Rush Reason And Port Congestion
When Christmas and the 2023 new year are approaching, international businesses are facing two rush seasons (“double rush” season). One is the Christmas holiday season in the USA, and the other is the Chinese New Year Holiday season. Chinese New Year official holiday is from January 21st to January 27th in 2023.
Now all the Chinese factories are doing rush production to catch the “double rush” season. Starting in September, the rise in demand becomes noticeable. The whole business line including raw material purchasing, production, packing, logistic, and shipment is running at full speed.
Port congestion is predicted to happen or get worse in both China and USA because of the “double rush” season.
The live data on port congestion shows 21 days delay at Houston port, USA. More port congestion information can be found through the following link:
https://www.gocomet.com/real-time-port-congestion
Low PVC Raw Material Cost, Lower Sea Freight Charges, Power Supply Issues
PVC raw material cost is very low at present.
PVC price is 6021.43 RMB/ton on 31th, October 2022.
The Sea freight charge is near the bottom level
Shippers in Shanghai now charge about US$2,000 to transport a 20-foot equivalent container to the US west coast, down from US$20,000 in the summer of 2021.
Chinese factories faced limited power supply in November 2021.
Now we’re in November 2022. Nobody can ensure the regular power supply ability during an uncertain environment.
In conclusion, all the Costs, situations, and environment are at the greatest level for instant purchasing. If you still hesitate, you may lose a very valuable opportunity.
The important trends for home builders and apartment owners in the United States for 2022
Builder confidence down for 10 straight months as the housing market continues to weaken.
In a further signal that rising interest rates, building material bottlenecks, and elevated home prices continue to weaken the housing market, Builder confidence is down for 10 straight months.
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) reported the housing market index (HMI) was at 38, half the level it was just six months ago. This is the lowest confidence reading since August 2012, except for the onset of the pandemic in the spring of 2020.
All three HMI components posted declines in October. Current sales conditions fell nine points to 45, sales expectations in the next six months declined 11 points to 35, and traffic of prospective buyers fell six points to 25.
Prices to Rent Ratio in the United States keep increasing in the two quarters of 2022.
The average monthly rent for all apartment types in the United States rose substantially in 2022. As of February 2022, the average monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment in the United States reached 1,295 U.S. dollars, up from 1,100 U.S. dollars a year before.
As of March 2022, rents increased across all states, with some states seeing an increase of over 20 percent.
How to lower the cost, especially the flooring cost for houses, apartments, dormitories, hotels, and home renovation during this economic stagnation?
In an environment where raw materials are getting more expensive, finding more cost-effective materials for flooring is becoming more and more important in global inflationary environments.
A New Acoustical Flooring For Reducing The Total Flooring Cost
Listed below is a new acoustical flooring which includes the high-density acoustic pad. Compared with old-school dry back flooring, this new product helps to save money totally in raw material purchasing, installation steps, and labor costs. Referring to the reduced total costs, you can check how it works below.
Though the unit price of normal glue-down flooring is a little bit lower than the glue-down with pad, the flooring expense contains material purchasing, installation costs, and labor costs in the whole process.
From the spreadsheet, you can find that steps, material costs, and labor costs are reduced by using glue down with a built-in acoustical pad compared with glue down without a pad.
The cost of mass production with the help of machinery is much lower than the cost of labor installation in the acoustical pad installation process, that’s the key point.
Among all the flooring products, the normal glue-down flooring is of the lowest price which is quite suitable for the rental market. But they can’t solve the noise problems. When we’re looking for more suitable products, we find two types of flooring products that are more beneficial: SPC flooring and glue down with pad flooring.
Generally speaking, both are of the lowest price in flooring products with isolation functions. From the following table sheet, you may find that LVT with pad is of lower noise isolation level than SPC flooring, and LVT with pad is of a lower price than SPC flooring, that’s because LVT with pad has much more simple construction, fewer layers and thinner pad. When checking with the installation and replacement method, LVT with pad is easy to install just using adhesive, and labor cost is much lower because DIY is workable. While SPC flooring is hard to install because it requires a professional team to install click system flooring.
Carpeting Versus Flooring in Noise Isolation
Regarding the noise isolation function, carpeting is necessary in the past, especially “rental grade” carpeting. As we all know carpet purchasing/ installation cost, carpet clearing cost, carpet replacement labor cost, and material replacement cost are a large proportion of total costs for rental properties. Compared with flooring, the carpet cleaning and replacement frequency are higher. Carpet cleaning needs to be done when Tenants move in/out annually. Carpets were replaced every 3-5 years. Flooring can last at least 10-15 years.
Considering all the aspects we mentioned, LVT flooring with pad and SPC flooring products provide us with more choices to suit the global Inflation situation.
BY JUDY
Judy@yhfloors.com