This statistic represents the annual change in the producer price index of asphalt paving in the United States between January and August 2013. In August 2013, the price of asphalt paving increased by around 0.8 percent, compared with one year before.
Asphalt paving industry
By connecting workers and factories, farmers and grocery stores, tourists and holiday resorts, our world’s infrastructure is the superglue of our lives. The various types of thoroughfare around the world can be broken down into five different categories: wireless connections, flight routes, rail tracks, shipping passages and roads. Although electronic trading and video conferences have become commonplace in today’s busy, buzzing world, asphalt-made roads are still counted among the most important links between two places. Asphalt is a mixture of bitumen (a form of petroleum) and mineral aggregate. Paving products are estimated to contribute around 80 percent of total asphalt demand. Such products are widely used in the surfacing of roads, airport runways, canal linings and even cycle paths
Since the condition of a country’s infrastructure is in the interest of all citizens, infrastructure projects are often driven by politics rather than economics. Therefore, the asphalt industry is heavily reliant on road and highway expansions, modernization programs, infrastructure stimulus packages and rebuilding efforts after earthquakes, deluges or hurricanes. This holds particularly true for mature markets such as Japan, Europe and
North America, where the majority of roads are surfaced with asphalt already - which is why the demand for asphalt will likely decelerate in these regions. However, the asphalt paving industry is forecast to grow well above the world average in less mature markets such as Latin America and Southeast Asia. Total global demand for asphalt is estimated to come to around 108 million metric tons in 2013. Major producers of asphalt products include BP,
Exxon Mobil, Anglo American Plc, Cemex,
Lafarge, HeidelbergCement and Sinopec.