C&D News

Global demand for construction aggregates is expected to grow 4.7 percent per year through 2011 to 26.8 billion metric tons, according to a study by Cleveland-based market research firm, the Freedonia Group.

According to the study, growing environmental and land use concerns will spur above-average sales gains for aggregates composed of recycled materials, such as crushed hydraulic and asphaltic concrete and by-products like fly ash and blast-furnace slag.

Some of the strongest sales will be in India, according to the group’s findings, which is already one of the largest national markets, as well as the Chinese market. Smaller markets such as Indonesia, Thailand, a number of developing countries in Asia and Iran, will also record strong gains, spurred by industrialization activities and growth in infrastructure construction.

Advances will not be as strong in the developed areas of the world, including the U.S., Japan and Western Europe. Infrastructure repair and maintenance construction will drive demand in these areas through 2011, according to the study’s results. An increase in non-building construction projects in the U.S. will also contribute to overall aggregates market growth, despite a slowdown in residential building activity.

The full study "World Construction Aggregates" is available for purchase through the Freedonia Group at www.freedoniagroup.com.

S.B. Cox, a construction and demolition contractor in Richmond, Va., plans to open a recycling center by late spring in eastern Henrico County, just outside the Richmond city limits, according to a report in the Richmond Times Dispatch (Richmond, Va.).

According to the report, the facility would screen and sort bricks, steel, wood and other material. Materials that can be recycled will be sent elsewhere for processing, Barbee Cox, president of S.B. Cox, tells the Times Dispatch. "We’re hoping to take 60 to 70 percent from what comes through this facility and divert that to recycling," he says.

Materials that cannot be recycled, including drywall and painted wood, will be taken to Cox’s construction debris landfill in Chesterfield County.

Mike Barr, a spokesman for S.B. Cox, notes that the facility will be the first recycling operation for the company.

The recycling center will be totally enclosed. The company has purchased a roughly 45,000-square-foot facility and is adding another 12,000 square feet to the project.

Materials the company expects to handle at the plant are concrete, metal, corrugated and plastics.