How Eagle Materials finished 2022

Eagle Materials experienced good revenue gains in its aggregate and concrete businesses to end last year, reporting that revenue in the two areas jumped 30 percent in its fiscal-year third quarter ending Dec. 31.

Operating earnings for Eagle’s aggregate and concrete businesses, however, dropped 35 percent in the quarter due to higher input costs.

Revenue in Eagle’s overall heavy materials sector, which includes aggregates, concrete and cement, as well as joint-venture and intersegment cement revenue, was up 3 percent. Operating earnings in Eagle’s heavy materials sector declined 11 percent to $75 million, primarily due to lower cement sales volumes that were partially offset by higher cement net sales prices.

According to Eagle, cement sales volumes were affected by lower cement inventory levels compared with October, November and December 2021. Difficult weather conditions were also a factor at the end of 2022, Eagle says.

“Construction activity remained healthy across our markets despite delayed projects in the Midwest and Texas due to wet and extreme cold weather, which affected cement production and shipments,” says Michael Haack, president and CEO of Eagle.

Haack is optimistic about the road ahead for Eagle’s construction materials businesses.

“Eagle’s heartland geographic footprint is well-positioned for long-term growth, supported by population-growth trends, shortages of residential units and a multi-year federal highway bill further enhanced by state-level infrastructure spending,” Haack says. “In the near term, we expect the strength in private nonresidential and infrastructure construction activity to lessen the impact of affordability-driven headwinds in single-family residential construction.”