The Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute (ICPI) released its annual survey that confirmed continued growth of concrete pavers in North America for 2005. The survey estimated total sales for North America at 775 million sq. ft. (71.3 million sq m), which represents a 9.2 percent increase from 2004 to 2005. Since the survey’s inception in 1999, the North American concrete paver market has more than doubled.

“The continued growth of concrete paver sales demonstrates the strength of the segmental concrete pavement market in North America,” said Joe Bowen, ICPI chairman. “With this high level of growth, a major challenge facing the industry is business and skills education for installers and contractors. To address the needs of the industry, ICPI is launching a national tradeshow, Hardscape North America, which will offer an excellent vehicle for educating additional installers and contractors.”

As with previous surveys, the residential market was the largest, accounting for 76.5 percent of concrete paver sales in 2005. The second largest market was commercial at 14.7 percent, followed by municipal at 7.8 percent. The industrial/port/airport market accounted for the smallest portion, representing 1 percent of all paver sales.

Permeable interlocking concrete pavers were surveyed for the second time. The percent of total paver production increased 64 percent from 1.4 percent in 2004 to 2.3 percent in 2005. Given developments in national, provincial, state and local stormwater regulations to reduce runoff, sales of permeable interlocking concrete pavers are expected to grow.

North American cement consumption in 2005 was 1.9 million tons (1.7 million t), compared to 1.7 million tons (1.6 million t) in 2004. U.S. cement consumption accounted for 1.7 million tons (1.6 million t), while Canadian consumption was 16,213 tons (147,467 t).

Industry Insights, a nationally recognized market research firm, conducted this survey for ICPI. The survey report is available from the Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute (ICPI).

For more information, call 202/712-9036 or visit www.icpi.org.

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