Like the Big Muddy
The US Central Plains area is a key US cement market with demand following a slow but steady course, much like the Mississippi River that flows through it. However, recent years have seen dramatic shifts in the ownership of several cement producers and the modernisation of the industry. By Rob Roy, ROI Economic Consulting, USA.
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The Mississippi River system provides the domestic cement industry with an efficient transportation system
to ship its final product to some of the country’s key markets
A dominant feature of the US Central Plains area is the Mississippi River. Fondly nicknamed the ‘Big Muddy’, its major tributaries include the rivers Missouri, Ohio, Illinois, Arkansas and Red as well as the Tennessee, Wabash, Alleghany and hundreds of other connected rivers and canals (see Figure 1).