Nonresidential market drives Martin Marietta’s fourth quarter

By |  January 30, 2014

Martin Marietta Materials Inc.’s nonresidential and residential aggregates product line shipments experienced double-digit volume growth in the fourth quarter last year, driving a 67 percent increase in earnings per diluted share over the company’s 2012 fourth quarter. In addition, Martin Marietta reported a 3.4 percent increase in aggregates product line pricing despite shipments being down when compared with the previous year’s fourth quarter.

“The private sector continues to drive construction growth,” says Ward Nye, Martin Marietta president and CEO, in a press release. “Looking closely at our fourth-quarter results, the nonresidential market, which comprised 33 percent of fourth-quarter aggregates product line shipments and increased 11 percent, was a major contributor. We saw notable growth in both commercial construction and the energy sector as we continue to benefit from the investment in shale energy.

“Looking forward, we anticipate additional opportunities as developmental activity moves into downstream projects.”
The residential market achieved volume growth of 21 percent and accounted for 15 percent of Martin Marietta’s quarterly shipments. According to Nye, those figures are in line with the company’s historical levels. Martin

Marietta’s ChemRock/Rail market, which represented 10 percent of aggregates volumes, decreased 12 percent. Nye says this was partially due to a reduction in agricultural lime shipments due to wetter and colder weather and lower ballast volumes.

“Shipments to the infrastructure end-use market, which represented the remaining 42 percent of our aggregates product line, decreased 10 percent, driven by the completion of several large road projects in Indiana and Iowa and poor weather in Texas,” Nye says.

He adds that the federal government’s October shutdown and questions about future government spending policy negatively affected public-sector demand last quarter.

Kevin Yanik

About the Author:

Kevin Yanik is editor-in-chief of Pit & Quarry. He can be reached at 216-706-3724 or kyanik@northcoastmedia.net.

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