Economics

Introduction
Whilst Britain is self-sufficient in aggregates, and indeed is a small exporter there are significant regional imbalances in supply, which require large inter-UK and inter-regional movement of aggregates. In 2001, total consumption of primary aggregates in England was 182 million tonnes, compared with total sales of 173 million tonnes. The deficit was made up by imports from Wales, Scotland and Europe. Regional imbalances are greatest in the south-east and London, where consumption was 44 million tonnes but land-won sales were only 13 million tonnes.

The shortfall was balanced by landings of marine-dredged sand and gravel (10.9 million tonnes), crushed rock imports from the south west (7.2 million tonnest) and the East Midlands (3.3 million tonnes), and seaborne landings of crushed rock, notably from Scotland and Europe (3.8 million tonnes).

Inter-regional flows of crushed rock, 2001
(click to enlarge).

	Land-won	Marine	Total sand & gravel	Crushed rock	Total primary aggregates
Region	Thousand tonnes
North East	807	447	1254	6081	7 335
North West	4968	252	5812	8887	14 699
Yorks & the Humber	4604	166	4770	10 652	15 422
East Midlands	9842	0	9842	28 443	38 285
West Midlands	9590	0	9590	5538	15 128
East of England	12 670	1711	14 381	<150e	14 531
South East	9361	5486	14 847	1 000e	15 847
London	768	2300	3068	0	3068
South West	5875	538	6413	22 998	29 411
England	58 484	10 901	68 091	83 957	153 342
Wales	1503	1 230	2733	16 837	19 570
Scotland	8103	0	8103	22 092	30 195
Great Britain	68 090	12 131	80 221	122 885	203 106
Northern Ireland	4894	0	4894	17 532	22 426
UNITED KINGDOM	72 984	12 131	85 115	140 418	225 532

Table 1. UK: Sales of primary aggregates by English region and country, 2003

Sources: AMRI, ONS for Great Britain.
Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, Northern Ireland.
(The figures for crushed rock in Northern Ireland are somewhat overstated because sales for
non -aggregates use are not separately disclosed).

. . . more