SIC 3273 Ready-Mixed Concrete
SIC 3273
This category covers establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing portland cement concrete manufactured and delivered to a purchaser in a plastic and unhardened state. This industry includes production and sale of central-mixed concrete, shrink-mixed concrete, and truck-mixed concrete.
327320
Ready-Mix Concrete Manufacturing
According to a study by the American Concrete Institute, concrete is the most widely used man-made product in the world, second only to water as the most used substance. Total shipment values have increased steadily, from $17.2 billion in 1997 to $22.2 billion in 2003, with annual growth continuing at a healthy pace into the middle of the decade.
The industry was heavily dependent on its primary customers, which were constructors of homes, industrial and office buildings, highways, and bridges. Consequently, the industry's market generally shadows the cyclical markets served by construction industries.
The ready-mixed concrete industry included businesses that made concrete and delivered it to contractors or other customers for constructing buildings, bridges, roads, sidewalks, or other facilities. The concrete production process involved the use of large-scale equipment and machinery located reasonably close to where the concrete was to be used so that the concrete could be delivered while it was still soft enough to be shaped.
A material similar to stone, concrete is made by mixing selected proportions and qualities of cement, sand, gravel, and sometimes other aggregates. Water is added and the soft mixture is formed into desired shapes. Water and cement interact chemically to form a solid mass, binding the ingredient particles together, but the mixture remains soft so that it can be shaped before the concrete hardens.
Concrete was a leading material resource for building construction and for various products because of its strength, its ability to be molded into any shape, its resistance to fire and weather, and the availability of materials from which it is made. Concrete's limited strength under tensile stress was substantially overcome by reinforcement with steel and other materials in various ways.
The key to achieving a long-lasting concrete product lies in the proportioning and mixing of the ingredients. A mixture that lacks sufficient paste, made up of cement and water, to fill all the voids between the aggregates will be difficult to handle and will produce rough surfaces and porous concrete. However, a mixture with too much paste, though easy to place, will be more susceptible to cracking and in the long run will be uneconomical. NRMCA suggests that the ideal mixture will have the necessary workability for the fresh concrete and the desired strength once the mixture has hardened. A typical mixture contains by volume about 10 to 15 percent cement, 60 to 75 percent aggregates (usually sand, gravel, and rock), and 15 to 20 percent water.
Concrete businesses throughout the 1990s furnished much of the basic raw material for the construction industries, as well as for utilitarian and artistic products like railroad ties and birdbaths. A few of the larger construction contractors made their own concrete materials and products, while others relied on concrete producers for their products.
Many ready-mixed concrete companies were relatively small, having customers in one community or a limited region, primarily because soft concrete cannot be delivered beyond about 20 miles from where it is made. Yet to produce the concrete economically requires considerable expenditures for plant and trucking facilities. Most concrete plants were fixed, but some were portable and could be moved close to major construction sites. Many larger companies have grown by expanding their territories and buying smaller local firms. In 1992 there were more than 5,250 establishments producing ready-mixed concrete. Of those, less than 1,400 employed 20 or more employees. With increasing consolidation within the industry, the total number of establishments was projected to fall to about 5,000 by the year 2000, of which about 1,400 would employ 20 or more people. The number of establishments is greater than the number of companies in this sector, as several of the larger players in the concrete business maintain multiple production establishments.
Most of the ready-mixed concrete producers also were involved in related concrete businesses, such as the mining of sand and gravel, the production of crushed stone, cement manufacturing, or the manufacturing of concrete blocks, pipe, building structural elements, and other concrete products.
Most industry establishments competed against several concrete businesses in a small market area. In addition, several non-concrete products substituted for concrete provided another arena of competition. These alternative resources included lumber, asphalt, brick, and steel.
The ready-mixed concrete industry was dependent on the...
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