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Article Excerpt
WHETHER DUE TO THEIR INHERENT properties, their environmentally friendly characteristics or their dashing good looks, metals are finding growing favor among the designers and specifiers who put the face on North American construction projects. Even in a fairly flat construction market, producers and distributors of architectural metal products say demand has been solid and should remain that way for the foreseeable future.
Residential construction starts have been off throughout 2007, totaling less than 1.5 million each month through May, well behind the 1.63 million averaged in the second half of 2006, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The numbers are better in non-residential spending, but still down. Through the first five months of 2007, commercial construction declined 3.9 percent from the same period in 2006.
Architectural metal products include a wide range of railings, screens, expanded and perforated panels, profiles, shapes, tubing, bars and assorted ornamental design elements, as well as structural components and metal roofs found on various commercial buildings. They may be made of carbon steel, aluminum, copper and brass or stainless steel. Metals' increasing popularity among architects is not surprising, as it continues a trend that began in Europe a decade ago.
"The market seems to be strong, especially in bronze, nickel/silver and stainless," says Joanne Blum, president of Julius Blum & Co., a Woodridge, NJ.-based distributor that specializes in stocking metals for architectural projects. "Demand continues to be strong in all markets."
Jim Quinn, corporate product director of Alabama Metal Industries Corp., Birmingham, Ala., says his company has seen a modest, though not unexpected, decline from...
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