JOSH SWANK (PHILIPPI-HAGENBUCH): We saw extreme demand throughout 2022. With that demand, [we reeducated] our client base [that they] can’t just call to get a truck, water tank or prime piece of equipment in six to eight weeks like traditionally. Lead times went out so long. A lot of that had to do with the increase in investments that producers were making throughout the industry.
BARRY HUDSON (PRICE BEE): If you haven’t taken advantage of the extreme inflation in 2022, you could be in real trouble in 2023. One of the big challenges for the industry is if you’ve got those price increases, just keep them in 2023 and 2024 because, [with] the same logic that you applied to bring the price up in the first place, people will play against you. Your total revenue is such a key part of business, and you need to have prices and strategies in place to keep them or you will lose them.
SCOTT ALEXANDER (KILGORE COMPANIES): Speaking to the western region, for 2022, all of our markets were up. Demand was greater than what we had capacity for, so that presented the headwinds that we experienced. The labor issue is the most critical issue for us. It was in 2022, and I see it in 2023. Capital [and] equipment are not the issue. It’s people. Corporate says: ‘What do you need?’ I say: ‘I need people.’
Our costs were negatively impacted in 2022 due to the labor shortage, so we had to contract out and bring labor in that’s inexperienced. Anybody who’s worked on quarry equipment, whether it’s mobile or plant equipment, knows that putting people who don’t know what they’re doing out there with that equipment is a terrible recipe for disaster.
THOMAS HAUN (TURNER MINING GROUP): Turner Mining launched a division called Turner Staffing exactly for this reason. Turner Mining has done a historically good job of attracting the next generation of talent. We’re a pretty small company, so these are smaller numbers for the Vulcans of the world. But we get unsolicited applications every single day.
We agree that labor is the No. 1 challenge this industry has. The good thing about equipment suppliers is you can do a lot of planning with them because they run very large supplying businesses. Planning people is a much more complicated thing because everybody has their own individual circumstance.
