Carmeuse numbers steady at Calcite Plant for 2010

Shipping numbers at Carmeuse Lime & Stone?s Calcite plant was on par with totals from 2009, according to site operations manager Joe Chevreaux Jr. About 4.87 million tons of high-calcium limestone was shipped from the Port of Calcite in 2010.

?For all practical purposes, it was about the same,? said Chevreaux. ?It was very, very close. Construction went down a little bit, mainly because (auto companies) were rebuilding inventories, not necessarily because they had additional sales.?

Shipments of limestone on the Great Lakes totaled 1,039,924 tons in December, an increase of 37.7 percent compared to a year ago, according to the Lake Carriers? Association. However, the trade was down more than 40 percent compared to the month?s five-year average.

SEVENTY FIVE percent of Calcite?s ?10 product was intended for a wide variety of metallurgical uses, while the final 25 percent went for construction aggregates. ?The thing that took the biggest hit was the construction industry,? said Chevreaux. ?It is probably going to be the slowest to come back over the next few years?construction is basically roads or concrete. There is not much of that going on in Michigan.? Chevreaux believes federal stimulus dollars went to fill state budget holes, and therefore, weren?t utilized in the construction field as much as industry officials had predicted. ?There was other money available, but Michigan couldn?t

come up with the matching balance,? added Chevreaux. ?They are talking that 2011 could be the worse budget year for states, because there is nothing to supplement.? For the year the lakes limestone trade totaled 27.9 million tons, an increase of 18.6 percent compared to 2009.

SHIPMENTS FROM U.S. stone quarries rose 20 percent to 22.3 million tons. Loadings at Canadian quarries increased 13.4 percent to 5.5 million tons. 2010s rebound was not enough to restore the stone trade to previous levels. Shipments were 16.3 percent off the trade?s five-year average, and nearly 30 percent below the volume recorded in 2006.

The Calcite work force was at 120 at the end of 2010, of which 91 positions were hourly. ?We didn?t have any layoff last year,? said Chevreaux. ?I don?t know what is going to happen this year, we?ve been real fortunate that we?ve been able to keep the crew working.? Carmeuse North America has owned the plant for three years.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.