Housing Shortage is Spurring Building Materials Demand

Shares of U.S. Concrete (USCR) - Get Report are up over 23 percent so far in 2016 as the materials-seller benefits from the nation's public and private construction boom. The company's CEO William Sandbrook said he does not see the spike in building starts to slow down anytime soon. 'There is a shortage of housing stock in the country,' said Sandbrook. 'Housing starts are 1.1 million units this year. The long term average is 1.5 million and we are in a mode of catching up to that on the residential side.' On the transportation and infrastructure side, Sandbrook said the new highway bill will also be a tailwind for U.S. Concrete as 'people are gearing up to participate in that buildout for the next five years'. U.S. Concrete serves the construction industry through its two business segments: ready-mixed concrete and aggregate products. The company operates 146 standard ready-mixed concrete plants, 16 volumetric ready-mixed concrete facilities, 14 producing aggregates facilities, three aggregates distribution terminals, two lime slurry facilities and one recycled aggregates facility. During 2015, U.S. Concrete sold approximately 7 million cubic yards of ready-mixed concrete and approximately 4.9 million tons of aggregates.