Steel Market Update Helps Save Dawson County $14.5 Million
Jan / 13 / 2010 - Steel Market Update Helps Save Dawson County $14.5 Million
SMU helps save Dawson County, Georgia $14.5 million on new Government Center
Over the course of a day, week or month – Steel Market Update is involved in many facets of the steel business. This included working with our local community as they prepared to build a new 30-million dollar court house. Working with Dawson County, Georgia County Manager, Kevin Tanner – SMU took on an advisory role by assisting the county with steel and construction related pricing trends. We also assisted the county in making recommendations for the timing of the bidding process and with the timing for concluding the negotiations and signing the contract. The contract was signed in December and the county has advised its citizens of a savings of $14.5 million out of the original $30 million budgeted.
Last week Steel Market Update received the following letter from Mr. Tanner dated December 30, 2009:
“Please accept this letter as my appreciation for your invaluable services to Dawson County during the design and bid preparation of our new Dawson County Government Center and Courthouse. Your guidance concerning steel prices and when to release our bid resulted in an awarded bid of 15.5 million as opposed to the 30 million originally anticipated.
The citizens of Dawson County owe you a debt of gratitude, and I would highly recommend your services to anyone looking to construct a major project. Please let me know if I can ever assist you in any way.
Thank you again.
Kevin Tanner
County Manager”
Besides the letter our participation was mentioned in the December 23, 2009 issue of the Dawson Community News in an article entitled, “Courthouse under budget.”
Steel Market Update is Here for You – Public & Private Companies Alike
Within the past few days, Steel Market Update was approached by a public utility in a Western U.S. state regarding a large project within their community which would require many miles of steel pipe. SMU does not pretend to be an expert in all aspects of the steel business and special pipe for a public water system is one area our expertise is lacking.
However, we have contacts in the industry throughout the United States from producing steel mills, service centers, manufacturers, members of the financial community and consultants. We spent time working with the utility to understand their needs, we took the time to educate ourselves about AWWA water transmission coated pipe and then we made a recommendation of an excellent steel-related consultant experienced with this kind of pipe to assist the utility.
As with many public utility projects, lead times can be quite lengthy and this project is no exception. We believe our efforts have provided valuable information and a place for the utility to go to gather more data as needed. We received the following response from the utility’s procurement manager late last week – “Thanks again, I enjoyed talking with you. I can tell you folks are definitely world class. I will be in touch when more is learned as we move thru our processes.”
The public utility has taken the opportunity to register for a trial membership to the SMU newsletter and website. We encourage other public companies with steel intensive projects on the horizon to register for trial membership and hopefully to become full members of our community of steel buyers, sellers and those in complimentary communities – including the financial community.
