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Originally posted by DanS
WTF is aggregate? Is it expensive?
WTF is aggregate? Is it expensive?
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It the gravel and sand and stuff they mix with cement to make the concrete hold together. It's dirt cheap.
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It can be expensive, depending on how fine the material has to be. Also, with tempered materials the cost can rise quite dramatically with the cost of fuel.
I don't know what types of rock is mined in Korea, but if the country doesn't have certain kinds in abundance then they will have to ship some in for use in construction. That can get pricey.Comment
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A ton may be cheap, but then you have to ship it. Also, most decent size projects use thousands of tons...Originally posted by Zkribbler
It the gravel and sand and stuff they mix with cement to make the concrete hold together. It's dirt cheap.
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So I guess the take-away is that it might pay for itself, but it also may be very far from paying for itself. It all depends on the specific geology of Korea and market prices for oil and various types of aggregate delivered.I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891Comment
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It'll never pay for itself. The cost of fuel will insure that. Even if they were able to dig up a billion tons of aggregate and sell most of it market forces would push the price of aggregate way down. I doubt that the construction industry in South Korea could even absorb that much aggregate. They might save some costs on materials that otherwise would have been purchased, but that's it.Originally posted by DanS
So I guess the take-away is that it might pay for itself, but it also may be very far from paying for itself. It all depends on the specific geology of Korea and market prices for oil and various types of aggregate.Comment
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Well, let's pretend that the it drives the price of specific types of aggregate down in Korea. While on the project's books it might be a net negative, on the entire Korean construction industry's books, it might be a net positive.
Or is the price of aggregate just not very high in any circumstance?I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891Comment
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Profit margin will increase initially, but there will always be a construction firm who will drop their construction contract price to gain more business. Entry cost into the market will go down as construction costs go down. Market forces act and the industry benefits while individual firms face increased competition on smaller jobs.
Then again, the total cost of aggregate on small jobs, the kinds that new firms usually take, will not be influenced all that much.Comment
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Here's a great little website on what we're talking about:
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Very interesting. So taking Manitoba, c. 2000 as an example, aggregate costs about CDN $3.50 a ton.
Let's pretend that it costs CDN $0.03 per ton-mile to move aggregate by rail. At $0.03 per ton-mile, the distance it would take before transport costs are the majority cost of the transaction is only 120 miles. By this measure, you would by far prefer to source your aggregate locally.
But by barge (which this canal would allow), it will cost you one-third that amount for transport.
The question is, how much aggregate does Korea import or move by rail internally?I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891Comment
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Looks like sand and small stones are in short supply. The Koreans have had a few problems with construction firms digging up beaches it seems. A lot of what I'm getting off the net deals with recycling waste products to use as aggregate, even oyster shells.
So maybe, just maybe, the aggregate produced will be valuable. The Prez will help out his old buddies by increasing supply. The question is: Will the project create a canal system that is economically worthwhile, long after the aggregate is used up? Couldn't a rail system be an easy substitute?Comment
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Korean industry uses a massive crap-load of aggregate right now due to the housing boom. I doubt much is imported since driving around the countryside you see big sites with people yanking rubble/sand out of hillsides all over the place.Stop Quoting BenComment
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What do they do for industrial glass -- e.g., the glass used for LCD panels that Samsung exports?Last edited by DanS; January 27, 2008, 21:42.I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891Comment
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The silica for the LCD plants is coming from somewhere. Corning keeps building plants around South Korea.Comment
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