruction from last year’s Southern Asia tsunami and Florida hurricanes.

Last year, the United States used 130 million tons of cement, but produced just 100 million tons domestically. “So there’s a 30-million-ton shortfall that has to come from imports,” said John Arellano, vice president of sales and marketing for Denver’s Mountain Cement Co., which provides cement to Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Nebraska.

In parts of the Rocky Mountain region, he said, cement supplies have been sapped in part by booming gas drilling. Cement usage in Montana and Wyoming is up 80% since 2000. And in northern Idaho and eastern Washington, some homebuilders have laid off workers because of delays getting cement.

“It’s robust, as we call it,” Arellano said.

Meanwhile, the ability to import from cement-producing countries, especially Thailand, has tightened. The result is twofold: cement prices are climbing rapidly -- up 7.5% from last year -- and concrete has become harder to get for small users.

Like flour for bread, cement is mixed with sand, gravel and water to make concrete, usually not far from where it’s used. Ready-mix companies say the shortage is forcing them to tend to their bread-and-butter customers first.

“We try to take care of people who have been loyal to us over time, and it creates a lot of issues for people who think it should be first-come, first-served,” said Ken McCann, with Cook-McCann Concrete in Cheyenne.

Particularly for small contractors and home-improvement warriors who are pouring just one patio, foundation or driveway at a time, it’s become a matter of either planning ahead or planning to wait.

Fida, for one, said he could no longer get concrete just by calling a ready-mix plant the same day he needed it. “It’s now become a commodity where you don’t know for sure how much you can get, when,” he said.

Recently, Fida needed the equivalent of 10 wheelbarrows of concrete to backfill the pedestal of a sculpture of a dancing American Indian. But with days to go before the dedication ceremony, the ready-mix company had sold out.

“That was pretty scary,” he said.

Steve Abeyta, owner of Abeyta Concrete in Cheyenne, knows the feeling. “I just have to get my spots and get it when I can. It’s been really hectic,” he said.

“You have to just coordinate everything right. And knowing that there’s a concrete shortage, you have to make sure you get everything there, everything in time.”

Although the Associated General Contractors has asked the Bush administration to ease restrictions on cement imports from Mexico, in place since 1990 to protect U.S. suppliers, the shortage seems unlikely to let up soon. One reason is it’s not easy for domestic producers like Mountain Cement, which mines limestone and processes it into cement at a plant near Laramie, to add capacity.

Environmental requirements mean it can take seven years or more to complete a cement plant expansion.