Luck Stone Receives Award
Luck Stone received a special achievement in GIS award acknowledging leadership, vision, hard work and the innovative use of ESRI’s GIS Technology.
Eagle Materials Appoints Haack
He joins Eagle from Halliburton Energy Services where he enjoyed a 17-year career with successively important operating positions.
James Retires
Vulcan Materials Co.’s Donald M. James, executive chairman of the board of directors, will retire as an employee of the company, effective Jan. 15, 2015, and will transition to non-executive chairman.
MSHA WATCH
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration released its fall regulatory agenda Nov. 24. The agency states that it is on track in conducting the rulemaking on reform of civil penalties. Additionally, the agency reports that in October 2015, it will issue a rulemaking on crystalline silica, based on the work done by sister agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. This will address silica’s health effects and risk, as appropriate for the mining industry
USGS STATS
An estimated 393 Mt of crushed stone was produced and shipped for consumption in the United States in the third quarter of 2014, an increase of 9 percent compared with that of the third quarter of 2013. The estimated production for consumption in the first 9 months of 2014 was 955 Mt, an increase of 8 percent compared with that of the same period of 2013, according to USGS Crushed Stone Commodity Specialist Jason Willett.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
- At a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $677.8 billion, new construction starts in November climbed 13 percent from the previous month, according to Dodge Data & Analytics (formerly McGraw Hill Construction). Highway and bridge construction dropped 7 percent.
- Sales of newly built, single-family homes dropped 1.6 percent in November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 438,000 units, according to newly released data by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau.
- A study by IHS Inc. reveals that federal transportation spending expands the capital stock of the U.S. economy, drives the production and delivery of goods and services and positively affects business and household incomes. It also enhances the transportation system’s operational capacity by reducing travel times and costs.
ENERGY
WTI crude oil futures price: 12/30/2014: $54.12/bbl, down $3.00 from week earlier; down $45.17 from year earlier.
Natural gas futures price: 12/30/2014: $3.094/mmBtu, down $0.077 from week earlier; down $1.333 from year earlier.
Retail heating oil price: 12/29/2014: $3.043 /gal, down $0.036 from week earlier; down $0.994 from year earlier.
Crude oil inventories: 12/26/2014: 385.5 mmbbl, down 1.8 mmbbl from week earlier; up 24.9 mmbbl from year earlier.
Weekly coal production: 12/20/2014: 19.777 million tons, down 0.031 million tons from week earlier; up 1.255 million tons from year earlier.