Limestone shipments for ?09 reach 25-year low
by Peter Jakey, Managing Editor
Carmeuse Lime and Stone?s Calcite plant processed and sold 3.5 million tons of limestone in 2009 in what was a very difficult year, said Phil Johnson senior vice president of sales and marketing in Pittsburgh. ?The major consumers of Calcite material are the steel industry and the construction industry and both had a bad time in 2009,? said Johnson. ?Whereas steel is picking up somewhat in 2010, although not to traditional levels yet, construction is due to have another difficult year.?
According to a late December press release from the Lake Carriers? Association, the Great Lakes limestone trade reached a 25-year low. U.S. and Canadian ports shipped 23.5 million net tons of limestone in 2009. That is the lowest total since the recession year 1984 when shipments totaled only 23,156,860 tons. The 2009 total also represents a decrease of 27.4 percent compared to 2008. The trade was nearly 36 percent below its 5-year average. A MAJOR PORTION of the limestone shipped on the lakes is aggregate for the construction industry.
Efforts to stimulate the economy have yet to translate into aggregate-intensive projects. ?The amount of stimulus money that went into infrastructure was pitifully low,? said Johnson. ?Whatever impact it is going to have, hopefully we?re going to see more of it in 2010, 11, than we saw in 2009.? Even with the ramp downward, Carmeuse maintained their market share, increasing it by a percentage or two in a very down market. ?We had a shorter production season, shipping season, and we?ll probably be looking at the same again in 2010,? he said. Lakes-shipping quarries also supply U.S. and Canadian steelmakers with fluxstone that is used as a purifying agent in the steelmaking process. Although some blast furnaces have been restarted, the industry is still only operating at about 65 percent of its capacity.