Construction inflation. Building costs throughout 2011 rose steadily and although theyâre expected to stabilise during 2012 inflationary pressures are nevertheless set to remain as labour wage strains and competitive labour forces continue to affect input costs.
Physical Properties. Metals differ so widely in hardness, ductility (the potentiality of being drawn into wire), malleability, tensile strength, density, and melting point that a definite line of distinction between them and the nonmetals cannot be drawn. The hardest elemental metal is chromium; the softest, cesium.
Except for Germanium (Ge) and Antimony (Sb), all the elements to the left of that line can be classified as metals. These metals have properties that you normally associate with the metals you encounter in everyday life: They are solid (with the exception of mercury, Hg, a liquid).onmetals have properties opposite those of the metals. The nonmetals are brittle, not malleable or ductile, poor conductors of both heat and electricity, and tend to gain electrons in chemical reactions. Some nonmetals are liquids.