BUCKET SUPPLY & EQUIPMENT PARTS

           Hey guys these are some damn good looking excavator buckets!!!

Funny how some ok, average economic news you label these days as good news....its the new normal people get used to it!

So lets start off with the government reporting 1.3% growth in GDP for the second quarter of 2011. woooopie! now hold onto your seats but the auto industry has added back 24,500 jobs out of the 331,000 it cut between 2006-2009.

so what does this mean to you and I....nothing absolutly nothing. But at least it wasn't bad news.

Talking to business folks accross the country most numbers fell short of expectations in sept 2011 although it wasnt that far off. If this trend continues this year should finish dead even or have a slight up tick from last year for most folks. There is something to be said for holding your own ground.

Completly off the topic we just had for lunch some wild bore stew that I made thanks to the ugly looking 3 tusked bore hanging on the wall in the office...if your near by stop in...its delicous!

The oil and gas industry supports 9.2 million jobs and makes up 7.55% of gdp. The USA is the 3^rd largest producer of crude oil in the world at 5.38 million barrels per day, Russia comes out on top then Saudi Arabia is second.  (If you follow any news report you know that we are the top consumer of oil.) More oil and gas drilling, besides creating more supply, really pumps money into the economy.

Think of oil and gas drilling as the top point of a pyramid. It takes a lot of support to set up one well. Let’s look at one example, the Marcellus Shale gas well drilling in Pennsylvania. First the location has to be scouted, surveyed and tested. Then they have to build roads to the mostly remote locations up and down the mountains and valleys. Then they have to bring in and set up the drill rig. The fracking process used to extract the gas takes 600-800 truck loads of water and fracking fluids for one well. Think about this for a second. Building roads, drilling, fracking, etc…all take different companies and crews. Hundreds of jobs for one well. This is being done in mostly undeveloped areas. All of these people need houses or long term hotels, delis and restaurants to eat in, bars to have a beer in, stores to buy new boots in etc.  All the equipment used in the process from the haul trucks to the bulldozers that leveled the roadbed need to be purchased and then maintained by a whole different set of folks.  Then don’t forget the pipeline construction. Right now one of our customers is working on a gas pipeline in northern NJ and eastern PA. They are helping support us here in Hillside, NJ because they are buying our parts for their heavy equipment. The drilling is at the top of the pyramid, but it is supported by the broad base of the rest of us who run small businesses with in 3 states of the wells.

This article isn’t necessary trying to state “drill baby drill” but we are pointing out how more of it would really get things going without stimulus or hand out money from the government rather through the natural process of supply and demand. Look at the Bakken under North Dakota. That state is experiencing what “the west” experienced during the gold rush. A quick influx of thousands of people. Mind you the population of the entire state of ND is only 650k…(By the way the population of Hudson county NJ, the smallest county in size in NJ, has a population of 600k). They are experiencing a boom like none of us could ever imagine.

So we are getting some mixed signals.  On one hand we have the U.S. Labor Department's March 4 employment report that showed the construction industry added 33,000 jobs in February. It was the first construction employment increase in six months.

On the other hand right now material cost due to some slight uptick in demand world wide and inflation is at the highest in quite some time. RSMeans' Construction Cost Index, a composite of costs from 30 major American cities, measured a January increase in building expense of 2.3% compared to January 2010. Materials costs went up  1.8% and labor rose 2.9%. The latest quarter-to-quarter gain in the index, October 2010 to January 2011, measured annualized labor costs advancing at a slowing rate, while revival in international commodity prices accelerated materials-price increases to 5.6%

One of our mfg's Hensley is raising prices for the second time this year april 1 depending on the items 3-10% for this raise ontop of what was a 2-3% raise january 1.

Here is my advise for anyone purchasing anything....do it now and stock some extra inventory. I expect our Mfg's to give us 1 or 2 more increases this year depending mostly on what happens to oil. if demand stays the same which is what is predicted and oil stays were it is or climbs north...we are all in trouble. Steel pricing will continue to climb.

oooh by the way lead times for most items are at the longest I have seen in years...thanks to all the layoffs 2 years ago that will not be rehired.

HO HO HO....yeah right how can you get in the xmas spirit when your company's bottom line has been shouting Bah Humbug for the last 2 years straight. Some of the folks we have run into are wondering how they are making payroll this week let alone xmas bonuses.

I for one do not have much faith in our government's ability to "bring" us out of this whole mess. They are the folks who got is into it. Really think about it. If they are so smart and can manipulate our currency via the Fed and issue stimulus money and bailouts to borrow and spend our way back to prosperity...why weren't they smart enough to avoid the disaster in the first place.

Well they either aren't smart enough to fix our economy or they didn't put the people first when making the bad decisions that caused the recession to begin with. I have my opinion...please make sure you have yours and voice it now and then.

Now back to the fat guy in the red suit. My 16 month old son when asked "what does santa say?" responds with a cute "ho ho ho". He has no idea that we are either on the cusp of a slow & painful recovery or the edge of a cliff. I really hope that next time this year I can say we are all doing just a bit better then we are now. I would even take an even flat 2011 compared to 2010 and call that a win.

That seems to be the pulse of the NJ construction market. We are all predicting a flat 2011 compared to 2010. Meanwhile customers that used to just be Tree guys are doing small site work jobs. From trimming trees to installing septics.

That's why we launched a new website for those potential customers that are states away looking for a great deal on the internet. www.Bucket-Teeth.Biz You will be able to find some very ups friendly and popular bucket teeth, shanks ,plow bolts, & bucket shims for sale online at great prices. So far we have been attracting customers as far away as LA and Seattle.

Ho Ho Ho!

Talk about companies working outside their normal circle to reinvent themselves in today's market, Look at Caterpiller inc.  They have just launched their first ever on highway truck in Australia. On road as in drives down the highyway next to passenger cars. The new trucks the ct610 & ct630 were a joint venture between Cat and Navistar, using a 470 & 550 hp cat engines.

I wonder when they will be making their way to the US?

Wow. First locomotives now trucks.

That's right Cat just aquired EMD, Electro-Motive Diesel, which is second to GE in the locomotive building business. GE and EMD are the only companies that serve the railroad freight industry.  Cat is opening a plant in Muncie, IA that will support up to 650 jobs. Moving the plant to IA from Canada opens the, must be built in the USA sector for those railroads who have to buy usa only products.

Diesel locomotives are realy Diesel Electric as in there is no transmission between the Diesel engine and the wheels. The diesel is simply a generator and there is an electric traction motor for each wheel. this allows a tremendous amount of power to go to the wheels at slow speeds. 

Cat is very interested in applying that technology to their bulldozers and other heavy equipment.

Stabilizer pads are not created equal. There are 2 types.  The first is a solid molded rubber pad. This design looks pretty but comes up short on wear time. It's solid molded design gives way to "chunking" where large chunks of the pad tear out under force rendering the entire pad useless.  The second type is one that is made with lamenated rubber. When you see these pads it looks like the rubber is layered. You can not mistake a laminated rubber type with a solid molded type.

 This is a typical laminated rubber stabilizer pad.

In fact it fits all Cat, New Holland, Jcb, & Volvo backhoes wiht a 2 pad on each stabilizer design.

We also carry in stock all Case & Deere stabilizer pads. Our pads are all made with laminated rubber which will not "chunk" and last longer than most OEM pads.

Make no mistake not only should you be buying laminated rubber stabilizer pads you need to be sure you are getting them from a supplier who knows the business, and we have been selling quality parts at the right price for over 55 years.

Mfg. Names are for referance only.

Wow so here we are, got all the technical mumbojumbo out of the way and figured out how to post our first blog entry.  You will find from time to time some interesting things posted here so keep us in your favorites.

I will clue you in on specials that will be showing up, and how to take advantage of them. Here is your first hint...check us out on facebook..www.facebook.com/bucketsupply,  I post coupons there from time to time but you have to "like" our page to use them...so log on and check us out remembering to hit the "like" button.

I will also be posting things that affect the construction world from politics to emissions standards to new products.

until next time...Keep digging!