Boom-Builders Wrestle With Supply Jams

As ports around the world struggle to ease congestion, and manufacturers around the globe wrestle with power problems and Covid-spawned worker shortages, communities across U.S. are feeling the domino effect of supply-chain jam-ups — and New Haven is no exception.

The most obvious logjams are being seen in the construction business, which has benefited from an ongoing building boom in New Haven. Despite shortages in building materials, several builders told the Independent that adaptation and careful planning has allowed them to move forward with their projects more or less on time. (Click here for a previous story on the subject.)

Meanwhile, costs are rising.

According to City Building Official Jim Turcio, the situation hasn’t gotten any better since tie-ups that materialized in the spring.

“It is mainly supply chain issues. Every week something else is out of stock,” Turcio said. ​“One week it’s sheetrock. Next week it’s electrical boxes. I think last week was plastic pipe. The supply chain issue is a real problem.”

Plus, Turcio said, you can’t predict what’s going to be in stock per week. Building supplies, though they came down from a 67 percent price increase last year, are still not near their 2019 levels. In conversations, Turcio said, he has learned that contractors large and small can’t hold a job price for more than a week. ​“It’s impossible.”

He noted that ​“The Whit” building project in Wooster Square — for which Turcio approved a temporary roof in May after shortages in the desired roofing material — is in ​“pretty good” shape since the building team finally received the needed material. But even though New Haven’s building industry is still buzzing, some of the expected construction jobs have yet to start, because ​“they’re still wrapping their heads around the numbers.”

Sean Ryan, who works as director and general manager at National Lumber in North Haven and whose company provides lumber products to various building projects in New Haven, gave the example of door jambs: The jambs typically used to take between a month and a month and a half to arrive from South America. Now there has been a ​“total dearth for seven or eight months.” 

As a result, Ryan said, he had to hunt for another supplier. He eventually found a Chinese mill that would take his order. He wrote a purchase order in February of this year and expected the container around late July or early August; it showed up eventually at the end of September. 

Timing wasn’t Ryan’s only issue. He had also agreed to pay the difference in freight cost between the time he wrote the purchase order and the time he received the materials — which came to $6,000 in February and $23,500 by the time the materials arrived last month. 

“They asked me if I was willing to pay to get it here faster, and I had to say yes,” Ryan said.

He passed on some of the cost: Since the cost per jamb increased by about 18 percent, the price of the doors Ryan sells increased by about $7 each That may not sound like a lot, he said, but if a door usually costs $150, the percent increase adds up. 

Delays have forced Ryan to change his system. National Lumber used to keep two or three weeks of supply on hand; now, they store three to four months’ worth. He is also asking customers to provide purchase orders more in advance.

Ryan predicted that the recent opening of the border between the United States and Canada will help to ease the situation, especially since most of the softwood lumber they typically use is brought in from western Canada and the American West Coast. Still, he noted that once the lumber is inside the U.S., it still faces plenty of potential hiccups on its journey east. Labor shortages at railyards across the country mean that it’s taking more time to load, reload, and divert train cars at critical junctions. And a national shortage in truckers means that further delays could occur even once the lumber makes it off the rails. 

Concerns about trucking shortages were echoed by Judith Shieffele, executive director of the New Haven Port Authority. While the United States coasts are peppered with struggling ports, the Port of New Haven — the second-largest in New England — is not one of them, primarily because it deals with non-container goods such as petroleum. 

“We’re not handling the same type of cargo,” Shieffele said. ​“In fact, I have had calls over the years from people who wanted to order a container… I’ve had to tell them that the closest port for you would be the Port of New York. Not every port is set up to handle the same type of cargo. We’re primarily known as a liquid cargo port.” She estimated that two-thirds of the port’s total cargo ​“is liquid, either home heating oil, gasoline, petroleum.” 

Shieffele also noted that some corporations are exploring chartering their own ships to move goods, searching out smaller harbors in which to make port. Still, she doubts that New Haven would be on these companies’ list : the Port of New Haven is too shallow for most container ships, and there is not ​“ample laydown area” for containers after they’ve been unloaded from those ships. In the early 2000s, the Port of Bridgeport’s operators explored an expansion, but concluded that most Connecticut manufacturing doesn’t lend itself to transport via vessel. So even if a container ship did make port in Connecticut, there would be little product to send back. 

Still, Shieffele added that even with the cargo that the Port of New Haven does receive, trucking shortages have had little effect on the port’s operations since most of the cargo relies on short-haul trips to be distributed throughout the state. Rather, she added, inland shipping issues are more to blame on lack of availability of long-haul truckers.

Even as the Port of New Haven continues to operate as usual, New Haven builders continue to adapt to shortages and backlogs that originate far from the Elm City. A complete lack of roofing material caused some delays for Yale on Trumbull Street, according to the capital program director at Yale’s Office of Facilities, Keith Fordsman. While the involved building company declined to comment on supply issues, Fordsman said that the project has so far been able to make substitutions, and any delays have fit within the agreed-upon schedule. No project, Fordsman added, has been ​“grossly impacted.”

RMS Companies CEO & President Randy Salvatore, who is currently building a new housing complex at Tower Lane off Church Street South, also had issues with roofing material. 

“It was just nowhere to be found,” Salvatore said. ​“We literally were scouring the country for pieces of it. Normally you’d get it from one particular supplier, and everything comes and it’s all done. In this case it kept getting backordered, so we got it from three or four different suppliers around the country, and in one of them we even had to arrange the shipping to get it there.” 

Salvatore added that delays have also meant that his company must tackle the Tower Lane project in a manner much different from their usual methodical plans. Usually, he said, workers would install siding by moving systematically around the building. Instead, they’re ​“bouncing” around the building, doing everything they can with the materials they have. 

Still, Salvatore noted that his company ordered many materials in advance of worsening supply chain issues. Elevators that were supposed to have arrived two months ago are only just beginning to arrive, he said — and if his company had ordered later, the Tower Lane project might have been seriously delayed.

“Everyone’s working a lot harder, longer, to make it happen,” Salvatore said. ​“Because there’s only so many hours in a day, so you’ve got to make the most use of them. If you could normally just pick up one phone and make a call right before you need something and now, you’ve got to make ten different calls, going back and forth and adjusting, it’s a lot more burden on everyone.” 

He added that Tower Lane is progressing on schedule, a similar nearby project at 49 Prince St. has been completed.

Bruce Becker, who directs the building company Becker + Becker and is currently building the Hotel Marcel on Long Wharf, gave an example of electrical panels: while typically available within four weeks during normal times, those same panels now take about four months to arrive. As a result, Becker said, he has had to ​“work around that,” by, for example, proactively ordering supplies months in advance. And as a result, the hotel’s completion has not been significantly delayed. 

Becker also made note of President Joe Biden’s announcement last week that the Port of Los Angeles would be made to operate around the clock in an effort to ease some of the congestion. The Port of Los Angeles, along with the Port of Long Beach, sees about 40 percent of imports into the United States, and both ports have seen massive logjams. The new 24/7 operation, Becker predicted, will help ​“a great deal.” 

Becker added that the Hotel Marcel project benefits from its design — since lumber especially is in short supply and the hotel is relatively lumber-light, the project hasn’t felt the constraints that other sites may be reeling from.

The hotel’s completion has not been significantly delayed. Becker said he plans to open the hotel in the first quarter of 2022, though when during the quarter depends on several supply factors, he said.