US Concrete Inc announced yesterday that it has strengthened its aggregates capacity and ability to supply its New York City ready-mixed concrete operations by acquiring the assets of Corbett Aggregates Companies LLC, a provider of concrete sand located in Quinton, New Jersey. The acquisition furthers US Concrete's vertical integration strategy and self-sufficiency in internal aggregates consumption, the company noted.

Corbett features approximately 401 acres of land with over 35Mt of proven reserves. "These high-quality fine aggregates will support US Concrete's family of businesses in the New York metropolitan market and its third-party customers," the company added.

In connection with the deal, US Concrete was assigned a long-term lease with the South Jersey Port Corporation for an export dock located approximately six miles from the aggregates operation, as well as the exclusive right to move coarse and fine aggregates through the North Shore Terminal located on Staten Island, New York.

Accordingly, US Concrete will use its aggregates import docks located in the New York Metropolitan Area, which are operated by its wholly-owned subsidiary New York Sand and Stone, for distribution of the sand. The ability to move these materials by water reduces the Company's dependency on third-party suppliers and helps alleviate metropolitan traffic congestion by taking a large number of trucks off an overused road network.

"The acquisition of Corbett meets our strategic objective of increasing self-sufficiency in our internal aggregates sourcing especially in an area of the country with quickly depleting fine aggregates resources," said Bill Sandbrook, president and CEO of US Concrete. "Additionally, the ability to ship concrete sand to our metropolitan New York City markets by water is another strategic benefit to this acquisition as trucking becomes ever more expensive due to traffic congestion and increasing bridge tolls. This acquisition will have an immediate positive impact on our operating results and we look forward to continuing to identify other growth opportunities in our targeted markets."