SANY’s roster of new compact excavators uses the latest in hydraulics.
The RT-75 compact track loader is designed for longer run times, increased performance and reduced maintenance.
Hurricane’s floodwaters will generate scrapped autos and appliances.
The hurricane and tropical storm known as Harvey, which drenched parts of Texas and Louisiana with historic amounts of rain, could create more than 500,000 totaled vehicles and a significant number of junked appliances that will eventually make their way to auto shredding plants.
A Sept. 3, 2017, article by the Washington Post cites “auto industry experts [who] estimate that 500,000 to 1 million vehicles will have been damaged by water” after Hurricane Harvey, “with most being total losses.”
The newspaper’s reporters also write that insurance firm State Farm “has already received almost 20,000 claims” on flood damaged vehicles from the Houston area.
Figures for large appliances—washers, dryers, refrigerators and air conditioners—also are not yet available, but based on aerial photographs of southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana, the count is likely to be high.
Cincinnati-based David J. Joseph Co. (DJJ) operates four scrap facilities under the Texas Port Recycling name in the Houston area. Ann Dewert, director of corporate services with DJJ, says, “Thankfully, all of our staff have been accounted for and are safe. In addition, our facilities were spared significant damage.“
She continues, “All four of our Houston area recycling facilities (Houston Port on Manchester Street, Pinemont, Conroe and Victoria) remain open to serve our valuable customers and the people of Southeast Texas. Our thoughts and prayers will continue to be with the people of Texas and Louisiana.”
Hurricane Katrina in late August 2005, which left New Orleans and other parts of southern Louisiana under water, resulted in an influx of scrap that kept recyclers busy into 2006. A manager at Louisiana-based Southern Scrap Recycling, in a December 2005 Recycling Today article, said authorities had estimated more than 1 million appliances and 150,000 vehicles “in New Orleans alone” were scrapped because of that natural disaster.
A commodities market summary by Milan, Italy-based T-Commodity says the Platt’s news organization
foresees price support in the steel sheet market in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.
Also, according to Platt’s SBB (Steel Business Briefing), if 500,000 vehicles end up at auto shredding plants, that would be double the number that were shredded after Superstorm Sandy in the eastern United States in 2012.
Adds Gianclaudio Torlizzi of T-Commodity, “Depending on the replacement demand for those vehicles, the overall impact longer term could be supportive for steel prices despite the increased scrap supply, as demand is usually the bigger driver of prices. Near-term scrap prices are expected to firm, given the difficulty of moving scrap in the affected regions. ”
ABC and AGC both point to higher payroll figures for the month.
Two construction trade organizations have reported that August 2017 marked a busy month for hiring and employment in the sector, with jobs being added—but sometimes being hard to fill.
The Washington-based Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), citing United States Bureau of Labor Statistics figures, says national construction employment rebounded in August, adding 28,000 net new jobs on a seasonally adjusted basis. It was the best month for job gains in construction since February 2017, according to ABC.
The construction industry unemployment rate, which is available only on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, fell two-tenths of a percentage point and now stands at 4.7 percent, says ABC. This represents the first time during the past five years that the industry’s unemployment rate declined in August. The unemployment rate for all U.S. industries inched up to 4.4 percent.
“Data work in strange ways,” says ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu. “In July, overall national job growth remained strong, while construction statistics sagged. One month later, the construction jobs picture looks much brighter, while headline numbers for the broader economy appear a bit less benign.
He continues, “Rather than focusing on oscillations in monthly data, look at the broader picture. Here’s what we know: The U.S. labor market remains strong, as evidenced by enormous numbers of job openings, and construction activity remains robust, especially in certain private segments. This helps explain the 44,800 net new positions added by nonresidential specialty trade contractors during the past year. There is even evidence of growing demand for public construction services, with the heavy and civil engineering segment adding another 6,600 net new positions in August and more than 45,000 during the past year.
Basu concludes, “The result is that demand for construction workers continues to expand despite occasional contradictory information emerging from monthly statistics. Accordingly, construction firms are increasing their scramble rate for employees, driving up hourly compensation in the process.”
The Arlington, Virginia-based Associated General Contractors of America cites the same August employment figure and also remarks that contractors face a lack of experienced workers, with a majority of firms reporting having a hard time finding qualified workers.
“Construction firms have stayed busy, adding employees in the past year at nearly twice the rate of employers throughout the economy, but more than two-thirds of contractors report difficulty finding craft workers as the number of unemployed, experienced construction workers hit a 17-year low in August,” says Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist.
Regarding a recent AGC survey, Simonson comments, “Half or more of the 1,608 respondents said they were having trouble finding carpenters, bricklayers, electricians, concrete workers or plumbers. Some salaried positions—notably project managers and supervisors—are also hard to fill.”
The AGC is among those urging members of the U.S. Senate to pass a new Perkins Act the group says has received widespread bipartisan support in the House. The measure increases funding for and reforms career and technical education programs so more schools can offer construction-focused programs. “Exposing students to construction as a career path will encourage more of them to pursue these high-paying careers,” says Stephen E. Sandherr, the AGC’s CEO.
the screen aims to simplify maintenance and increase uptime.
McLanahan Corp. Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, has introduced its MAX series vibrating screen designed to separate coarse feed materials from finer materials.
Available in a range of sizes from 6 by 16 feet to 8 by 24 feet, these screens are a low headroom designed to fit into existing structures and operations with no rework.
MAX Series vibrating screens are designed to be durable for long wear life and with maximum strength steel to withstand heavy loading. Side plates are fully bolted construction that reduce crack propagation due to stress riser in the steel caused by welding and provide the ability to replace worn components without cutting. The side plates also use A572 Grade 50 plate, for 45 percent higher yield strength than traditional A36 plating, according to the company.
The side plates feature cross beam inspection ports that allow producers to inspect inside tubes for failure when the tube is not visible due to abrasion resistant lining, eliminating the need for operators to crawl between decks for inspections, says McLanahan. Foreign material that can corrode or abrade the inside of the cross members can be flushed out via cross beam inspection ports. The company says one of the most important design features of MAX Series vibrating screens is the independent cross members manufacutred to replace worn sections of the screen individually without needing to replace the entire deck frame. The replacement cross members are shorter and have machined and matched shims to allow installation in areas with limited clearance.
Additionally, this screen design is engineered with a direct drive system that eliminates the requirements for a pivoting motor base to keep belt tension on start-up, according to McLanahan. This drive system is designed to eliminate many issues.