Hundreds show for South Carolina aggregate workshop

The South Carolina Aggregates Association (SCAA) hosted its second annual Workshop & Exhibition near the end of 2022, uniting aggregate producers, equipment manufacturers and other industry stakeholders.

Jessica Palmer, executive director of SCAA, says the workshop drew 315 attendees and 44 exhibiting companies. Attendance was up from 2021’s total of 260.

In her first year as executive director after taking over for Mike Newman, Palmer was thrilled with the turnout and how the event went overall.

“The feedback we have heard from everybody has been extremely positive,” she says. “They’re saying this is better than last year. I think that we have tons of room to grow. We’ve had great feedback from all of the presenters. It’s been wonderful. I’m excited for the growth potential for [2023], as well as years to come.”

A variety of presentations took place throughout the three-day event at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center in Columbia, South Carolina, including a keynote delivered by Anne Noonan, president and CEO of Summit Materials. The SCAA event also featured a panel discussion on technology advancements and educational sessions on plant maintenance, powered haulage safety and fall protection.

When planning the event, it was important to Palmer to provide as much value and information to attendees as possible.
“This is their association, and I’m here to help lead that and help make them successful,” she says. “Ultimately, it’s about what I can do to support them and their goals. I think they appreciate that. The feedback is super important. We do listen.”

Personal perspectives

Eric Griffith, operations manager for the Southeast region at Luck Stone, says the workshop provided valuable and relevant information. He is pleased the association listened to feedback following the inaugural workshop in 2021. Griffith says SCAA adapted to better meet attendees’ needs.

“The association listens to their members,” he says. “They listen to feedback, and they put together relevant topics. Whether it be the speakers or the exhibitors, it’s all relevant to our industry and what we do for a living. I think it will continue to drive more producers to be a part of the association [because] they’re gaining something from the experience.”

That relevancy was also present with the event’s speakers and their presentations. Griffith was glad those who presented focused on topical issues.

“Whether it’s the upgrades in technology, the autonomy [or] the issues we face in hiring, it was all relevant content,” Griffith says.

Austin Powder’s Ross Ellis is impressed with what SCAA has done through the first two iterations of its event.

“I think [the SCAA] has done a heck of a job getting the attendance it has been able to get two years in a row,” says Ellis, president of Austin Powder’s Mid-Atlantic region. “We battled COVID trying to plan the first one but once we had it, the second year was right behind it. Sponsorship money is up, attendance is up and, all in all, a great job.”

Ellis was among the attendees at the very first SCAA workshop. He, too, was happy with the information provided in 2022.

“Being a vendor in the business, there are times that there are speakers that don’t really pertain to what we do,” Ellis says. “But it’s important for us, if we’re servicing a client, to know about this stuff. Any knowledge we can pick up on is always good. I think all the speakers were very good.”

Operational outlook

The event’s keynote speaker was Noonan, whose presentation was titled “Elevating Aggregates in 2023.” Noonan reflected on how Summit and the industry as a whole fared last year, and she offered a look ahead to 2023.

Noonan’s 2023 outlook was largely positive. Summit is aware of prevailing headwinds within the industry, though.

“Everyone has been hit by supply chain [challenges] in different ways,” Noonan says. “[One] of the biggest [problems] we’ve had is capital equipment not coming in on time, then having to spend dollars to extend the life of assets. It disrupts your numbers through the quarter. Everyone is aggravated at everyone else, and our operators are just continually frustrated.

“I’m just going to assume that’s our life from now on,” she adds. “What it’s done for us is we’ve set up a separate equipment center of excellence to make sure that even though we are dealing with all this every day, we’re managing it as best we can as a company. We’re sharing best practices, [and] we’re reducing that R&M (repair and maintenance) to whatever we can over time.”

Another area Summit is focused on is labor. Noonan says Summit is committed to engaging its workforce, with the company adding incentives to elevate worker retention.

“We are putting in special incentive plans for our operational excellence teams and aggregates,” Noonan says. “[This is] to encourage them to not only get their regular bonus, but we’ve given them stretch targets as a little bit of separate incentive planning. That is one thing we can control as a company, and we’ll share back those benefits with our employees.”

Among the areas Noonan is most optimistic about is public construction. While she does not expect funds from the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act to hit heavily until 2024, she anticipates some of those funds to be disbursed this year.

Noonan is also optimistic about heavy nonresidential construction, pointing to the onshoring of manufacturing facilities as a boon for the sector.

“That’s an area [where] we’re seeing a lot of projects come in,” she says. “In several of our geographies, there are ongoing semiconductor facilities being put in place. We’re also seeing funding for green energy projects, [such as] electric vehicle and battery plants and a big LNG (liquefied natural gas) project.”

Residential construction remains difficult to forecast, Noonan adds. While single-family starts took a hit in 2022, Noonan says it is important to look at the market’s performance in the proper context.

“If you look at single-family permits, they’re running at over a million right now,” she says. “[That] is well above 2019 levels [and] was considered healthy and strong growth in the market. We’re still at that higher level.”

Overall, Noonan says Summit is bullish on all of its markets in the medium to long term.

“We feel this is a great industry to be in,” she says. “We will see an air pocket in 2023 and, as such, with the business that we are, we will plan for that. We will work our way into that and what it might do to our volumes.”

Looking ahead

SCAA’s 2023 Workshop & Exhibition is slated for Dec. 4-6, and it will again be held at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center.