USGS: Crushed stone production down slightly in 2020

Crushed stone production across the U.S. slipped to 1.46 billion tons in 2020, USGS reports. Photo: P&Q Staff

How did crushed stone producers perform in 2020? The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) offered a glimpse this week, providing totals for the year and a comparison to the year prior.

According to USGS, 1.46 billion tons of crushed stone valued at more than $17.8 billion were produced in 2020. USGS estimates that 1,410 companies operating 3,440 quarries and 180 sales and distribution yards combined to produce the 1.46 billion tons.

The 1.46 billion figure is down slightly from 2019, USGS says, when 1.49 billion tons of crushed stone were produced. Crushed stone producers still outperformed 2018 (1.39 billion tons), 2017 (1.37 billion tons) and 2016 marks (1.36 billion tons), though.

The states that produced the most crushed stone in 2020 were Texas, Missouri, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Georgia, Virginia, Illinois, North Carolina and Kentucky. These 10 combined accounted for more than half of the total crushed stone output, USGS says.

Of all domestic crushed stone produced in 2020, about 70 percent was limestone and dolomite; 15 percent was granite; 6 percent was traprock; 5 percent was miscellaneous stone; 3 percent was sandstone and quartzite; and the remaining 1 percent was divided, in descending order of tonnage, among marble, volcanic cinder and scoria, calcareous marl, slate and shell.

USGS estimates that 72 percent of the crushed stone consumed in the U.S. last year was used as construction aggregate – mostly for road construction and maintenance. Sixteen percent was crushed stone was used for cement manufacturing; 8 percent was for lime manufacturing; 2 percent was for agricultural uses; and the remaining crushed stone was used for chemical, special and miscellaneous uses and products.

According to USGS, consumption of crushed stone decreased in 2020 because of measures instituted to mitigate the pandemic. These caused disruptions in the mining and construction industries, the agency says.

“Usually, commercial and heavy industrial construction activity, infrastructure funding, new single-family housing unit starts and weather affect growth in crushed stone production and consumption,” USGS says in a release. “Long-term increases in construction aggregates demand are influenced by activity in the public and private construction sectors, as well as by construction work related to security measures being implemented around the nation.”

In addition to 2020 crushed stone production, USGS recently provided details about 2020 sand and gravel production.