Another year down. And while 2023 wasn’t a record-breaking one for the construction materials industry, portable processing is certainly as prevalent as ever.
From virgin aggregates to recycled concrete aggregate and reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP), producers and contractors put their crushing and screening equipment to work in 2023, making the most of the opportunities various construction markets presented.
Infrastructure work was plentiful in 2023, and it should ramp up further in 2024 as amplified funding from the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act and state transportation infrastructure programs translates into real-world projects demanding construction materials.
And while residential activity trended downward in 2023, nonresidential provided several pathways to growth. Those aiming to put their portable plants to use for nonresidential jobs in 2024 may once again turn to markets like manufacturing, education, and amusement and recreation – ones that gained significant traction over the last 12 months.
Of course, no one likes where interest rates are at this stage. Equipment, in some instances, remains difficult to acquire. And reliable people are still hard to come by and hold onto.
Despite these challenges, though, most producers and contractors forged ahead this year. They found ways to hit many of the key financial marks they set out to achieve 12 months ago. And they did so, in part, because they leveraged product pricing in ways they hadn’t in recent years.
“In construction products, pricing remained strong across our portfolio,” says Antonio Carrillo, president and CEO of Arcosa, which produces natural and recycled aggregates within its construction products segment. “Natural aggregates benefited from a recovery in overall volumes, particularly in our Texas and Gulf Coast regions.”
Activity in aggregates
While data on 2023 construction materials production is limited, the available information indicates that volumes trended down in 2023.
To date, for instance, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) published production statistics on crushed stone, sand and gravel for the first and second quarters of 2023. According to USGS, crushed stone production rose nearly 2 percent in the first quarter before flattening out in the second quarter. Sand and gravel production, meanwhile, dipped in both the first (down nearly 9 percent) and second quarters (down about 4 percent).
USGS’s third-quarter production statistics on crushed stone, sand and gravel were not available as Portable Plants went to press. But sentiments imparted in the financial reports of the aggregate industry’s public producers reinforced that volumes of crushed stone, sand and gravel continued downward in the second half of the year.
A dip in aggregate production may not be good at a glance, but those totals are still near 15-year highs. And that’s not a bad place for aggregates to be.
“When you step back and look big picture of 2023, we saw a lower overall demand for production,” says John Scepaniak, director of operations at Minnesota-based Wm. D. Scepaniak, which offers contract crushing and screening services in the Upper Midwest. “What we saw was a smaller number of customers, but those customers had a higher demand. So, we had a lower variety of customers, but stronger demand.”
Wm. D. Scepaniak is also among the many contractors nationwide that found a growth pathway through price.
“People have talked the last couple of years about price increases,” Scepaniak says. “We have been able to work with some of our customers on that. The dip in overall volume demand has been replaced by increased sales prices of our products.”