TOP NEWS
Arcosa Acquires StonePoint Materials
Arcosa, Inc. announced that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire StonePoint Ultimate Holding LLC and affiliated entities from an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners Inc. for $375 million in cash.
Rogers Group Purchases Reed Contracting
Rogers Group Inc. (RGI) has purchased a quarry, sand plant, five asphalt plants and all construction assets of Huntsville, Ala.-based Reed Contracting Services. Since its inception in 1987, Reed has grown to be the leading provider of mass excavating, grading, underground utilities, asphalt paving and trucking services in Huntsville.
U.S. Concrete Completes Purchase of Orca Quarry Leased Land
U.S. Concrete Inc. has purchased fee-simple property and the underlying royalty agreement associated with the Orca Quarry on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The acquisition includes approximately 1,551 acres in four parcels of previously leased land.
MSHA WATCH
MSHA reported that on March 5, a miner at Otter Creek Sand & Gravel Inc., Fulton County, Ill., was fatally injured when the excavator he was operating rolled over into a body of water. This is the sixth fatality reported in 2021, and the second classified as “Machinery.”
USGS STATS
An estimated 606 million metric tons (Mt) of total construction aggregates was produced and shipped for consumption in the fourth quarter of 2020, an increase of 3% compared with that of the same period of 2019. The estimated annual output of construction aggregates produced for consumption in 2020 was 2.43 billion metric tons (Gt), a slight decrease compared with that of 2019, according to Jason Willett, commodity specialist for the U.S. Geological Survey.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
- Total construction starts fell 2% in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $797.3 billion. Nonbuilding construction starts posted a solid gain after rebounding from a weak January, however, residential and nonresidential building starts declined, leading to a pullback in overall activity.
- The U.S. Census Bureau announced that construction spending during January 2021 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,521.5 billion, 1.7% (±0.7%) above the revised December estimate of $1,496.5 billion. The January figure is 5.8% (±1.0%) above the January 2020 estimate of $1,437.7 billion.
- The Dodge Momentum Index rose 7.1% in February to 149.0 (2000=100) from the revised January reading of 139.1. The Momentum Index, issued by Dodge Data & Analytics, is a monthly measure of the first (or initial) report for nonresidential building projects in planning, which have been shown to lead construction spending for nonresidential buildings by a full year.
ENERGY
- WTI Crude Oil Futures 3/23/2021: $57.76/barrel, down $7.04 from week earlier; up $34.40 from year earlier.
- Natural Gas Futures 3/23/2021: $2.508/MMBtu, down $0.054 from week earlier; up $0.906 from year earlier.
- Retail Diesel 3/22/2021: $3.194/gal., up $0.003 from week earlier; up $0.535 from year earlier.
- Electricity 12/20/2020: Average price to industrial customers 6.40 cents/kilowatt hour; up from from 6.38 cents/kilowatt hour a year earlier.
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration