Confidence returns to North America‘s clay brick industry

Illustration: Triangle Brick

Layout of a modern US brick plant

Illustration: Triangle Brick

Photo/Foto: Wienerberger AG

»7 Rome brick works by General Shale

Photo/Foto: Wienerberger AG

»8 Robot handling at General Shale

Photo/Foto: Wienerberger AG

Photo/Foto: Lingl

»9 Bessemer brickworks of Boral Brick

Photo/Foto: Lingl

Photo/Foto: Röben Tonbaustoffe

»10 New plant of Triangle Brick

Photo/Foto: Röben Tonbaustoffe

Photo/Foto: Lingl

»11 Kiln car transfer at Triangle Brick

Photo/Foto: Lingl

»12 Transfer robot at Triangle Brick

Photo/Foto: Lingl

Photo/Foto: Belden Brick

»13 Production of machine-moulded bricks

Photo/Foto: Belden Brick

Photo/Foto: Sioux City Brick

»14 Sioux City Brick‘s Adel Iowa plant

Photo/Foto: Sioux City Brick

»15 Dehacking with robots

Photo/Foto: Sioux City Brick

Almost ten years after the real estate crisis in the USA, which grew into a global banking and financial crisis, confidence in North America‘s brick industry is growing. The following market overview explains the market development and which measures were taken by the clay brick industry to adapt to the market changes.

1 Introduction

At the end of 2016, economists still largely disagreed about the impact Donald Trump‘s election will have on the American economy. The majority of experts believe that the presidency will have a positive or very positive effect on the construction industry. But there are also plenty of business leaders, especially from the construction industry, who do not believe in a significant change. Thus housing construction was virtually ignored in the election campaign, in any case improvement to the infrastructure was considered a more important issue. In December the US Portland Cement...