Iron and Steel
SmartSectors

The cement and concrete sector produces durable building products. Cement plants produce cements that are mixed with water, aggregates and other materials to create concrete products.

Use the checkboxes below to select an environmental performance and an economic indicator.

Environmental Performance Indicators







Economic Indicators



What is in this chart?

This chart shows total air emissions, as reported annually to EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) between 1996 and 2022, by establishments classified into NAICS code 3273 (cement and concrete product manufacturing). Total air emissions for this sector decreased from 9.3 million pounds in 1996 to 5.41 million pounds in 2022.

What are TRI air emissions?

Total air emissions reported to TRI include fugitive air emissions and stack air emissions. Fugitive air emissions are all releases to air that do not occur through a confined air stream; such emissions may include equipment leaks, releases from building ventilation systems, and evaporative losses from surface impoundments and spills. Stack air emissions are releases to air that occur through a confined air stream, such as stacks, ducts, or pipes.

The quantity of releases does not indicate the level of health risk posed by the emissions. TRI data can vary from year to year at the facility and sector levels for a variety of reasons. For questions about specific values, contact TRI. In addition to TRI reporting, cement and concrete manufacturers are subject to statutory and regulatory requirements, including permitting.

Select an Economic Indicator Click to View Totals

What is in this chart?

This chart shows total air emissions, as reported annually to EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) between 1996 and 2018, by establishments classified into NAICS code 3273 (cement and concrete product manufacturing). Total air emissions for this sector decreased from 9.3 million pounds in 1996 to 5.8 million pounds in 2018.

What are TRI air emissions?

Total air emissions reported to TRI include fugitive air emissions and stack air emissions. Fugitive air emissions are all releases to air that do not occur through a confined air stream; such emissions may include equipment leaks, releases from building ventilation systems, and evaporative losses from surface impoundments and spills. Stack air emissions are releases to air that occur through a confined air stream, such as stacks, ducts, or pipes.

The quantity of releases does not indicate the level of health risk posed by the emissions. TRI data can vary from year to year at the facility and sector levels for a variety of reasons. For questions about specific values, contact TRI. In addition to TRI reporting, cement and concrete manufacturers are subject to statutory and regulatory requirements, including permitting.

The cement and concrete product manufacturing sector (NAICS 3273) is comprised of several distinct facility types:

  • Cement plants that produce portland, natural, masonry, pozzolanic and other hydraulic cements. (NAICS 327310)
  • Ready-mix concrete plants that combine cement with aggregates, water and other materials to produce wet concrete products for off-site delivery. (NAICS 327320)
  • Concrete pipe, brick, and block plants. (NAICS 32733)
  • Other concrete product manufacturing plants. (NAICS 327390)

Data presented in the Snapshot cover the entire cement and concrete industry (NAICS 3273). The number of facilities reporting data for the most recent year represented in the Snapshot charts for each environmental indicator are shown below:

Indicator EPA Program Facilities Reporting
Air Emission Toxic Release Inventory 1395
Criteria air pollutants National Emission Inventory 843
Greenhouse gases Inventory of Greenhouse Gas Emissions & Sinks Not available
Hazardous waste National Biannual Report 29
Production-related waste managed Toxic Release Inventory 1510
Recycling of waste chemicals Toxic Release Inventory 209
Releases to land Toxic Release Inventory 377
Water discharges Toxic Release Inventory 255

NOTE: Variation in facilities counts between indicators reflects differences in reporting requirements. For more information, click on the program links in the chart description.

The Smart Sectors Cement Sector Information and Concrete Sector Information pages have more details on the industry and related EPA programs.

Air Emissions

How to Download Your Data
  1. Go to https://www.epa.gov/enviro/tri-ez-search.
  2. Scroll down and click on “Flat (Denormalized) Form R – A flat view of the TRI database that contains a majority of the available TRI information.
  3. Select the following variables from the list of data elements provided.
    1. Reporting Year
    2. In the row immediately below Air Total Release check the box above SUM
    3. Primary NAICS Code
  4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on “STEP 3: Enter Search Criteria”
  5. On the next page:
    1. For Reporting Year – switch Operator Definition to “Between.” In the Search Value field, enter the first year shown in the Sector Snapshots chart, followed by “AND”, and the last year shown in the Sector Snapshots chart. For example, if the first year is 1996 and the last year is 2022, enter “1996 AND 2022” in the Search Value field.
    2. For Primary NAICS Code – switch Operator to “Beginning with,” and enter 3273 (Cement and Concrete Product Manufacturing) under Search Value. Then check the last box to the right under “Where Only.”
    3. Click on “Search database” or “Output to CSV File”
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Criteria air pollutants

How to Download Your Data

Note: Processing National Emissions Inventory data will require use of data processing software. The data are available in a tab or comma-delimited text format that must be imported into a program that will allow you to analyze the file.

  1. Go to: Get Air Emissions Data | US EPA which has a table with yearly data tables. Download the data years desired.
  2. In the “Table of Air Emissions Data by Year and Time”, select the relevant NEI file under the Triennial NEI column for years within the range of the Snapshot Sectors Graphic.
  3. For 1996 – 2005, select the file with "naics" or "sics" in the file name. For example, for 2000, use the "2000sicsummarymade09" file, but for 2005, use the "naics_summary.zip" file.
  4. For 2008 and onwards, click the “Data Summaries” hyperlink, then download the “Facility-level by Pollutant” File.
  5. Cement and concrete manufacturing facilities are grouped under NAICS codes beginning with 3273 for the years 2002 – 2017. To identify the SIC codes corresponding to NAICS 3273 for the 1996 and 1999 datasets, use the following crosswalk: https://www.naics.com/sic-naics-crosswalk-search-results/
  6. Using the SIC and NAICS codes, filter for paper products facilities, then sum total emissions of CO, NOX, VOC, PM10, NH3, and SO2 in each year to arrive at the totals shown in this chart.
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Greenhouse Gases

How to Download Your Data
  1. Go to Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions and Removals | US EPA.
  2. Under “National” select the “EPA's Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks”, then select “Annual Report”
  3. In the table presented, navigate to the “Related Data Files” column.
  4. Click on the folder for Chapter 4 – Industrial Processes zip folder.
  5. In table 4-3 (CO2 Emissions from Cement Production), the values from 1996 onwards in the “MMT CO2” column correspond to the values shown in this chart.
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Energy Use

How to Download Your Data
  1. Go to https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/aeo/archive.php
  2. This will bring you to the Annual Energy Outlook (AEO) Products – Archive which contains links to historical data sets.
  3. Under “Supplement Tables,” click on the HTML link for data by year. For each year shown in the Snapshot, users should select the AEO report published the following year for data. For example, for energy use data from 2020, the user should use the 2020 data published in the 2021 Annual Energy Outlook.
  4. Go to Table 29. Cement and Lime Industry Energy Consumption.
  5. For the year selected, copy the value for “Total (trillion Btu)” under “Energy Consumption.”
  6. For other years, it will be necessary to repeat the process above.

Note – These values correspond only to cement production.

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Hazardous Waste Generation

How to Download Your Data
  1. Go to https://rcrainfo.epa.gov/rcrainfoweb/action/modules/br/naics/view
  2. Repeat the following steps for each reporting cycle. You will be able to access data for one year and one NAICS code at a time. For each reporting cycle, the output for NAICS 3273 is equal to the value shown in this chart.
    1. NAICS code: 3273 CEMENT AND CONCRETE PRODUCT MANUFACTURING
    2. Reporting cycles: Select each year individually that is presented on the Sector Snapshots graphic.
    3. You do not need to change the “Generators to Include” dropdown or the “Location” dropdown before hitting submit.
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Production-Related Waste Managed

How to Download Your Data
  1. Go to https://www.epa.gov/enviro/tri-ez-search.
  2. Scroll down and click on “Flat (Denormalized) Form R – A flat view of the TRI database that contains a majority of the available TRI information.
  3. Select the following variables from the list of data elements provided.
    1. Reporting Year
    2. In the row immediately below Total Production Related Waste check the box above SUM
    3. Primary NAICS Code
  4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on “STEP 3: Enter Search Criteria”
  5. On the next page:
    1. For Reporting Year – switch Operator Definition to “Between.” In the Search Value field, enter the first year shown in the Sector Snapshots chart, followed by “AND”, and the last year shown in the Sector Snapshots chart. For example, if the first year is 1996 and the last year is 2022, enter “1996 AND 2022” in the Search Value field.
    2. For Primary NAICS Code – switch Operator to “Beginning with,” and enter 3273 (Cement and Concrete Product Manufacturing) under Search Value. Then check the last box to the right under “Where Only.”
    3. Click on “Search database” or “Output to CSV File”
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Recycling of Waste Chemicals

How to Download Your Data
  1. Go to https://www.epa.gov/enviro/tri-ez-search.
  2. Scroll down and click on “Flat (Denormalized) Form R – A flat view of the TRI database that contains a majority of the available TRI information.
  3. Select the following variables from the list of data elements provided.
    1. Reporting Year
    2. In the row immediately below Land Total Release check the box above SUM
    3. Primary NAICS Code
  4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on “STEP 3: Enter Search Criteria”
  5. On the next page:
    1. For Reporting Year – switch Operator Definition to “Between.” In the Search Value field, enter the first year shown in the Sector Snapshots chart, followed by “AND”, and the last year shown in the Sector Snapshots chart. For example, if the first year is 1996 and the last year is 2022, enter “1996 AND 2022” in the Search Value field.
    2. For Primary NAICS Code – switch Operator to “Beginning with,” and enter 3273 (Cement and Concrete Product Manufacturing) under Search Value. Then check the last box to the right under “Where Only.”
    3. Click on “Search database” or “Output to CSV File”
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Releases to Land

How to Download Your Data
  1. Go to https://www.epa.gov/enviro/tri-ez-search.
  2. Scroll down and click on “Flat (Denormalized) Form R – A flat view of the TRI database that contains a majority of the available TRI information.
  3. Select the following variables from the list of data elements provided.
    1. Reporting Year
    2. In the row immediately below Land Total Release check the box above SUM
    3. Primary NAICS Code
  4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on “STEP 3: Enter Search Criteria”
  5. On the next page:
    1. For Reporting Year – switch Operator Definition to “Between.” In the Search Value field, enter the first year shown in the Sector Snapshots chart, followed by “AND”, and the last year shown in the Sector Snapshots chart. For example, if the first year is 1996 and the last year is 2022, enter “1996 AND 2022” in the Search Value field.
    2. For Primary NAICS Code – switch Operator to “Beginning with,” and enter 3273 (Cement and Concrete Product Manufacturing) under Search Value. Then check the last box to the right under “Where Only.”
    3. Click on “Search database” or “Output to CSV File”
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Water Discharges

How to Download Your Data
  1. Go to https://www.epa.gov/enviro/tri-ez-search.
  2. Scroll down and click on “Flat (Denormalized) Form R – A flat view of the TRI database that contains a majority of the available TRI information.
  3. Select the following variables from the list of data elements provided.
    1. Reporting Year
    2. In the row immediately below Water Total Release check the box above SUM
    3. Primary NAICS Code
  4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on “STEP 3: Enter Search Criteria”
  5. On the next page:
    1. For Reporting Year – switch Operator Definition to “Between.” In the Search Value field, enter the first year shown in the Sector Snapshots chart, followed by “AND”, and the last year shown in the Sector Snapshots chart. For example, if the first year is 1996 and the last year is 2022, enter “1996 AND 2022” in the Search Value field.
    2. For Primary NAICS Code – switch Operator to “Beginning with,” and enter 3273 (Cement and Concrete Product Manufacturing) under Search Value. Then check the last box to the right under “Where Only.”
    3. Click on “Search database” or “Output to CSV File”
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Dollar Value of Gross Output

How to Download Your Data
  1. Go to https://www.bea.gov/industry/gdpbyind_data.htm
  2. Click on Underlying Detail Tables, Annual, 1997-2022
  3. Select “Gross Output by Industry.”
  4. Select “U.Gross Output by Industry (A),” then select “Detail Level.”
  5. Click the “Next Step” button. The resulting data table will then load.
  6. Select “Modify” in the upper-right-hand corner of the table. In the resulting window:
    1. Set the scale as “Billions”
    2. Set the start year as “1997-A”
    3. Set the end year as the last year presented in the Sector Snapshots graphic.
    4. Click “Refresh Table”
  7. Click “Download” and choose your preferred download format.
  8. Line 52 of the resulting table (Cement manufacturing) contains the values shown in this chart.

Note – These values correspond only to cement production.

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Employment

How to Download Your Data

Note: The data are available in a comma-delimited text format that must be imported into a software package that will allow you to analyze the file.

  1. Go to https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp/data/datasets.html
  2. Click on any link labeled “County Business Patterns: YEAR.” On the resulting page, click the “Complete U.S. File” link and download the corresponding file. Repeat this process for each year corresponding to years presented in the graphic.
  3. Open each file in a software package of your choice that can process comma-delimited text files. Repeat the steps below for each file.
  4. For entities with suppressed data, the Census Bureau replaces all employment values with zeroes, and this underestimates the total number of employees in each sector. Using your software package, replace the suppression flags with the midpoint of the Data Suppression Flag employment ranges per the table below.
    Empflag Data Suppression Flag Employment Size Class Midpoint
    Min Max
    A 0 19 10
    B 20 99 60
    C 100 249 175
    E 250 499 375
    F 500 999 750
    G 1000 2,499 1,750
    H 2,500 4,999 3,750
    I 5000 9,999 7,500
    J 10,000 24,999 17,500
    K 25,000 49,999 37,500
    L 50,000 99,999 75,000
    M 100,000 >100,000 100,000
  5. In your software package, filter the data for NAICS codes that begin with 3273.
  6. With the filter in place, aggregate the “emp” column across all records.
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Production

How to Download Your Data
  1. Go to https://www.usgs.gov/centers/nmic/cement-statistics-and-information
  2. Open the most recent PDF annual report for Cement.
  3. Sum the values of the “Portland and masonry cement” and “Clinker” lines in the production table on the first page of the PDF report.
  4. Repeat these steps for each annual report to obtain data for relevant years.
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