Contractors paint dire jobs, cost consequences in steel, aluminum tariff aftermath

Sources: Associated General Contractors of America, Washington, D.C.; CP staff

Responding to President Donald Trump’s March 8 order applying respective 25 percent and 10 percent tariffs to steel and aluminum imports from countries outside the NAFTA region, AGC CEO Stephen Sandherr noted: “These tariffs will cause significant harm to the nation’s construction industry, put tens of thousands of high-paying construction jobs at risk, undermine the President’s proposed infrastructure initiative and potentially dampen demand for new construction.

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HPC mix designs heed laser tunnel aluminum, magnesium, silica sensitivity

Tunnel max crop

LafargeHolcim Ltd. unit Holcim Deutschland formulated a series of high performance concretes for elements lining a 3.4-kilometer tunnel housing the world’s most powerful X-ray laser. Located near Hamburg, Germany, the European XFEL generates extremely intense X-ray flashes researchers from around the world use to map atomic details of viruses, film chemical reactions, and study the processes in the interior of planets.

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TRUCKS & COMPONENTS

caterpillar inc. CT681 vocational truck

Major truck and component manufacturers arrived at this year’s ConExpo-Con/Agg, Las Vegas, and Mid-America Trucking Show, Louisville, with new models or existing equipment upgrades—all bearing steel, aluminum, rubber or technology touches ready to lower ready mixed and concrete product delivery costs.

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