The following transcript was edited for brevity and clarity from one of two concurrent Jan. 31 discussions at the 2025 Pit & Quarry Roundtable & Conference at The Wigwam Resort. Part 1 can be found here.
KEVIN YANIK (PIT & QUARRY): For producers: What are your sales expectations for 2025 regarding aggregates? Tell us about the dynamics at play in your state or region that should drive or hinder demand in 2025. For equipment suppliers: What are your sales expectations for 2025 regarding the aggregate industry?
BRENNEN HALL (DESERT AGGREGATES): We’re here locally in Goodyear, Arizona. For the Arizona market, we’re really looking forward to what 2025 has to offer. We’re seeing the first quarter might be a little bit slower, but there are some big projects. Some of the chip plants that are coming in here are going to demand upward of 4 million tons of aggregates for a single project. That’s going to be a big deal for us, and we’ll probably be looking at the second quarter to see that start to trickle in.
We’re excited for what’s to come for 2025 for the aggregate market here in Phoenix.
DAMIAN MURPHY (PECKHAM INDUSTRIES): We’re in New York, and we are optimistic about the year. I would say there are a lot of proposals put out with not a lot of people acting on them yet. But we’re pretty optimistic about the year.
RAYMOND SLAUGHTER (LUCK STONE): Our 2025 outlook is fairly good – as good as 2024. We expect a very similar performance. We’re going to see the northern Virginia regions kind of slow a little bit, but our southern regions expect really good performance. We’re excited about those investments and where they’re going to go.
GREG DONECKER (KEMPER): I’ll give you the supplier-side version. We’re kind of a hybrid business, where we’re a distributor and a manufacturer of processing plants and conveyors. I’m optimistic for 2025, but a lot of that optimism comes from expansion into new markets. We’ve invested in additional sales team.
The other thing I see taking place on our side of the table is both the manufacturers and the producers are expecting more from the distributors, looking for a full-service distribution. I see a lot of M&A action happening on our side of the table. There’s a limitation of knowledge on the distribution level, so that creates expansion opportunities for our organization.
ALEX KANARIS (VDG): We’re manufacturers of drum motor equipment. We have manufacturing plants in the United States and manufacturing in Canada, so the outlook for 2025 at this point is kind of uncertain because of the 25 percent tariffs the Trump administration wants to impose in Canada and Mexico. I’m not sure how that is going to work and how we’re going to work around it.
For us right now, it doesn’t really feel very bright for 2025, unless something changes on that area.
SCOTT ALEXANDER (SUMMIT MATERIALS): From a budgeting standpoint, at least for the region and probably somewhat overall, we’ve budgeted for flat year over year. But my expectation, certainly in our Western region, is to exceed the prior year and budget by 10 percent or more.
We are in good growth markets, and we’ve got multiple greenfields or organic growth that’s happening. That’s going to have a big impact on our business in 2025.
RANDY KUNZ (GEOLOGIC): We’re heavily involved on the front end with the green sites. There is quite a bit of activity on that front. Cash funds have really been built up by all the producers, because there has been a little bit of hesitancy. I think cash is at an all-time high, so producers are not only investing in acquisitions but trying to build their reserves.
ANTHONY KONYA (KONYA MINING COMPANY): We’re seeing an extremely optimistic 2025. One of the benefits I have is getting to look across different product portfolios. In areas like our industrial mineral sector, we’re seeing a lot of demand and market optimism from customers.
Specifically with reshoring initiatives, a lot of them are thinking tariffs will ultimately help them produce more glass. The foundries seem to be optimistic, so we are seeing optimism there.
In the construction materials market, one of the things we do is talk with the developers to start gauging where our customers are going to be going and in our markets, which are limited on the construction materials side. We have multiple subdivisions bidding actively. We have a lot of multifamily and a lot of commercial bidding, but right now we’re seeing a bit of a lag.
Normally, these projects would have been bidding November-December timeframe, getting shovel ready for March-April. Right now, they’re actively coming up to bid. The feedback we’re getting is interest rates have come down enough to start being in the range that development can begin again. But they are a bit behind on it, so we’re thinking probably a May-June-July timeframe until that market starts to pick up.
RYAN MORALES (GULF COAST SAND): We’re very optimistic about 2025. One of the big slowdowns in 2024 was the Biden administration doing the additional environmental reviews that you probably heard about on the news around the LNG plants that are on the Gulf Coast. With the Trump administration doing the executive order, I believe it’s going to thrust everything into the next gear. We’re pretty well positioned for those projects and really excited about the volumes.
KEVIN YANIK (PIT & QUARRY): We’ve heard some comments about the new administration on tariffs and regulation. How does the election of Donald Trump as president and a Congress fully controlled by Republicans influence your outlook for 2025 and beyond?
TRACY SLIEFF (LJ INC.): As soon as the elections closed, we’ve seen an instant increase. Last year was really flat, but we’ve already seen the sales for this coming year really start to exceed what we already anticipated. It’s looking good.
CHAD GREENFIELD (SYNTRON MATERIAL HANDLING): I think we’re pretty solid. There’s some stability, but the tariffs are definitely something that are hanging over our heads that we’re trying to make plans for. Depending on what happens with those around the world, those could have some significant impact for us in international business.
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