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A national cement shortage that began in Florida and migrated west to Southern California is now landing like dead weight on a Bay Area construction industry already beleaguered by a slow economy and soaring fuel, insurance, steel and lumber prices.
Local concrete contractors say that in the last two weeks their suppliers have notified them that shipments are no longer guaranteed and that prices will rise some 10 percent this summer and probably again at year's end.
Concrete is one of the most ubiquitous raw materials used in construction. Nearly every kind of new development uses it, from homes to roads to commercial buildings.
Interruptions in concrete supplies also could cause rippling effects because concrete is often called for at a project's beginning. It is used in the foundations for new homes, for instance, and concrete curbs and gutters are poured before roadbed is built.
"The way things have gone, it's been like a storm cloud moving up the coast," says David Perry, general sales manager for Central Concrete Supply Co. of San Jose, a major regional ready-mix company with 18 Bay Area processing plants and 300 delivery trucks.
"It started in Southern California, and now most of the concrete producers in the Central Valley have made a decision not to operate on Fridays and Saturdays. Several have...