US concrete market news for the beginning of 2020

World of Concrete 2020: Strong attendance, 250-plus new exhibitors

Sources: Informa Exhibitions, Irving, Texas; CP staff

The 45th World of Concrete wrapped up earlier this month with attendance of approximately 54,000 registered professionals and 1,310 companies exhibiting across 700,000-plus net square feet of indoor and outdoor Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) space. Exhibitors included 255 companies new to the show, while international presence was marked with 237 companies from 29 countries outside the United States.

“This year has been a very successful event," says Informa Exhibitions Group Director, World of Concrete Jackie James. "The industry continues to evolve and grow stronger as we enter a new decade ... and we cannot wait until 2021, with the expansion of the Las Vegas Convention Center West Hall to showcase our leading industry suppliers in this state-of-the-art facility.”

To that end, she adds, exhibit space booked onsite for next year's show saw 485 companies committing to just over 530,000 net square feet—nearly 77 percent of space for this year's gathering. Rising across Paradise Road from the LVCC North Hall, the West Hall will harbor traditional Central Hall occupants—concrete pump, mixer truck, earthmoving equipment plus World of Masonry exhibitors—at World of Concrete 2021. South Hall exhibits will shift to the Central Hall as a phased LVCC reconstruction commences in the former structure. Next year's show will return to its more frequent slot earlier in the calendar, the third week of January.

Concrete pavement market poised to remain above 50 million square yards

Sources: American Concrete Pavement Association, Rosemont, Ill.; CP staff

The American Concrete Pavement Association sees good prospects for mainline paving and overlay projects this year, with overall volume nearly matching last year’s levels. “We expect 2019 market volume to be about 51.5 million square yards. The current projection for 2020 is about 50.2 million square yards. Although this represents a slight decrease of 2.5 percent, the change is attributed to several strong state reconstruction projects and new alignment programs completed in 2019,” says ACPA CEO Gerald Voigt. 

“Overlays remain a strong and growing component of the concrete paving market,” he adds. “In the five-year period from 2010 to 2014, overlays were 11.3 percent of the overall concrete paving market. In the last five years, that figure has grown to 12.4 percent, and we anticipate projections to be in line with that figure in 2020.”

Concrete overlay technology development, implementation and education by ACPA, Chapters and the National Concrete Pavement Technology Center at Iowa State University have been instrumental in developing this market, Voigt notes. Overlay market support and development activities have progressed in partnership with the Federal Highway Administration. The agency has funded technology transfer efforts through the ACPA-crafted Accelerated Implementation and Deployment of Pavement Technology program included in the FAST Act of 2015 and MAP-21 Act of 2012.