Stone, Clay, Glass & Concrete

SIC 3211 Flat Glass - Description, Market Prospects, Industry History

This group includes establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing flat glass. This industry also produces laminated glass, but establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing laminated glass from purchased flat glass are classified in SIC 3231: Glass Products, Made of Purchased Glass.

SIC 3221 Glass Containers - Description, Market Prospects, Industry History

This category includes establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing glass containers for commercial packing and bottling, and for home canning. Products include ampoules; bottles, containers, jars, and jugs for packing, bottling, and canning; carboys; cosmetic jars; fruit jars; medicine bottles; packers' ware; vials; and water bottles.

SIC 3229 Pressed and Blown Glass and Glassware, Not Elsewhere Classified - Description, Market Prospects, Industry History

The pressed and blown glassware industry manufactures products ranging from television tubes, ashtrays, candlesticks, stemware, tobacco jars, and optical lenses to Christmas tree ornaments. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the industry maintained a steady level of employment at about 37,000 workers, while the value of shipments rose steadily to reach $5.9 billion by 1997.

SIC 3231 Glass Products, Made of Purchased Glass - Description, Market Prospects, Industry History

In the late 1990s, the industry was made up of 1,528 companies operating more than 1,650 establishments. These companies generated shipments valued at $11.49 billion, up roughly 45 percent from 1992 shipments of $6.89 billion and up nearly 20 percent from shipments of $9.66 billion only two years earlier in 1998.

SIC 3241 Cement, Hydraulic - Description, Market Prospects, Industry History

Establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing hydraulic cement, including portland, natural, masonry, and pozzolana cements.

SIC 3251 Brick and Structural Clay Tile - Description, Market Prospects, Industry History

In the late 1990s, the leading product types for this industry were building or common brick and face brick, accounting for 91.6 percent of the value of total shipments, which reached $1.82 billion in 2000, compared to $1.77 billion in 1999. Glazed brick and paving, floor, and sewer brick, made up about 5.3 percent of total shipments.

SIC 3253 Ceramic Wall and Floor Tile - Description, Market Prospects, Industry History

Nearly 99 percent of this industry's product share is composed of glazed and unglazed floor tile and wall tile, including quarry tile and ceramic mosaic tile. Because this industry is so focused on decorative tiles, it is completely dependent on the economic health of the construction and remodeling industries, both of which thrived in the late 1990s due to a booming economy; these industries remained strong in the early 2000s, despite weakening economic conditions, thanks to historically low interest rates.

SIC 3255 Clay Refractories - Description, Market Prospects, Industry History

Refractories are mineral- and chemical-based materials with very high heat-resisting properties, which make them ideal for use in the construction of walls, ceilings, and associated elements of iron and steel industry blast furnaces, glass manufacturing tanks, cement kilns, hot stoves, ceramic kilns, open hearth furnaces, nonferrous metallurgical furnaces, and steam boilers. Most clay refractory products are manufactured in the form of bricks, but refractory clay may also be formed into special shapes, such as the T-sections of refractory pipes or the small stands that support ceramic products during firing in a kiln.

SIC 3259 Structural Clay Products, Not Elsewhere Classified - Description, Market Prospects, Industry History

This industry classification includes establishments engaged in the manufacture of clay sewer pipe and structural clay products, not elsewhere classified. Other products include adobe brick, clay chimney pipe, clay drain tile, and clay roofing.

SIC 3261 Vitreous China Plumbing Fixtures and China and Earthenware Fittings and Bathroom Accessories - Description, Market Prospects, Industry History

This industry classification consists of establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing vitreous china plumbing fixtures and china and earthenware fittings and bathroom accessories. Items manufactured in this industry include flush tanks, lavatories, bidets, urinals, toilet fixtures, closet bowls, drinking fountains, and sinks.

SIC 3262 Vitreous China Table and Kitchen Articles - Description, Market Prospects, Industry History

SIC 3263 Fine Earthenware (Whiteware) Table and Kitchen Articles - Description, Market Prospects, Industry History

SIC 3264 Porcelain Electrical Supplies - Description, Market Prospects, Industry History

This category consists of manufacturers of porcelain electronic insulators, molded porcelain parts for electrical devices, other electrical insulators, ceramic electronic and electrical supplies, and spark plug and steatitic porcelain.

SIC 3269 Pottery Products, Not Elsewhere Classified - Description, Market Prospects, Industry History

This industry consists of manufacturers of art and ornamental pottery, industrial and laboratory pottery, unglazed earthenware florists' articles, and earthenware table and kitchen articles, as well as those establishments primarily engaged in firing and decorating white china and earthenware for the trade.

SIC 3271 Concrete Block and Brick - Description, Market Prospects, Industry History

In 2000, the concrete block and brick industry had approximately 22,365 employees, of which 14,023 were in production. Total payroll expenditures that year were $768 million, and the cost of materials was $1.9 billion.

SIC 3272 Concrete Products, Except Block and Brick - Description, Market Prospects, Industry History

The products included in this industry are made of concrete, formed and hardened at the cement facility, and shipped in finished form to customers or users. Many of the items were prefabricated parts to be assembled into buildings, bridges, or parking structures.

SIC 3273 Ready-Mixed Concrete - Description, Market Prospects, Industry History

This category covers establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing portland cement concrete manufactured and delivered to a purchaser in a plastic and unhardened state. This industry includes production and sale of central-mixed concrete, shrink-mixed concrete, and truck-mixed concrete.

SIC 3274 Lime - Description, Market Prospects, Industry History

The lime industry is comprised of establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing quick-lime, hydrated lime, and miscellaneous lime-related products. It is considered part of the larger concrete, gypsum, and plaster products industry.

SIC 3275 Gypsum Products - Description, Market Prospects, Industry History

Companies predominately employed in manufacturing plaster, plasterboard, and other gypsum products constitute the gypsum products industry. The manufacturers in this industry make products such as acoustical plaster, wallboard, cement, insulating plaster, orthopedic plaster (for casts), plaster of paris, and gypsum rock, lath, and tile.

SIC 3281 Cut Stone and Stone Products - Description, Market Prospects, Industry History

This category covers establishments primarily engaged in cutting, shaping, and finishing granite, marble, limestone, slate, and other stone for building and miscellaneous uses. Establishments primarily engaged in buying or selling partly finished monuments and tombstones, but performing no work on the stones other than lettering, finishing, or shaping to custom order, are classified in either the wholesale or retail trade divisions.

SIC 3291 Abrasive Products - Description, Market Prospects, Industry History

This classification covers companies that primarily make abrasive grinding wheels of natural or synthetic materials, abrasive-coated products, and other abrasive products. Companies cutting grindstones, pulpstones, and whetstones at the quarry are classified under mining industries.

SIC 3292 Asbestos Products - Description, Market Prospects, Industry History

Serious health concerns have all but dismantled the asbestos industry in the United States. Use of asbestos plummeted after medical studies in the early 1970s linked airborne asbestos fibers to a couple of serious illnesses: asbestosis and mesothelioma.

SIC 3295 Minerals and Earths, Ground or Otherwise Treated - Description, Market Prospects, Industry History

This category includes establishments operating without a mine or quarry and primarily engaged in crushing, grinding, pulverizing, or otherwise preparing clay, ceramic, and refractory minerals; barite; and miscellaneous nonmetallic minerals, excluding fuels. These minerals are the crude products mined by establishments of Industry Groups 145 (clay, ceramic, and refractory minerals) and 149 (miscellaneous nonmetallic minerals, except fuels), and by those mining barite in SIC 1479: Chemical and Fertilizer Mineral Mining, Not Elsewhere Classified.

SIC 3296 Mineral Wool - Description, Market Prospects, Industry History

SIC 3297 Nonclay Refractories - Description, Market Prospects, Industry History

A refractory is a product such as brick that is resistant to intense heat. Some of the main uses of refractories are to create fire-resistant construction materials for industrial buildings and to create crucibles.

SIC 3299 Nonmetallic Mineral Products, Not Elsewhere Classified - Description, Market Prospects, Industry History

This category is comprised of firms that manufacture goods made from plaster of Paris, papier-mâché, sand lime, and other miscellaneous nonmetallic mineral products. Examples of industry output include synthetic stones, clay and plaster plaques, architectural plaster work, plaster of Paris sculptures, miniature gypsum images, plaster of Paris flower boxes, and gypsum urns.