Stephen P. Zelnak predicts

Interesting commentary from Stephen P. Zelnak Jr., president and CEO of Martin Marietta Materials in the company's fourth-quarter report, reinforcing the industry's shift from a volume-based business to an industry driven by pricing structures: “Based on current forecasts and indications of business activity, management has a positive outlook for 2007," he said. "Aggregates product line pricing is expected to increase 9 percent to 11 percent for the year, reflecting continued supply constraints in many of our southeast and southwest market areas. Demand for aggregates products is expected to be flat with expectations of a softer construction market in the first half of 2007 mitigated by volume growth in the back half of 2007. Commercial and infrastructure construction is expected to increase in 2007, although not at the same rate as in 2006. In light of a fundamental shift in the supply/demand dynamics of aggregates in the United States, we have been reviewing the capital structure of our business over the past nine months. We believe this has been an appropriate time for this review since, in our evaluation, 2006 further established a new foundation for the performance of the aggregates business with the impact of pricing outweighing the impact of volume through the construction cycle." Your comment?