FORT Fencing
Agricultural & Equine Fencing
FORT April Newsletter - 2023
18 April 2023
Spring has ‘Sprung’ – well, by the time that you read this, we hope you’ll all have dried out. The amount of rainfall has been astonishing and we’ve been hearing from many groundwork based customers who have struggled to get any work done this year; that will seriously affect progress on sites as the year progresses. We’ve been reporting lower demand on landscaping for a while (the weather has added to this) but we’re now into ‘Peak Garden’ as Easter has finished and people look to get those outdoor chores done. Demand on the key ingredients has commenced. FORT holds excellent stocks, but it’s still good to try and order ahead.
In fact availability is pretty good across the board. One or two areas (roofing for example) remain a little bit tricky, depending on the precise materials required, but generally speaking those difficult days during COVID seem to have disappeared.
Inflationary pressures have eased. Energy costs have fallen (but are still well ahead of last year) and seem set to filter through into overall costs. The increase in mortgage rates has reduced demand for new build and that has also improved material availability.
Our constant caution around being careful about future pricing remains; there are still some bumps in the road, but in general terms the risk is clearly lower. The main area to be careful around is any of your old quotes, where that leap in costs has not been taken into account.
General demand within our sector remains very strong; FORT has continued to grow again in 2023 and our ever-expanding Customer base report strong order levels.
Estimating has always been a bit of a ‘dark art’ for many of our Customers. FORT provides an excellent Estimating Service – contact us for more details - office@fort-m.com/01488 505 800.
General Availability & Price Update
Our roundup of key indicators is shown below:
Exchange: The £ has strengthened again and whilst still down on a year ago, we’re well off the low point in October. This all helps on energy and shipping costs.
Containers: Rates plummeted from their all time highs and have stabilised somewhere close to pre-pandemic level, but are still falling, albeit much more slowly. This is good news for prices on plywood, sandstone and other bulky goods that tend to come from the Far East.
Steel: Steel prices leapt up in early 2022, then fell dramatically, before starting to recover later in the year. The last month or so has seen falls in rates and we now seem to have settled back to rates closer to where we were, prior to the Ukraine war.
Timber: Although this tracks the US market, it does give a strong indicator. Higher interest rates and signs of recession have slowed the US market, considerably. Europe and the UK specifically are also finding that demand is not as strong. The previous jump in prices was not sustained and the US has fallen back slightly.
Inflation:This is still the most scary indicator of them all. Despite many expectations of a fairly rapid fall, inflation remains extremely high. Each month we expect to see a drop, but so far it remains stuck at around 13%.
April Highlight
Introducing an all-new range of 20mm porcelain paving, adding a touch of modern design and practicality. Porcelain paving is a fantastic alternative to natural stone, being hardwearing, durable and requires little or no maintenance, this is a popular option for both new and existing garden spaces. Porcelain paving offers modern design and colours to your garden space, it also has a great range of benefits. See below for more information. Click here to find out more.
- Easy to clean due to low absorption
- Chemicals, acids & salts resistant
- R11 slip resistance guaranteed
- Thermal shock resistant
- No treatments required
- Low Water absorption
- Resistant to heavy loads
As always, please do not assume stock availability - check with the sales office!
Our reputation relies on word of mouth and testimonials from our valued customers, and as such we'd love for you to share reviews of your experiences with us on either Google, Facebook or TrustPilot if you have the time.
Thank you very much for your ongoing support of FORT!
Best regards,
Matt, Tim & Keith
The Directors