Shortages of cement that originally appeared in Florida and parts of the southeastern U.S. this spring are now spread over 29 states, hitting home builders in six states just in the last month, reports the NAHB Concrete Home Building Council.

Arizona, Delaware, Missouri, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Utah are the latest states to experience tight supplies of cement, the key binding ingredient for concrete, according to ongoing survey research by the Portland Cement Association.

Conditions have eased somewhat in the North Central states of Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and North and South Dakota following the resolution of production troubles in plants in that region, and wet weather on the East Coast has brought at least temporary easing to Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina.

But advisories remain for those regions of the country that have relied significantly upon foreign imports to round out their supply of cement and also are continuing to have brisk home building activity.

Last year, imports provided 22.6% of the cement consumed in the U.S. Currently, supplies of cement from overseas are being constrained by strong global demand, especially from China. Freighters have also been in short supply and shipping charges have been high.

Analysts have been concerned about a lack of short-term relief, and concerns have intensified in Florida where residents face a massive rebuilding effort following the recent hurricane devastation.

Stepping up the importation of cement from neighboring Mexico is probably the best short-term solution, but U.S. duties make that alternative prohibitively expensive. NAHB President Bobby Rayburn has urged Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans to suspend those tariffs, and the association is also providing its members with information on using escalation clauses in home sales contracts to limit the financial damage of rising materials prices.

Joining the appeal from NAHB, a recent editorial by the Wall Street Journal called on the Bush administration to “restore free trade in Mexican cement” and suggested that this should be a key element in helping with the reconstruction efforts in Florida. Editorials appearing the same week in the Los Angeles Times and the Orlando Sentinel voiced the same opinion. The Associated General Contractors has also called on Evans to suspend the tariffs.

As a long-term solution, domestic cement companies are aggressively modernizing and expanding their production capacity, which is expected to increase by 11% by 2008, adding nearly 10 million tons of the material annually.

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