FIRST LOOK – DECEMBER 2020

TOP NEWS

Vulcan Materials Co.
Vulcan Materials Co. announced results for the quarter ended Sept. 30, reporting that net earnings were $200 million compared to $216 million in the prior year’s comparable quarter.

Summit Materials
Summit Materials Inc. announced results for the third quarter of 2020. For the three months ended Sept. 26, the company reported net income attributable to Summit Inc. of $90.7 million, or $0.79 per basic share.

Martin Marietta Materials
Martin Marietta Materials Inc. reported results for the third quarter ended Sept. 30. The company achieved third-quarter gross profit of $405 million; record year-to-date gross profit of $927 million; and established new quarterly records for consolidated and aggregates gross margin.


MSHA WATCH
The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) reported that on Oct. 14 a lead person was killed when his pickup truck was struck by a haul truck at Vulcan Materials’ Columbia Quarry, Richland, S.C. This is the 20th fatality reported in 2020 and the fifth classified as “Powered Haulage.”


USGS STATS
An estimated 404 Mt of crushed stone was produced and shipped for consumption in the United States in the second quarter of 2020, a slight decrease compared with that of the second quarter of 2019, according to U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Commodity Specialist Jason Willett.


ECONOMIC INDICATORS

  • Total construction starts rose 12% in October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $787.9 billon. While sizeable, the increase does not erase September’s substantial pullback in starts.
  • Sales of newly built, single-family homes in September fell 3.5% to 959,000 from a downwardly revised August number, according to newly released data by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau.
  • The U.S. Census Bureau announced that construction spending during September 2020 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,414.0 billion, 0.3% (±1.0%) above the revised August estimate of $1,410.4 billion. The September figure is 1.5% (±1.3%) above the September 2019 estimate of $1,393.3 billion.

ENERGY

  • WTI Crude Oil Futures 11/19/2020: $41.74/barrel, up $0.62 from week earlier; down $15.37 from year earlier.
  • Natural Gas Futures 11/19/2020: $2.592/MMBtu, down $0.384 from week earlier; up $0.033 from year earlier.
  • Retail Diesel 11/16/2020: $2.441/gal., up $0.058 from week earlier; down $0.633 from a year earlier.
  • Electricity 8/20/2020: Average price to industrial customers 7.09 cents/kilowatt hour; down from 7.40 cents/kilowatt hour a year earlier.

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration

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