Article: Nerves & steel: HVAC and sheet metal companies cope with surging prices for materials.

While some sectors of the U.S. economy are recovering from recession, the construction industry is still being hit with higher prices for raw materials, especially steel.

It's affecting all sectors of the sheet metal industry. Here is a look at how some contractors and suppliers are coping.

Leonard Charland, owner of Sheetmetal Specialist Inc. in South Burlington, Vt., uses up to 30,000 pounds of sheet metal every month. Charland said he remembers when his supplier would guarantee its prices for three months. Now the supplier prices each load individually, he says. Prices have doubled in the last few months, and Charland worries that steel won't be ...

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