Paver Shipments Eclipse 800 Million Square Feet

The Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute Industry Sales Profile survey, released in mid-August, indicates a 3.2 percent increase in North American

CP STAFF

The Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute Industry Sales Profile survey, released in mid-August, indicates a 3.2 percent increase in North American paving stone shipments from 2005 to 2006. Last year saw paving stone producers ship approximately 800 million square feet of concrete pavers, a volume that would yield a stack of product 134,943 miles high.

Since the survey’s 1998 inception, the industry has grown 162 percent, with a 12.9 percent average annual gain. Residential continues to be the largest paver market, accounting for 79.8 percent of 2006 sales, followed by commercial at 13.1 percent and municipal at 6 percent. The industrial/port/airport market represented the smallest segment of the industry at 1.1 percent of shipments.

In 2007 survey participants were asked to break-out the percent of permeable interlocking concrete paver sales for both the U.S. and Canada. In previous years, this category was indicated as a percentage of all paver sales. Permeable interlocking concrete pavers now represent 1.8 percent of the total sales of pavers to residential, commercial and municipal markets. As federal, provincial, state and local governments review stormwater management regulations to reduce water runoff and pollution, ICPI projects that permeable paver shipments will increase.

The survey indicates that North American concrete paver production in 2006 equated to 1.98 million tons of cement consumption, versus 1.93 million tons the year prior. Industry Insights, a market research firm, conducted the Industry Sales Profile survey, which can be ordered through www.icpi.org.