Depending upon the product mix and market, pricing for aggregates is up anywhere from 3 to 6% in the last month, a new study is reporting.
The Nashville-based Thompson Research Group is predicting that additional prices in the field are anticipated before the end of this year.
Cement has seen increases ranging between 6% and 9% this spring, with a similar increase expected by the end of this summer.
Notes the Thompson report: “Texas cement is on allocation, as is California. Now, even the Mississippi River region has a kink with the Holcim cement plant only producing 50% of capacity.”
In its Heavy Materials Survey Take-Aways, Thompson additionally notes that the aggregate, cement and concrete industries are in the process of announcing a variety of pricing actions that will go into effect during the second half of this year.
“Overall, given visibility in the key end markets,” continues the document, the nation’s aggregates industry “could be heading into a particularly solid pricing market for an extended period of time.”
The most important factor fueling the rise in aggregate, concrete and asphalt pricing, notes the report, is a newly-booming national construction industry.
“Residential construction has been on fire for several months,” the report notes, with highway projects on the increase and commercial projects “now developing into more solid volume momentum.”
By Garry Boulard