BridgeSmith
Structural
- May 22, 2009
- 4,988
Recently, here in Wyoming we've seen the price of SFMC almost double. Is this only a local phenomenon? If not, does anyone have insight as to why the price has spiked again?
We had a spike several years ago also. At the time, I ran into a ready-mix plant operator (at a Barnes&Noble of all places) who told me it was due to a rise in the unburned carbon content of the silica fume wreaking havoc with the entrained air percentage. They were having to waste so many batches tested at the jobsite and found to be out of the 4-7% range required, that no one wanted to accept jobs to batch it. After a year or so, the prices came back down, presumably as they got a handle how to compensate for the higher carbon content.
As a side note, the increase in unburned carbon in the silica fume was the result of an EPA mandated lowering of the operating temperatures of the furnaces that produce it as a by-product. Dang Feds!
We had a spike several years ago also. At the time, I ran into a ready-mix plant operator (at a Barnes&Noble of all places) who told me it was due to a rise in the unburned carbon content of the silica fume wreaking havoc with the entrained air percentage. They were having to waste so many batches tested at the jobsite and found to be out of the 4-7% range required, that no one wanted to accept jobs to batch it. After a year or so, the prices came back down, presumably as they got a handle how to compensate for the higher carbon content.
As a side note, the increase in unburned carbon in the silica fume was the result of an EPA mandated lowering of the operating temperatures of the furnaces that produce it as a by-product. Dang Feds!
