James confident on market

At the BB&T Manufacturing and Materials Conference in New York City this week, Vulcan Materials Co. Chairman and CEO Don James spoke of his company’s plan to move forward despite the downturn of the residential housing market. In the face of the decline in housing starts, financing and real estate prices, Vulcan Materials is confident that the stability of public-infrastructure spending and the flow of federal highway dollars will be sufficient to sustain them. James said that in 2007, 81 percent of their aggregates demand was for the non-housing market, with only 19 percent going into housing (down from 20 percent in previous years.) Your comment?