Aldo Mazzaferro, Macquarie Securities Group
Okay. Yes. One final question, Joe. Can you categorize a little bit about how much of your overall backlog… I know it’s probably hard but with steel and fab and other operations, how much of it might be related to energy-related projects. I know your fabrication could be energy, could be a lot of other things. Can you say a little bit about that, about how you’re exposed to energy through fab and through steel bars and things?
Barbara Smith, SVP and Chief Financial Officer, Commercial Metals Company
Aldo, we took a look at that and our direct… if you took direct specific products, like tubular, SBQ, it’s 10% or less. I think the question that we all wrestle is, is there a follow-on effect to a prolonged downturn in energy prices that would then spill over into industrial and construction activity. As Joe pointed out earlier, we see there’s a positive side to this lower energy price and that’s increase in disposable income which could fuel the economy in other ways that could dilute the effect of what’s going on. Right now, we’re looking at it carefully and studying it,but as far as specific products, it’s not that creative.
Joseph Alvarado, Chairman of the Board, President, and CEO, Commercial Metals Company
Aldo, I don’t know that it’s fact or not. Just a report that I heard that a penny in gasoline price reduction is equivalent to $1 billion in savings. That’s a lot of money. Going back to normal patterns for what drives nonresidential construction demand, often times it is led by residential with more disposable income. That’s the kind of growth that ultimately spurs nonresidential as infrastructure needs to be built to support those kinds of operations. I wouldn’t lose sight of what Barbara said either about the ability to maybe negotiate something in the Congress. Let’s try to find a way to work together on the construction side of it and the highway programs. We’ll see what happens after the Congress convenes today, but at some point, what’s been freed up in the way of energy prices could be an opening to raise taxes on energy consumption in order to fund the infrastructure that we all know is so badly needed.
Aldo Mazzaferro, Macquarie Securities Group
Right. Well, thanks very much.
Joseph Alvarado, Chairman of the Board, President, and CEO, Commercial Metals Company
Okay, thank you, Aldo.
Operator
The next question comes from Andrew Lane at Morningstar.
Andrew Lane, Morningstar
Good morning and Happy New Year.
Joseph Alvarado, Chairman of the Board, President, and CEO, Commercial Metals Company
Good morning. Happy New Year.
Andrew Lane, Morningstar
Just one question here. You’ve discussed the impact of rising import volumes and I would be curious to hear any comments you have on how the October rebar trade case determinations has changed the texture of import volumes. It looks like import volumes from Turkey were down significantly in November,even though Turkey’s exporters were effectively given the green light. Are you seeing major upticks in rebar volumes from any other specific countries of note?
Joseph Alvarado, Chairman of the Board, President, and CEO, Commercial Metals Company
No. The Turks are dominating. The import statistics as opposed to the market data that we have and what’s been negotiated, what’s on the water, what’s coming, it’s mostly Turkish. Now there have been some other sources that come into the market but it’s dominated by the Turks.
Andrew Lane, Morningstar
Along those lines, are your operations in California a little better insulated from those volumes than the rest of your geographic exposure in the U.S.?
Joseph Alvarado, Chairman of the Board, President, and CEO, Commercial Metals Company
From Turkish, in a manner of speaking, but sometimes the pricing is so aggressive on the Turks it does have a carryover effect but there are other source that connect the West Coast so I wouldn’t call any of our markets completely insulated, but certainly for the Turks, it’s a longer reach to get to the West Coast market.
Andrew Lane, Morningstar
Okay. Great. Thank you.
Joseph Alvarado, Chairman of the Board, President, and CEO, Commercial Metals Company
Okay. Thank you, Andrew.
