Tariff costs are mounting for construction companies, and there’s no sign of much relief in the new year. Tariff collections totaled over $5 billion in October, according to data from the U.S. Treasury Dept. and the U.S. Census Bureau. The amount being paid has doubled since May as tariffs were applied to a growing group of countries, and exemptions expired for projects that began before the new levies were imposed.

Between August and October, tariffs rose 30%, with October the first full month in which the penalties were placed on $250 billion worth of Chinese imports.

美国和中国之间的90天停战开始于12月1日，美国将1月1日的关税延长至3月2日，据路透社称，中国将其对美国制造的车辆的关税推迟到全球15％五月达成的费率。但是，世界上两个最大的贸易伙伴之间仍然没有任何交易，现有的关税仍然存在。此外，特朗普政府被任命为中国主持人美国贸易代表罗伯特·莱特希泽（Robert Lighthizer），他被市场视为贸易硬林。观察家说，贸易协定只是保证的。

美国联合总承包商的首席经济学家肯·西蒙森（Ken Simonson）说：“罗伯特·莱特（Robert Lighthizer）的选择是特朗普（Trump）不会让人感到不安。”“通常，美国贸易代表将是进行此次谈判的人，但我认为有些人可能认为也许会有一个更温和或更混合的小组来做。”

All contractors are paying more for steel but how much, exactly, depends on the individual buyer. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ producer price index for steel mill products—which covers construction, automotive and other steel-use manufacture—is up 18% from October 2017 to October 2018. With the exemptions expiring for projects that began the procurement process before the original steel tariffs were imposed in March, Simonson says that number is likely to go up in 2019.

由于关税仅在铣削的钢上，因此制造的钢铁产品不面临罚款，其他国家的制造商正在利用。美国钢制建筑研究所表示，今年从墨西哥进口的钢铁进口增长了40％，加拿大进口量增长了20％。

There are no fabricated structural steel products in the new $250 billion in tariffs against China, says Brian Raff, AISC director of government relations. Even so, the association that represents U.S. steel fabricators does not expect closure on a China deal any time soon. “We haven’t had any public indication from anyone in the administration on where these [tariffs] are going to go and when,” Raff says.

Even with a new trade deal agreed to by the U.S., Mexico and Canada, tariffs on milled products and aluminum remain on those neighboring countries. Despite these increased costs, however, contractors are still enjoying strong demand for their services.

JE Dunn Construction高级副总裁兼集团估算经理Trent Wachsnicht说：“我们在这里在这里进行的指数与Enr所做的新利18备用事情非常紧密地匹配。”“我们看到总体成本在一年中的5％范围内增长，新利18备用官网登录我们认为这与您期望的相近，就像市场一样热。”他补充说：“我认为这不是出乎意料的范围。我们会看到边际增长，但没有任何重大。我认为人们已经平静下来，并学会了如何绕过这一点，至少是原始的钢和铝关税。”但是沃克斯尼特（Wachsnicht）警告说：“中国关税仍然是一件不断变化的事情。”

Wachsnicht said that JE Dunn has relied on its multisource procurement and supply-chain management process to mitigate increased costs, and firm managers don’t envision any more tariffs on Chinese products having as big an impact as Section 201 (of the 1974 Trade Act) tariffs on aluminum and steel.

Pushing Prices

The producer price index for all construction inputs (an index of everything from materials to diesel fuel) rose 6.6% from October 2017 to October 2018. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics also releases an hourly earnings index, which includes wages and salaries for all construction employees, which went up 3.9% over that same period. The producer price index for new non-residential buildings is a survey in which BLS each month asks the same set of contractors questions like what they would charge to erect a certain type of building with certain specifications. That index has increased 5% from October 2017 to October 2018.

“Basically, contractors seem to be pushing prices a little ahead of their labor costs, but they’re not keeping up with their input costs of materials and services,” says Simonson. “So, they need to be achieving some productivity savings, or else they’re going to have their margins squeezed when they go to buy these goods and services.”

Many contractors have substituted concrete instead of steel where they can to save on costs, such as using reinforced concrete pilings instead of steel ones. There is rebar in concrete pilings, but far less than in steel pilings. Others are employing a revised exclusion process that allows them to apply for tariff exemptions through the U.S. Commerce Dept. for steel products that are too costly or unavailable in an area.

伊利诺伊州Aurora，钢筋制造商和详细信息的美国金属合作伙伴International改用了混凝土的选择，这是美国金属合作伙伴国际公司（Usical Metal Partners International）表示，自5月以来的价格上涨了300万美元以上。该公司仍在等待其排除请求的结果。

On the supply side, U.S. manufacturers of steel and aluminum are recording their strongest profits in years, thanks to the tariffs. Fort Wayne, Ind.-based Steel Dynamics said in late November that it will build a $1.7-billion flat-rolled steel mill with an electric-arc furnace somewhere in the Southwest.

The project will not begin construction until at least 2020, but the firm—which reported a record $531 million in operating income in its third-quarter filing in September—promises to employ 600 workers at the plant and create construction, automotive and manufacturing products there.

The tariffs are driving down imports. Based on the U.S. Commerce Dept.’s most recent steel import monitoring and analysis data from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), for the first 10 months of 2018, total steel imports fell 10%, to about 32 million net tons, and finished steel fell 13.3%, to 24 million net tons, from their 2017 levels. Shipments from U.S. steel mills through October were 79.64 million net tons, a 4.6% increase compared to 76.13 million net tons through the first 10 months of 2017.

U.S. steel advocacy group AISI praised the Administration for the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, which still must be ratified by legislative bodies in all three countries despite tariffs remaining in place on imports from both neighboring countries.