British Geological Survey has published a revised factsheet for construction aggregates.
The latest update of the ‘Construction aggregates’ factsheet has just been published by the BGS to reflect the many recent changes in the structure of the industry, the latest amendments in a wide range of aggregates-related planning issues, plus updated statistics on all aspects of aggregates supply.
A couple of interesting snippets:
Sales of primary aggregates in Great Britain peaked at 300million tonnes in 1989 but have since declined considerably. In 2017 primary aggregates sales for Great Britain were 176.3million tonnes, comprising 114.5 million tonnes of crushed rock and 61.8 million tonnes of sand and gravel, including marine dredged…
Sales of primary aggregates in the UK were some 190 million tonnes in 2017 with an estimated value of £2258 million based on ex-quarry values.
That's around £12 per tonne after processing – before onward delivery. On transport costs:
Aggregates are low value high weight/volume products... Transport is a key element of the supply process. There are two main issues associated with the transport of aggregates. First are the environmental impacts of the supply of aggregates in the immediate vicinity of the quarry (the environmental impacts of more distant transport movements are generally dissipated within the whole transport system). Second, since aggregates are probably the lowest value materials that are transported by road, rail and sea, the cost of transport is an important element of the final delivered cost of the aggregates.
In 2017, the Freight Transport Association put the costs of running a 44-tonne HGV at £140,000 pa. Based on working 250 days a year, that's £560 per day, before any allowance for profit.
For Straitgate, Aggregate Industries has proposed:
... material would be extracted at a rate between 120,000 tonnes and 180,000 tonnes per annum on a campaign basis which means that extraction would be limited typically to 2 or 3 times per year with each campaign lasting between five and seven weeks at a time.
All this material would need to be transported to Hillhead for processing, a 46-mile round trip for each 29-tonne load of as-dug material – which includes 20% waste. The scheme totals some 2.5 million miles.
If we assume, say, 150,000 tonnes per year, extracted over 16 weeks, costs would be in the region of (11 trucks x 5 days per week × 16 weeks) £500k per year – just to haul material to the processing plant – again before allowance for the haulier's profit. All back-of-the-envelope stuff, but a significant cost. In fact, over 10 years, it would cost AI £1m just to transport the waste.
If we assume, say, 150,000 tonnes per year, extracted over 16 weeks, costs would be in the region of (11 trucks x 5 days per week × 16 weeks) £500k per year – just to haul material to the processing plant – again before allowance for the haulier's profit. All back-of-the-envelope stuff, but a significant cost. In fact, over 10 years, it would cost AI £1m just to transport the waste.
It doesn't look like economics is Aggregate Industries' strongest suit. The haulage scheme is plainly bonkers. Plainly unsustainable. And plainly not, as we keep being told, "at the forefront of efforts to mitigate climate change."
