According to the data of the US Geological Survey, in 2020, the total demand for sand and gravel in the United States reached 2.485 billion tons, which remained basically stable compared with 2019. In the past two years, the total demand for sand and gravel in the United States increased compared with 2015-2018. In terms of product structure, natural sand and gravel account for 39% and gravel 61% of the demand for sand and gravel in the United States. The downstream of sand and gravel in the United States is mainly the construction industry, 83% of which is used in the construction field, of which about 1 billion tons of sand and gravel are used as cement concrete aggregate, and the demand ratio of cement: concrete aggregate is 1:10.
Figure 1: Demand for aggregate and change
in growth rate in the United States Source: Cement Big Data (https://data.ccement.com/)
In terms of price, in 2020, the average price of natural aggregate in the United States was $9.65/ton. The price of crushed stone is 12.19 USD/t, and the price of crushed stone is higher than that of natural sand. Aggregate prices in the United States have been rising for many years, with natural sand and gravel rising by 27% and 31% respectively in the past 10 years.
Figure 2: Price trend
of aggregate in the United States Data source: Vulcan Materials and Martin Marietta of Cement Big Data (https://data.ccement.com/)
Materials is the first and second largest aggregate producer in the United States, with 380 and 300 quarries in the United States respectively. In 2020, the aggregate sales of the two companies were 208.3 million tons and 186.5 million tons respectively, accounting for 16% of the aggregate demand in the United States. In 2020, the gross profit per ton of Vulcan Materials aggregate was $5.57, the gross profit per ton of Martin Marietta Materials was $4.56, and the gross profit per ton of domestic Huaxin cement aggregate was $4.96. It is between the two, but its gross profit margin is much higher than that of American enterprises.
Table 1: The top two sand and gravel companies in the United States and the sand and gravel prices of Huaxin Cement, Comparison
of gross profit per ton Source: Cement Big Data (https://data.ccement.com/)
Vulcan Materials and Martin Marietta Materials not only produce sand and gravel aggregates, It also produces concrete, asphalt, Martin Marietta Materials and cement business. Taking Martin Marietta Materials as an example, we can see the price difference between aggregate and cement, concrete and asphalt in the United States. In 2020, the price of Martin Marietta Materials cement is 7.7 times that of aggregate, the price of concrete and cement is basically the same, and the price of asphalt is 2.4 times that of cement. The price of cement and concrete in the United States is much higher than that in China, while the price of sand and gravel aggregates in some developed areas of China has exceeded that in the United States. For example, the average price of sand and gravel in Guangdong is more than 110 yuan/ton, but the price of sand and gravel aggregates in a large number of central and western regions is seriously low, even only one tenth of the local cement price, which highlights the serious regional imbalance between supply and demand.
Table 2: Martin Marietta Materials20 19-2020 Cement, Concrete, Asphalt, Aggregate price comparison
data source: cement big data (https://data.ccement.com/)
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