The Future of Construction: How Ready-Mix Concrete is Revolutionizing the Industry
Introduction:
Global construction market is significantly growing. There is huge investements being done in the construction industry owing to various reasons like increased population growth, rapid urbanization, government investment and many more. At the same time, construction industry is constantly evolving too in terms of innovation and efficiency.
Infrastructure development is accelerating across the globe. It needs materials that can reduce labour,be time effective and ensure consistency in quality. This position is being taken over by Ready-Mix concrete and changing the way construction is being done from the last decade.
Ready-Mix Concrete is a concrete which is made at plant site according to specific requirements and deliver the mixture to the construction site. There are some benefits that ready-mix concrete offers making it in high demand to the construction industry. It has better precision and consistency in qualiy as it is prepared in a controlled environment. It is efficient in cost and time, it makes more durable structures etc. Thus, . It is a more viable and effective alternatives to site-mix concrete. Further, in the era of environmental conciousnes, ready-mix concrete would lead its market to significant growth as they are sustainable as they have less carbon footprint and reduced wastage.
Advantages Offered by Ready-mix Concrete
Ready- Mix concrete is a customized product that is manufactured to meet the demand of construction industry as per their specifications. They are created in specialized batching plants and is mixed in the right proportion to have the highest level of quality. There are many benefits that are offered by Ready- Mix concrete that the site-mix concrete lacks thus making its demand grow in the construction industry.
Quality and Consistency: Since Ready-Mix concrete is prepared in a controlled environment where it is measured precisely and blended, its quality and consistency are maintained. This ensures that each batch is prepared according to the specific requirements of the project thus ensuring quality product.
It is cost effective: As Ready-Mix concrete is prepared in huge quantity; its production cost reduces. This makes the Ready-Mix concrete companies to supply their product at a lower cost than the site-mix concrete cost thus increasing its demand in the construction industry.
Versatile and Durable: Ready-Mix concrete can be tailored to meet the specific demand of any project. This provides the necessary strength, durability and workability. This ensure that it can withstand harsh weather conditions, chemical exposure thus making it a better option for residential, commercial and industrial construction.
Sustainability: Ready-Mix concrete production is sustainable. They significantly contribute to the environment impact of construction projects due to its energy efficiency and reduced carbon emissions. This makes Ready-Mix concrete to a perfect product for construction industry.
Cemex, one of the major ready-mix concrete companies of Mexico, has $7116 million in the year 2023 from ready-mix concrete increasing by from $5732 million in the year 2021, reporting growth of 24.14% of increase in their revenue from ready-mix concrete in 2 years. This shows the huge market for Ready-mix concrete all over the globe.
Source: Cemex Annual Report
All these advantages combine along with problems associated with on-site concrete preparation makes Ready-mix concrete to drive the construction industry and has huge capabilities in the future to untap the existing opportunities and harness the new opportunities coming along with the growth in construction industry.
Future is the Era of Green Economy, i.e., Ready-mix Concrete Over on-site Concrete
We are living in the era of environmental consciousness, and it is the need of the hour. Industries need to adapt themselves in the changing environment only then they would be able to survive in the future.
As per reports by Oxford Economics, construction industry would be of US$13.9 trillion by 2037 from US$9.7 trillion in 2022 and growth would be driven by green economy. This necessitates the construction industry to adapt to sustainable construction allowing it to harness the opportunities in the future.
As per International Finance Corporation, a world bank group, “Construction value chains account for 40% of energy and industrial-related carbon dioxide emissions globally and this contribution can grow significantly as growing population, rapid urbanization and rising incomes would drive demand for better housing and commercial buildings” .Thus how construction industry meet their needs would be pivotal to the climate future of the world.
Carbon emissions from the construction industry can be reduced significantly with the application of new technologies, going for sustainable raw materials and implementation of appropriate policies. Countries are formulating stringent rules and regulations to curb the carbon emissions from the construction industry to achieve its net zero carbon emissions by 2050. This possesses a new challenge to the construction industry to align themselves with the coming laws to drive their market growth.
USA, one of the key markets in the construction industry, under United States Environmental Protection Agency has announced grant selection for $160 million to support shift to cleaner construction materials to reduce climate pollution linked to the production of construction materials and products.
In European union too, construction industry accounts for 35% of the EU’s total waste generation. Material extraction, manufacturing of construction products as well as construction and renovation of buildings are estimated to have 5-12% of total national greenhouse gas emissions. It is estimated that if greater material efficiency would be applied, it would save 80% of those greenhouse emissions. Thus, EU has adopted The Construction Products Regulations to have CE marking to all the products that fall under the scope of regulation.
India, which is the fastest growing market in the construction industry, was fueled by various programs like smart city missions, Bharat Mala project, Sagar Mala project, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and many more; and capital investment in India’s construction industry grew by 5.2 times in 2023 than in 2014. India has pledged in COP26 to reduce the carbon emissions by 1 billion tonnes by 2030 and Construction industry accounts for 17% of the nation’s total greenhouse gas emissions.
Thua, Construction industry is growing exponentially but the highest share of growth lies in the green economy. As per the same International Finance Corporation, “Global Domestic and Foreign Private Green Debt Finance for construction Decarbonization has been increased 20 folds in the last five year from $15-20 billion in 2017 to around $220 billion in 2021”. Construction industry need to make policies that would help them to reduce their carbon emissions as only constructing building has 50% share in total carbon emissions by construction industry. There comes the demand for Ready-Mix concrete which is sustainable as it helps in reducing carbon by reducing wastage during production, saving transportation emissions of many vehicles used to deliver material at on-site concrete preparation. Also evolving technologies like artificial intelligence and IoT would help the Ready- Mix concrete industry to make more precise control over the production of RMC, leading to have greater efficiency and consistency. Thus, Ready-Mix concrete with its new advancements is crucial for the construction industry which is facing challenges due to climate change.
Innovations in Ready-mix Concrete Market
With the advancement in technology like Artificial intelligence amd Internet of things(IoT), Ready-Mix concrete is having new innovations.
Earlier concrete batching involves namual process but with the advent of automoted batching systems, computer controlled alogrithms accurately measure and mix the concrete solutions making concrete more qualititative and consistent.
Digitization and the Internet of Things(IoT) is significantly impacting ready-mix concrete as sensors abd Iot devices monitor and collecte data about temperature, slump during mixing etc. This leads to have better quality concrete mix.
Mobile technology, Self-Consolidating concrete and use of environment friendly cementitious materials like fly ash, slag, and silica fume helping to reduce carbon footprints increases quality and consistency.
Thus advancents and innovation in ready-mix concrete industry provides numerous benefits leading to increased efficiency, more better quality,enhanced sustainability and ability to construct more better structure makes it to revolutionize construction industry in the future.
Untap the Existing Ready-mix Concrete Market
India is the fastest growing market in construction industry. As per reports by Invest India, Indian construction industry is expeced to reach $1.4 trillion by 2025. This growth in construction industry in india is driven by its population growth, rapid urbanization, increased government spending etc. Taking Road Transport and Highways as an example, accoring to annual report of 2023-24 released by Ministry of Road Transport and Highways by Government of India, there is 5.7 times increase in government capital expenditure from Rs. 53,000 crore in 2013-14 to Rs. 3.01 lakh crore in 2023-24.
Still, India having such a huge market for construction industry, Ready-Mix concrete market is still in its infancy. Developed countries like USA, as per National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, uses 80 to 85% of cement consumption is in the form of Ready-Mix concrete but the same data for India is only 5%. India still accounts for 80 to 82% of cement consumption as on-site consumption.
There is huge untapped market of Ready-Mix concrete in countries like India given the fact that it is the fastest growing market for construction industry. Future is of Ready-Mix concrete in the construction industry all over the globe and more and more market is in countries like India.
Find some of our related studies:
