Masonry Magazine June 1973 Page. 28
Brick/Supply & Demand
(Continued from page 8)
It was extremely difficult to justify the investment in new production facilities when gas shortages were forcing them to curtail production right now.
It should be added that there is no immediate relief in sight from the gas shortage, and fuel oil, the most practical substitute fuel, is also in short supply.
In the face of this new and critical problem, therefore, it is questionable whether the brick industry will be able to expand its productive capacity this year from 8.5 billion to 9.3 or 9.4 billion units, as it had planned to do as late as November of 1972.
We do expect that there will be some increase in productive capacity in 1973, but how much of an increase it will be remains in doubt. BIA, therefore, does anticipate that in the latter half of this year the disparity between demand and supply of brick will have been diminished. It is our hope that it will be diminished by maintaining demand at a high level and increasing brick production, rather than by the reverse. At the same time, brick producers believe there are three things that the entire masonry industry can do which will have a beneficial effect, not only in terms of solving the existing supply-demand problem, but also in terms of making possible the long-range expansion of brick and masonry markets.
The first of these requires the re-education of the building industry. Because of the seasonal nature of building, brick production in years past has tended to be somewhat seasonal-it goes up in the early spring and goes down in the late fall. This seasonal fluctuation can be counteracted to some degree by building and maintaining inventories of brick, but it cannot be overcome entirely in this manner because of the economic burden that brick inventories impose on producers.
Brick producers believe, therefore, that our current problems can be eased if our customers-mason contractors, home builders, architects, and businesses are educated to order brick well in advance of actual need so that production and shipment of brick can be smoothed out. We all know that many users of brick have been accustomed to waiting until the last moment to place orders. Under the conditions we now have, this imposes a handicap on both the customer and the brick producer.
If we are able in this manner to eliminate some of the seasonal variations in our industry it will be a long-term gain because brick producers then can make more efficient use of plants and labor.
The second thing that all of us can do is to undertake a campaign to convince the federal government that policies which cause fluctuations in the building industry result in a long list of problems, one of which frequently is a disparity between supply of and demand for building materials.
If governmentally-inspired fluctuations in building can be eliminated, it will greatly encourage brick producers, and producers of other materials, to make long-range capital investments necessary to equalize supply and demand.
The third and final thing that can be done is for the masonry industry to unite in an effort to try to solve the fuel shortage. This is a problem that affects all of us-management, labor, suppliers. It affects producers of other building materials, also.
Brick producers at present are working at the national
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masonry
June, 1973