Rock Products is the aggregates industry's leading source for market analysis and technology solutions, delivering critical content focusing on aggregates-processing equipment; operational efficiencies; management best practices; comprehensive market
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14 • ROCK products • March 2018 www.rockproducts.com IN THE KNOW LESS DOWNTIME IS MORE UPTIME with CleanScrape ® Belt Cleaner LESS IS MORE WITH CLEANSCRAPE ® BELT CLEANER. Less Blade Replacements / More Blade Life – lasts up to 4x as long as traditional cleaners Less Maintenance / More Performance – only one tensioner adjustment ever Less Concern / More Confidence – safe for vulcanized and mechanical splices ® Registered trademark of Martin Engineering Company in the US and other select locations. © 2018 Martin Engineering Company. Additional information can be obtained at www.martin-eng.com/trademarks and www.martin-eng.com/patents. visit martin-eng.com 800.544.2947 / 309.852.2384 cleanscrape@martin-eng.com on display at AGG1 2018 Booth #1014 Vulcan Materials Co. announced results for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, 2017. Total revenues increased $105 million, or 12 percent, to $977 million. Gross profit was $243 mil- lion versus $240 million in the prior year. Aggregates segment sales increased $56 million to $770 mil- lion and freight-adjusted revenues increased $45 million, or 8 percent, to $596 million. The company also closed its previously announced acqui - sition of Aggregates USA in the fourth quarter. Vulcan Materials Comes Up Big in Fourth Quarter 2017 For the full year 2017, total revenues were $3.89 billion, an increase of $298 million, or 8 percent. Gross profit was $1.0 billion, in line with the prior year.Aggre- gates segment sales increased $134 million to $3.10 billion and freight-ad- justed revenues increased $98 million, or 4 percent, to $2.39 billion Tom Hill, chairman and chief executive officer, said, "Fourth quarter aggregates shipments showed encouraging momen - tum. Same-store daily shipment rates were up 8 percent in November and 11 percent in December after being down 3 percent in storm-impacted Octo- ber. Total aggregates shipments grew 7 percent and aggregates pricing, adjusted for mix, improved 2 percent. Aggre- gates production costs were negatively impacted by lingering effects from Hur- ricanes Harvey and Irma as well as by Tropical Storm Nate, rising diesel and distribution costs, and production ineffi- ciencies at certain facilities. Our asphalt and concrete operations, including recent acquisitions in those lines of business, continued to perform well. "We expect fourth quarter shipment growth to continue into 2018," Hill con- tinued. "Private demand in Vulcan-served Tom Hill