Structural Clay Products, NEC

Although this small industry's shipments increased regularly in current dollar value during the 1980s, by the mid-1990s, both its shipments and employment were declining. The industry shipped $150.4 million worth of goods and employed 1,800 workers in 1995, which marked a 14 percent decline, not including inflation, since the industry's 1989 peak of $175 million in shipments. After declining to $120.2 million in 1997, the value of shipments began to increase throughout the 1990s. In fact, shipments grew each year between 1997 and 2001. Between 2000 and 2001, they rose from $139.6 million to $147.2 million. Shipments reached $209.4 million in 2005, then declined to $205.7 million in 2006. From 1,473 workers in 2000, employment increased to 1,531 workers in 2005, then fell to 1,463 workers in 2006. In 2008, the industry employed 1,404, and the value of product shipments totaled $167.6 million. According to Dun and Bradstreet, 2009 revenues fell to $132.8 million.

About 136 companies operated in this industry in 2009. Once the largest segment of this industry, vitrified clay sewage pipe and fittings claimed only 35 firms (26 percent) in 2009 and about 33 percent of industry revenues.

During the mid-1990s, other structural clay products such as architectural terra cotta, drain tile, flue tile, roofing tile, and conduit had become the industry's leading segment, accounting for 53 percent of industry shipments by 1997 and 65 percent in 2006. Fueled by a booming construction industry, demand for these products climbed steadily throughout the late 1990s and 2000s. The value of shipments for this segment jumped from $63.9 million in 1997 to $92.9 million in 2001 and reached $133.2 million in 2006.

Because the industry is heavily dependent on the housing industry, it was negatively impacted by the U.S. banking crisis that occurred beginning in 2008, which led to a U.S. housing crisis. U.S. new housing starts, which had reached record highs of over two million in 2005, plummeted to recorded lows in 2009. In 2009, new housing starts totaled 554,000, which is the lowest recorded total in the 50 years since the U.S. federal government began recording the data in 1959.

As a result, demand for structural clay products declined drastically. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, value of products shipped fell over 26 percent between 2007 and 2009, from $227.7 million to $132.8 million. Boral Limited, a leader in the industry and headquartered in Australia but with a strong presence in the United States, reported earnings of $108.8 for 2008-2009. Although the company revised its earnings by cutting costs and selling off some less profitable assets, both Moody's Investors Service and Standard and Poor's downgraded the company's rating. Revenues of Boral USA, Boral Limited, U.S-based company, declined by 33 percent during 2009.

Total industry employment fell from 2,200 workers in 1988 to 1,332 workers in 1997. This figure rose to 1,531 workers in 2005, but the following year, industry employment dropped again to 1,463 workers, of whom 1,219 were production workers. The average hourly wage in the industry was $14.52 in 2006. In 2008, there were 1,404 workers, down from 1,628 in 2008. The average hourly wage for production workers was $15.16. The industry was concentrated regionally, with California, Ohio, and Georgia accounting for roughly one-half the industry's employment. Arizona, Colorado, Florida, and New York accounted for another 20 percent of employees.

The only occupations expected to increase employment levels included extruding and forming machine operators, industrial machinery mechanics, sales workers, maintenance repairers, truck drivers, industrial production managers, and coating machine operators. Those occupations expected to face reductions were primarily in the realm of assembly/production and included assemblers, furnace operators, crushing- and mixing-machine operators, inspectors, hand packers, packaging-machine operators, machine feeders, material movers, secretaries, cutting-machine operators, general machine operators, grinders, and machine forming and machine tool cutting operators.

One of the top firms in this industry was Boral USA Company of Roswell, Georgia, owner of the U.S. Tile Company, a clay roof tile manufacturer. Boral USA had estimated sales in 2009 of $406 million, down from $607 million in 2008. Another leader, Hanson Building Products, a member of HeidelbergCement Group of Germany, posted sales in 2009 of $15.6 billion.