The publicly traded companies are out with their full-year 2023 financial reports and by all accounts it was a record-breaking year.
- Vulcan Materials reported total revenues of $1.83 billion in the fourth quarter versus $1.73 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022; and $7.78 billion for full-year 2023 versus $7.32 billion for full-year 2022. That is a company record.
- Martin Marietta Materials, for full-year 2023, reported total revenues of $6.78 billion versus $6.16 billion in 2022, a 10% improvement. That is a company record.
- Cemex operations in the United States reported net sales of $5.34 billion. That is a company record.
- Knife River reported full-year 2023 consolidated revenue of $2.8 billion, a 12% increase from the prior-year period. That is a company record.
- Summit Materials Inc. net revenue increased $220.7 million, or 9.9%, in 2023 to $2.4 billion. That is a company record.
The list goes on.
While vibrant market conditions continue to drive performance for aggregates operations, there is no discounting the impact of the healthy price increases that companies are also reporting.
Rock Products’ pricing guru, Barry Hudson of Price Bee, said that the lessons learned from the past few years of record inflation have been taken onboard by the publicly traded companies and pricing strategies have been implemented to at least cover the higher input costs.
“However, smaller players are still lacking appropriate methodologies to execute effective pricing, and even though revenues may be higher, or even at record levels, they are still falling behind in total profitability,” Hudson said.
Now in the middle of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which has supported more than 56,000 eligible transportation improvements in all 50 states during the last two years, spanning nearly every U.S. county, the aggregates industry continues to push the envelope to rebuild America.
To be sure, there are market hiccups and unexpected developments. That’s to be expected. But the positives certainly outweigh the alternatives right now.
Mark S. Kuhar, editor
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(330) 722‐4081
Twitter: @editormarkkuhar