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TOP NEWS PINNIGER STEPS DOWN Jennifer Joy Pinniger is stepping down as NSSGA's president and CEO effective Nov. 2, 2012, as she has advised she is retiring from her pro‐ fessional career and plans to relocate for at least a good part of each year to live with her husband in England. MSHA WATCH MINEXPO A HIT MINExpo, held September 24-26 in Las Vegas, featured approximately 850,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space and an estimat- ed 50,000 attendees, up about 30 percent from four years ago. ACQUISITION Eagle Materials Inc. entered into a definitive agreement with Lafarge North America to purchase Lafarge's Sugar Creek, Missouri and Tulsa, Okla., cement plants, as well as related assets, which include six distribution terminals, two aggregates quarries, eight ready‐mix concrete plants and a fly ash business. MSHA introduced a new compliance assistance resource to address one of the most commonly cited violations in the metal and nonmetal mining industry: improperly guarded machinery. "The purpose of this new guide designed to improve mine safety is threefold: to improve the mining industry's understanding of good guarding principles; ensure the construction, installation and maintenance of high‐ quality, effective guards; and improve compliance, inspection and enforcement consistency," said Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health Joseph A. Main. USGS STATS According to USGS, an estimated 546 Mt of total construction aggregates was produced and shipped for consumption in the United States in the sec- ond quarter of 2012, an increase of 3.4 percent compared with that of the second quarter of 2011. The estimated production for consumption in the first 6 months of 2012 was 898 Mt, an increase of 5.6 percent compared with that of the same period of 2011. ECONOMIC INDICATORS ENERGY Following a substantial gain in July, the pace of new‐home sales held virtually unchanged at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 373,000 units in August, according to newly released figures from HUD and the U.S. Census Bureau. Regionally, new‐home sales gained in all but one area of the country this August, with the Northeast, Midwest and West posting increas‐ es of 20 percent, 1.8 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively. The South was the only region to post a decline of 4.9 percent. The Dodge Momentum Index retreated 0.8 percent in September compared to August, according to McGraw‐Hill Construction, a divi‐ sion of The McGraw‐Hill Companies. While the longer term trend is still viewed as positive, the Index appears to be experiencing uncer‐ tainty, particularly related to the impending presidential election and year‐end expiration of the Bush tax cuts combined with automatic spending cuts. www.rockproducts.com Higher crude oil prices, refinery outages, a pipeline disruption, and concerns over Hurricane Isaac's impact on the Gulf Coast, the United States' major refin‐ ing region, contributed to higher gasoline prices dur‐ ing August, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). EIA has increased the average regular‐gasoline retail price forecast for the third quar‐ ter of 2012 to $3.66 per gal‐ lon from $3.49 per gallon. Natural gas working inven‐ tories ended August 2012 at an estimated 3.4 trillion cu. ft., about 13 percent above the same time last year. EIA expects the Henry Hub nat‐ ural gas spot price, which averaged $4.00 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) in 2011, to aver‐ age $2.65 per MMBtu in 2012 and $3.34 per MMBtu in 2013. EIA expects U.S. total crude oil production to average 6.3 million barrels per day (bbl/d) in 2012, an increase of 0.7 million bbl/d from last year. Projected U.S. domestic crude oil produc‐ tion increases to 6.8 million bbl/d in 2013, the highest level of production since 1993. ROCKproducts • OCTOBER 2012 1