 report offers the latest on production volumes, with the agency noting that crushed stone and sand and gravel totals slipped for a second straight year.){kind=link}
Aggregate production was down 6 percent nationwide in 2024, according to a new report from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
Production totaled 2.38 billion metric tons last year, with Texas, California, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania being the top five-producing states in the U.S. Nationwide aggregate production also dipped in 2023, and it was flat in 2022.
USGS’s report, which is based on information reported to the agency in quarterly sample surveys of producers, says aggregate production was down 6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2024, as well. Production totaled 581 million metric tons in the quarter.
As part of its exercise with producer surveys, USGS split its aggregate production total for full-year 2024 and the fourth quarter last year into two categories: crushed stone and sand and gravel.
The agency says crushed stone production slipped 5 percent last year, totaling 1.55 billion metric tons. Fourth-quarter crushed stone production, meanwhile, dropped 4 percent to 365 million metric tons.
Sand and gravel production also declined across all of 2024, as well as in the fourth quarter last year. USGS says 2024 sand and gravel production totaled 900 million metric tons, a 7 percent decrease from 2023. Fourth-quarter sand and gravel production came in at 216 million metric tons, a drop of 8 percent versus the prior year’s fourth quarter.
Additionally, USGS provided an update on portland and blended cement production, noting that annual consumption in 2024 dropped 6 percent. Shipments of portland and blended cement declined 5 percent in the fourth quarter, the agency adds.
Related: Sizing up the nation’s crushed stone producers