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Showing posts with label industry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label industry. Show all posts
Friday, 21 March 2014
Tuesday, 4 March 2014
McGraw Hill Construction to Present Outlook 2014 Industry Forecast, October 24-25 in Washington, D.C.
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Press Release
MEDIA ADVISORY
September 17, 2013
NEW YORK
McGraw Hill Construction to Present Outlook 2014 Industry Forecast, October 24-25 in Washington, D.C.
WHAT: McGraw Hill Construction (http://construction.com/) presents its annual forum for construction and economic leaders, the Outlook Executive Conference. The event features the release of 2014’s Dodge Outlook Report, a mainstay in construction industry forecasting and business planning.
WHO: Scheduled speakers include:
? Beth Ann Bovino, Chief U.S. Economist, Standard & Poor’s, presenting a global economic outlook
? Harvey Bernstein, Vice President, Industry Insights & Alliances, McGraw Hill Construction, discussing construction industry trends and presenting the results of Engineering News-Record’s Q3 Construction Industry Confidence Index (CICI) survey
? Scott Kolbrenner, Managing Director, Head of Engineering & Construction, Houlihan Lokey, moderating a panel on Real Estate Investment for Construction with James C. Dinegar, President & Chief Executive Officer, Greater Washington Board of Trade; Daniel P. McQuade, Chief Executive, Tishman Construction, an AECOM Company; and Dorothy Robyn, Commissioner, Public Buildings Service, U.S. general Services Administration
? Roger Flanagan, Professor/Chairman, Steering Committee for International Affairs, School of Construction Management & Engineering, University of Reading, presenting the luncheon keynote address
? Robert Murray, Vice President, Economic Affairs, McGraw Hill Construction, unveiling the 2014 Dodge Construction Outlook report
WHEN: Cocktail Reception, Thursday, October 24, 6:00-7:30 p.m.; Program, Friday, October 25, 8:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.
WHERE: The Ritz-Carlton, 1150 22nd Street NW, Washington, DC
WHY: The event is expected to draw more than 300 attendees from building product manufacturing, design and architectural, contracting, engineering, and industry association firms to receive a first-hand view of industry trends and the economic forecast that will affect the construction industry, and learn vital information needed to plan for business success in the upcoming year.
PRESS PASSES: A limited number of press passes are available to credentialed media representatives. To request one, Kathy Malangone, Senior Director, Marketing Communications, McGraw Hill Construction, +1 212-904-4376, kathy.malangone@mhfi.com
MORE INFORMATION: Visit http://Outlook2014DC.com or call 1-800-371-3238. On Twitter, follow @MHConstruction or #MHCOutlook for news from the event.
The Outlook 2014 Executive Conference is produced by McGraw-Hill Construction. Platinum Sponsors include the American Institute of Steel Construction and United Rentals. SAP B4 Consulting and Hill International are Silver Sponsors. The Society for Marketing Professionals is a supporting sponsor.
For more McGraw Hill Construction events, visit http://construction.com/events.
###
About McGraw Hill Construction: McGraw Hill Construction provides essential data, news, insights, and intelligence to better inform construction professionals’ decisions and strengthen their market position. McGraw Hill Construction’s data, analytics, and media businesses – Dodge, Sweets, Architectural Record, and Engineering News-Record – create opportunities for owners, architects, engineers, contractors, building product manufacturers, and distributors to strengthen their market position, size their markets, prioritize prospects, and target and build relationships that will win more business. McGraw Hill Construction serves more than one million customers through its trends and forecasts, industry news, and leading platform of construction data, benchmarks, and analytics, including Dodge MarketShare™, Dodge BuildShare® and Dodge SpecShare®. Construction data is available for North American and global markets. To learn more, visit www.construction.com.
About McGraw Hill Financial: McGraw Hill Financial (NYSE: MHFI) is a leading financial intelligence company providing the global capital and commodity markets with independent benchmarks, credit ratings, portfolio and enterprise risk solutions, and analytics. The Company's iconic brands include: Standard & Poor's Ratings Services, S&P Capital IQ, S&P Dow Jones Indices, Platts, CRISIL, J.D. Power, and McGraw Hill Construction. The Company has approximately 17,000 employees in 27 countries. Additional information is available at www.mhfi.com.
Media Contact: Kathy Malangone, Senior Director, Marketing Communications, McGraw Hill Construction, +1 212-904-4376, kathy.malangone@mhfi.com.
Housing Leads Construction Industry to Moderate Growth in 2014, According to McGraw Hill Construction
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Press Release
Housing Leads Construction Industry to Moderate Growth in 2014, According to McGraw Hill Construction
Dodge Outlook Report Predicts Rise in Construction Starts for Housing, Commercial & Manufacturing Building Sectors; Stability for Institutional Building After Lengthy Decline; Weaker Activity for Public Works & Electric Utilities
Washington, D.C. – October 25, 2013 – McGraw Hill Construction (http://www.construction.com/), part of McGraw Hill Financial (NYSE: MHFI), today released its 2014 Dodge Construction Outlook, a mainstay in construction industry forecasting and business planning. The report predicts that total U.S. construction starts for 2014 will rise 9% to $555.3 billion, higher than the 5% increase to $508 billion estimated for 2013.
“We see 2014 as another year of measured expansion for the construction industry,” said Robert Murray, McGraw Hill Construction’s vice president of Economic Affairs. “Against the backdrop of elevated uncertainty and federal spending cutbacks, the construction industry should still benefit from several positive factors going into 2014. Job growth, while sluggish, is still taking place. Interest rates remain very low by historical standards, and in the near term the Federal Reserve is likely to take the necessary steps to keep them low. The bank lending environment is showing improvement in terms of both lending standards and the volume of loans. And, the improving fiscal posture of states and localities will help to offset some of the negative impact from decreased federal funding,” said Murray.Based on research of specific construction market sectors, McGraw Hill Construction’s 2014 Dodge Construction Outlook details the forecast as follows. - Single family housing will grow 26% in dollars, corresponding to a 24% increase in units to 785,000 (McGraw Hill Construction basis). The positives for single family housing are numerous – the pace of foreclosures has eased, home prices are rising, and mortgage rates remain near recent lows. However, the demand for housing will continue to be restrained by careful bank lending practices towards issuing mortgages. - Multifamily housing will rise 11% in dollars and 9% in units. While growth continues, the percentage gains will be smaller than the previous four years, reflecting a maturing multifamily market. This structure type is still a favored investment target by the real estate finance community, which in the near term should lead to more high-rise residential buildings in major cities. - Commercial building will increase 17%, a slightly faster pace than the 15% gain estimated for 2013. Both warehouses and hotels will continue to lead the way, while stores and office buildings pick up the pace. The positives for commercial building are improving market fundamentals and more bank lending for commercial development. Next year’s activity in dollar terms will still be 28% below the 2007 peak. - Institutional building will edge up 2%, turning the corner after five years of decline. For the educational building category, colleges are revisiting capital expansion plans, and passage of recent construction bond measures in several states should help K-12 construction projects. Healthcare construction is expected to remain flat, given continued emphasis on cost containment. - Public works construction will drop 5%, pulling back after a 3% gain in 2013 that was lifted by the start of several large highway and bridge projects. More focus on deficit reduction will limit federal support for environmental public works, although the improved fiscal position of state and local governments will help to cushion the extent of the public works decline. - Electric utility construction will retreat 33%, continuing the 55% correction estimated for 2013 that followed the current dollar high reached in 2012. Capacity utilization is down sharply, limiting the near term need for new generating capacity. The need for transmission line work remains strong.“The 2014 picture bears some similarity to what’s taking place during 2013, with single family housing providing much of the upward push; multifamily housing showing a slower yet still healthy rate of growth after four years of expansion, and commercial building gradually ascending from low levels,” added Murray. “One change that’s expected for 2014 is that institutional building will no longer be pulling down nonresidential building and total construction.”The 2014 Dodge Construction Outlook was presented at McGraw Hill Construction’s 75th annual Outlook Executive Conference in Washington, D.C. Copies of the report with additional details by building sector can be ordered at http://analyticsstore.construction.com/2014-dodge-construction-outlook.html?sourcekey=PRESREL. Additional reports and projections are available from McGraw Hill Construction Research and Analytics, http://construction.com/market_research. ###About McGraw Hill Construction: McGraw Hill Construction provides essential data, news, insights, and intelligence to better inform construction professionals’ decisions and strengthen their market position. McGraw Hill Construction’s data, analytics, and media businesses – Dodge, Sweets, Architectural Record, and Engineering News-Record – create opportunities for owners, architects, engineers, contractors, building product manufacturers, and distributors to strengthen their market position, size their markets, prioritize prospects, and target and build relationships that will win more business. McGraw Hill Construction serves more than one million customers through its trends and forecasts, industry news, and leading platform of construction data, benchmarks, and analytics, including Dodge MarketShare™, Dodge BuildShare® and Dodge SpecShare®. Construction data is available for North American and global markets. To learn more, visit http://www.construction.com/.About McGraw Hill Financial: McGraw Hill Financial (NYSE: MHFI) is a leading financial intelligence company providing the global capital and commodity markets with independent benchmarks, credit ratings, portfolio and enterprise risk solutions, and analytics. The Company's iconic brands include: Standard & Poor's Ratings Services, S&P Capital IQ, S&P Dow Jones Indices, Platts, CRISIL, J.D. Power, and McGraw Hill Construction. The Company has approximately 17,000 employees in 27 countries. Additional information is available at www.mhfi.com.Media Contact: Kathy Malangone, Senior Director, Marketing Communications, McGraw Hill Construction, +1 212-904-4376, kathy.malangone@mhfi.comConstruction Industry Needs to Make the Connection Between Improved Efficiency and Greater Competitiveness, According to New McGraw Hill Construction Report
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Sunday, 29 September 2013
Miami's high-end cigar rollers create niche industry for top smokes
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1 of 9. Niurka Perez packs a box of cigars at the El Titan de Bronze cigar factory and store in the Little Havana neighborhood of Miami, Florida September 18, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Joe SkipperBy Zachary FagensonMIAMI | Fri Sep 27, 2013 8:13am EDT
MIAMI (Reuters) - Inside a Little Havana cigar rolling business in the heart of Cuban Miami, Maria Sierra's gnarled fingers perform the same dance they did for more than three decades for Havana's famed El Laguito cigar factory.
She cuts a teardrop from a broad tobacco leaf then glues, wraps and twists it onto the end of a near-finished cigar, forming the small fan that's the signature of high-end Cuban cigar rollers.
More than five decades after a trade embargo banned imports of cigars from Communist-ruled Cuba, the majority of U.S. cigar imports come from other Caribbean countries as well as Central America.
Yet in Miami a niche industry is growing, centered on a few dozen elite Cuban rollers who make special edition cigars that sell for as much as $700 per box in Europe.
Cigar Aficionado, the industry's leading glossy magazine, recently highlighted Miami's cigar industry describing the city as a "a new hot spot for creative cigarmakers."
Sierra, at age 18, was one of 30 Cuban women selected from thousands to learn the craft from Fidel Castro's personal cigar roller Eduardo Rivera. Women entered male-dominated factories at the urging of Cuban revolutionary Celia Sanchez, a close confidant of Castro's in the 1960s and 70s.
"We would start with one little cigar and they would watch over us very closely, removing those who didn't do well enough," said Sierra, now 64. "A group of 30 or 40 women would come in to learn and after a couple of days only one or two were left."
Sierra is one of 10 rollers working at El Titan de Bronze (The Bronze Titan), a Little Havana store named after Antonio Maceo, a general in the war for Cuban independence from Spain.
Other rollers came from Cuba's respected Partagas and H. Uppman factories. Some were arrested several times trying to escape before they made it to Miami.
"We're basically a boutique," said owner Sandy Cobas, whose father Carlos opened the small shop about 20 years ago. "We don't produce in mass quantities and the cigars are done exactly like they are in Cuba."
In Miami, Cuban rollers are prized for their rigorous training. Unlike rollers in other cigar-producing countries, each is responsible for his or her cigar, from start to finish.
"A lot of the families of plantation owners left for those countries with (Cuban tobacco) seeds in a handkerchief," Cobas said. "None of those countries were known for making cigars."
Tropical Tobacco, which produces Casa Fernandez cigars, opened a small factory in Miami in 2012, hiring a dozen or so Cuban rollers who produce about 1,200 cigars a day. At the company's factory in Esteli, Nicaragua, Fernandez employs 50 to 60 rollers who work in pairs - with one bunching tobacco and wrapping the cigars and another applying the cap - to make 15,000 cigars daily.
In 2012, the bulk of the nation's cigars came from the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Honduras, with imports from those countries totaling almost $600 million, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
"The Cuban rollers that are available in the Miami market are the best in the world," said Tropical's owner Eduardo Fernandez. "We saw a niche where we can respond quickly to the market and make high-end cigars on premises."
In Miami's specialty cigar factories, bunches of cured tobacco sit in black garbage bags in walk-in humidors to keep them pliable. They're marked with the country of origin - from Brazil to the Dominican Republic - and whether they are to be used as the cigar's filler or final wrapper.
George Rico's G.R. Tabacaleras Corp, a Miami distributor, opened a small suburban factory in 2012, offering enthusiasts the chance to learn everything about the cigar-making process.
The company does the bulk of its manufacturing in Danli, about 50 miles south of Honduras' capital Tegucigalpa. In Miami it offers the deluxe "G.A.R. Deli" experience for customers who can afford to spend $250 on a box of 25 cigars.
In a two-hour session with Rico, smokers learn that soil and seasons can affect the flavor of tobacco, and also how cigars are made. They sample dozens of tobaccos and finish by creating their own blend, which is handed off to a Cuban roller.
Despite the Cuban rollers' lofty reputation, Rico said there are more of them than there is work available. At the same time not all rollers are as passionate as El Titan's Sierra, who retired from cigar making in Cuba in 2011, but returned to it after moving to Miami to be near her daughter.
"You can make a decent living," Rico said, "but some rollers ... want to move on to other jobs."
(Editing by David Adams and Gunna Dickson)