Vulcan Materials Company - Earnings Call - Q1 2025
April 30, 2025
Executive Summary
- VMC delivered a quality Q1: Adjusted EBITDA rose 27% YoY to $410.9M with margin +420 bps to 25.1%, driven by 7% aggregates price growth (8.5% mix-adjusted) and a 3% decline in unit cash costs; adjusted EPS was $1.00 vs $0.80 last year.
- Versus S&P Global consensus, VMC posted a clear EPS and EBITDA beat but a slight revenue miss: EPS $1.00 vs $0.76*, Adjusted EBITDA $410.9M vs $384.5M*, Revenue $1,634.6M vs $1,649.7M*.
- Management reiterated FY25 Adjusted EBITDA guidance of $2.35–$2.55B, CapEx $750–$800M, SAG $550–$560M, aggregates price +5–7% and shipments +3–5%; downstream cash gross profit still ~ $360M.
- Catalysts: sustained public infrastructure tailwinds (two-thirds of IIJA highway dollars yet to be spent), accelerating data-center demand in VMC markets, and continued execution of “Vulcan Way” pricing/operations; watch private end-markets and cost cadence (lumpiness).
What Went Well and What Went Wrong
- What Went Well
- Pricing power and unit profitability: aggregates freight-adjusted price +7% YoY (8.5% mix-adjusted); aggregates cash GP/ton +20% to $10.63; Adjusted EBITDA margin +420 bps YoY to 25.1%.
- Cost discipline and operations: aggregates unit cash costs declined 3% YoY, aided by plant efficiencies and some weather-related timing of spend; management emphasized ongoing “Vulcan Way of Operating” rollout across top operations.
- Public/infrastructure demand strength: two-thirds of IIJA highway dollars still to be spent, healthy state budgets, and strong contract awards in VMC states; volumes outlook supported by public offsets to weaker private.
- What Went Wrong
- Slight revenue shortfall vs consensus: $1,634.6M actual vs $1,649.7M* consensus (driven by modest shipments -1% YoY and one fewer shipping day; weather challenges in February).
- Private markets softness: residential and rate-sensitive private non-resi remain challenged; some big commercial projects in “pause” pending macro clarity (though backlogs/booking trends constructive).
- Cost cadence will be lumpy: Q1 benefited from deferred stripping/maintenance; management guides to low-to-mid single-digit cost increase for the year and cautions quarter-to-quarter variability.
Transcript
Operator (participant)
Good morning. Welcome, everyone, to the Vulcan Materials Company first quarter 2025 earnings call. My name is David, and I'll be your account coordinator today. Please be reminded that today's call is being recorded and will be available for replay later on the company's website. All lines have been placed in a listen-only mode. After the company's prepared remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. Now, I'll turn your call over to your host, Mr. Mark Warren, Vice President of Investor Relations for Vulcan Materials. Mr. Warren, you may begin.
Mark Warren (VP of Investor Relations)
Thank you, Operator, and good morning, everyone. With me today are Tom Hill, Chairman and CEO, and Mary Andrews Carlisle, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Today's call is accompanied by a press release and a supplemental presentation posted to our website, vulcanmaterials.com. Please be reminded that today's discussion may include forward-looking statements which are subject to risks and uncertainties. These risks, along with other legal disclaimers, are described in detail in the company's earnings release and in other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures are defined and reconciled in our earnings release, supplemental presentation, and other SEC filings. During the Q&A, we ask that you limit your participation to one question. This will allow us to accommodate as many as possible during our time we have available. With that, I'll turn the call over to Tom.
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
Thank you, Mark, and thank all of you for joining the Vulcan Materials earnings call this morning. Our first quarter results showcase the powerful combination of our two-pronged growth strategy to improve earnings through compounding profitability in our organic business and adding strategic assets to our portfolio. Consistently expanding our area's cash gross profit per ton is key to successfully growing earnings through varied macroeconomic backdrops. In the first quarter, our teams delivered an impressive 20% year-over-year improvement. Complimented by the contribution from prior year acquisitions, the strong performance in our legacy business led to a 27% improvement in adjusted EBITDA and 420 basis points of expansion in adjusted EBITDA margin. I'm pleased with how our teams are executing on our Vulcan way of selling and Vulcan way of operating disciplines, regardless of the demand backdrop. Aggregate shipments in the first quarter were 1% lower than the prior year.
Shipments from acquired aggregates facilities partially offset the impacts of extremely cold weather across many of our markets and one less shipping day in the quarter. Our commercial execution and commitment to January price increases yielded 290 basis points of sequential price growth from the fourth quarter. Aggregates freight adjusted price improved 7% on a year-over-year basis. On a mixed adjusted basis, aggregates freight adjusted price improved 8.5% over the prior year. Our operational execution and discipline in the quarter were noteworthy. Aggregates freight adjusted unit cash cost of sales declined 3% compared to the prior year. Moderating inflationary pressures, a relentless focus on plant efficiencies, and some timing benefits of delayed expenditures due to weather conditions all contributed to the cost performance.
For 12 months, aggregates cash gross profit grew to USD 10.99 per ton, within a penny of our USD 11-12 goal, and a ninth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. Our aggregates business is performing well. Our downstream businesses are also performing well. Cash unit profitability in both asphalt and concrete expanded considerably by 19% and 77% respectively. Total cash gross profit improved by over 50% through same-store unit profitability improvement and the benefit of the prior year acquisitions. We delivered a strong start to the year, and we're focused on carrying that momentum forward as we navigate increasing macroeconomic volatility driven by the uncertainty in trade policy and unclear trajectory of interest rates. We believe that private demand will continue to face challenges this year while public demand remains healthy offset. Affordability issues and elevated interest rates persist as headwinds in residential construction activity.
Single-family starts and permits have been declining recently, and multi-family activity remains weak as anticipated. However, overall, single-family inventory levels, particularly in Vulcan states, are below average historic levels, and mortgage performance measures do not point to distress in housing markets. Demographics in Vulcan markets support a consistent need for additional housing, so we continue to believe that the timing of additional interest rate reductions and overall improvement in affordability will dictate when residential construction activity returns to growth. While the trends in private non-residential demand vary across categories, the interest rate environment and macroeconomic uncertainty seem to be delaying the timing of recovery and starts. Importantly, warehouse activity, the largest category in private non-residential construction, appears to be stabilizing after multiple years of declines and data center activity in our markets continues to accelerate. On the public side, IIJA-related spending remains a catalyst.
With two-thirds of the highway dollars yet to be spent, public construction is poised for continued steady demand growth. Trailing-twelve month contract awards in Vulcan states continue to outpace other markets. Capital plans in nine of our top 10 states are up, and voters passed USD 45 billion of transportation spending ballot initiatives in the November election cycle in 12 of our key states. As I said, public demand is healthy and remains an important offset to private demand challenges in 2025. Our teams are closely monitoring the local market conditions and are well-positioned to respond to an ever-evolving environment by controlling what we can control. That is, how we perform on the commercial and operational sides of our business. By staying focused on our disciplines, I am confident in our ability to execute. We continue to expect to deliver between USD 2.35 billion and USD 2.55 billion of adjusted EBITDA in 2025.
Now, I'll turn the call over to Mary Andrews for some additional commentary on our first quarter. Mary Andrews?
Mary Andrews Carlisle (Senior VP and CFO)
Thanks, Tom, and good morning. Our consistent success and compounding results in our aggregates-led business is translating to attractive free cash flow. Over the last 12 months, we have generated USD 869 million of free cash flow, a 93% conversion of net earnings. We have allocated this capital to grow our business and return cash to shareholders. We have deployed USD 2.2 billion for strategic acquisitions and returned USD 336 million to shareholders, while generating a return on invested capital of 16.2% and maintaining debt-to-adjusted EBITDA leverage within our target range of 2-2.5 times. At the end of the first quarter and following the March redemption of our 2025 senior notes for USD 400 million, our net debt-to-adjusted EBITDA leverage was 2.2 times, with over USD 190 million of cash on hand. A disciplined approach to capital allocation and a well-positioned balance sheet are fundamental to our long-term success.
Our liquidity position and financial flexibility are competitive strengths as we navigate an uncertain macroeconomy, evaluate strategic growth opportunities, and continue to create value for our shareholders. Our first quarter results provided an outstanding start to 2025. Our organic business delivered strong results in all three segments, and the operations acquired in 2024 are performing well. We continue to evaluate the potential direct and indirect impacts of tariffs to our business. While we may experience some tariff-related inflationary pressures in our operating costs, we do not currently anticipate these impacts to have a material effect on earnings. Importantly, we have a proven business model that has successfully navigated a variety of external disruptions in recent history. We remain focused on what we can control and expanding our aggregates cash gross profit per ton, regardless of the macro backdrop.
Capital expenditures in the quarter were USD 105 million, and we continue to expect to spend between USD 750 and USD 800 million for the full year. SAG expenses in the quarter were in line with our expectations, and we continue to expect full-year SAG expense of between USD 550 and USD 560 million. I'll now turn the call back over to Tom to provide a few closing remarks.
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
Thank you, Mary Andrews. I want to thank the men and women of Vulcan Materials for their hard work in the first quarter that translated to an outstanding safety and financial performance. Most importantly, they stayed focused on keeping each other safe, and their commitment to executing each day is showing up in our bottom line. Our focus is on what is ahead, maintaining our solid momentum and continuing to leverage our Vulcan way of selling and Vulcan way of operating disciplines to compound profitability in our legacy business, capture synergies from acquisitions, and deliver value for our shareholders. Mary Andrews and I will be happy to take your questions.
Operator (participant)
At this time, if you'd like to ask a question, please press the star and one keys on your telephone keypad. Keep in mind, you can remove yourself from the question queue at any time by pressing star and two. We'll take our first question from Jerry Revich with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
Good morning, Jerry.
Mary Andrews Carlisle (Senior VP and CFO)
Yes, hi.
Jerry Revich (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Good morning, everyone. Hi, Tom, Mary Andrews, Mark. Really impressive price cost spread you folks put up in the quarter. Tom, I'm wondering if you could just talk about how you're thinking about mid-year price increases and cost cadence given the strong performance and the spread.
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
Yeah, I guess as it goes to price, I would tell you, as expected, we carry really good momentum into the year with prices up 7%, mixed adjusted up 8.5%. I think it was a combination of two things. Generally, one, price increases pretty much went as expected, and then we had really good pricing in our backlog, and we continue to have good pricing in our backlog. I thought the first quarter started the year off really good, keeping our guidance at 5-7%, remembering that we have to turn that price into profit. You saw the Vulcan way of selling, coupled with Vulcan way of operating, do that in Q1 with unit margins up some 20%. A really good start to the year, and I think what that is, is simply the Vulcan way of selling and Vulcan way of operating at work.
As it goes to mid-years, we've started those discussions now. We'll have those talks about mid-year in all of our markets. I would expect a range of outcomes by market and by product line, much like the last couple of years. In those discussions, as we always say, the mid-years will impact 2026 more than they will 2025. A really good start to the year, and pleased with the performance and pleased with the execution of the Vulcan way of selling and Vulcan way of operating.
Jerry Revich (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Congratulations to the team. Thanks.
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
We'll take our next question from Tyler Brown with Raymond James. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
Hi, Tyler.
Tyler Brown (Associate VP)
Hey, morning. Hey, look, Tom, there's a lot of hand-wringing about the outlook for volumes, maybe more so on the private side. You guys kind of mentioned it up front, but obviously, the 10 years in the housing market's been a little bit stubborn. Just in broad strokes, can you kind of give us an update on how you would kind of characterize the organic rock volumes in 2025 if you kind of parse them between resi, non-resi, and public? Just kind of how do you get to that slattish organic volume?
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
Yeah, so I think what we're saying is our guidance of 3-5% with the acquisitions, we keep that guidance. We think, as we said, you said, we got challenges on the private side, but we see continued really healthy growth on the public side, both in highway and in non-highway infrastructure. The non-highway infrastructure is really going well. Q1 shipments were down 1%, but it was not linear. January and February were down 7%, really driven by the extremely cold weather that we saw in the winter. When we got to March, shipments grew by 9%. That was aided by acquisitions and a little bit easier weather, Tom. At this point, I think we stick to our guide of 3-5%, challenge private, stronger public. Now, remember, that is probably going to be back half loaded.
If you remember last year, we had a really weather-challenged back half of the year, so a lot easier comps going into it. I think if you kind of look at what's going on in the market right now, projects people ask all the time, are you getting projects canceled or held? Projects that are started or go, they're not held, they're not canceled. Now, we're bidding a lot of big projects that people seem to be on the pause button. You couple that with, importantly, I think if you look at our bookings, they're up substantially on the public side, they're up slightly on private work. If you look at total backlogs, they're up year-over-year. We're starting to see some water bill behind the dam. The challenges, I think, will be on probably the fixed concrete plant side, driven by challenges in private demand.
A mixed bag, a decent start to the year, but again, I'd point you to back half loaded for volumes.
Tyler Brown (Associate VP)
Yeah, great caller. Mixed bag. Got it. Thank you.
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
We'll take our next question from Anthony Pettinari with Citigroup. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
Hi, Anthony.
Asher Sohnen (Equity Research Senior Associate)
Hi. Hi. This is actually Asher Sohnen on for Anthony. Thanks for taking my question.
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
Okay.
Asher Sohnen (Equity Research Senior Associate)
I just wanted to ask for maybe an update around kind of your thoughts on administrative policy. Have you seen any kind of pressure on the pace of IIJA rollout, project starts, or maybe IRA-related projects from any of the policy attitudes or kind of executive orders we have seen? I think last quarter, there really was not much of an impact, so just wanted to update.
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
No, really no impact to us. I think when it comes to the highway work or public demand, there's no uncertainty of highway funding at the federal level. IIJA funds are flowing, I'd say, as expected. Actually, the states right now are working on their new budgets. It appears that we'll see in our states growth in the next fiscal year, which starts kind of mid-summer. You got to remember, obviously, there was also 40 local road and bridge measures in last year's election, which was an additional USD 45 billion. Short story is no impact from as far as funding for infrastructure. We actually see growth in federal, state, and local funding probably for the next couple of years in our markets, including 2025. As I said in my opening comments, you still got two-thirds of the IIJA funding yet to be spent.
We feel really good about the public side.
Asher Sohnen (Equity Research Senior Associate)
Got it. Thanks. That's good to hear. I'll turn it over.
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
We'll take our next question from Keith Hughes with Truist. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
Hey, Keith.
Keith Hughes (Managing Director)
Hey, how you doing? Thanks for letting me ask a question and great quarter here. I guess questions on costs. Costs were down. Could you talk about specifically what happened in the quarter and what your outlook on the cost side is for the rest of the year?
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
Yeah, I would tell you, I would take you back to our original guide on costs. The quarter was a great quarter. Look, we were down 3%, excellent performance for our operating teams. We got costs down 3% with slightly lower volumes and very, very cold conditions in January and February. I'm proud of our operators. I attribute the performance to three things. One, as I said, improving operating efficiencies. The Vulcan way of operating is starting to kick in.
We should see that get better as we progress through the year and really get that technology to work in those quarries. Second, I thought our folks did a really good job controlling spending matched to diminished ability to operate in the cold weather. The third is we simply had some cost pushback. I mean, we had some projects because of the bad weather, stripping and other things that we just could not do in the quarter. In cost, as we always say, it is lumpy, quarter-to-quarter by nature. We take the full year, we take you back to our guide, which is kind of that low to mid-single digit. Now, we will do our best to beat that, and we got the Vulcan way of operating, executing, and so I think we got a shot at beating it, but at this point, too early to call.
I take you back to guidance.
Keith Hughes (Managing Director)
Okay, great. Thank you.
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
We'll take our next question from Kathryn Thompson with Thompson Research Group. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
Good morning.
Kathryn Thompson (Founding Partner and CEO)
Good morning, and thank you for taking my question today. I wanted to circle back just on two different things that tie into your Vulcan way of operating, selling, and the outlook. The context that we speak to in the heavy materials space, we're finding that there just have and have-nots in the construction industrial value chain. What strikes us is on the heavy materials side, things are maybe not quite as bad as some of the headlines show. Could you, Mary, also first, are you seeing any type of significant project, either cancellations or delays? How does your Vulcan way of operating, selling, hope differentiate yourself as you deal with a more uncertain environment? Thank you.
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
Yeah, so on project delays or cancellations, what we started seems to be going. Nothing's canceling once it started, nothing's put on hold. As I said a minute ago, we're bidding a lot of work, Kathryn, and it's just not going right away. I think that is good news, a little bit frustrating, but good news because people are assessing projects. I think they just are not willing to pull the trigger until we get rid of some of the macro volatility. As I said, if I look at our bookings, both on public and private, they're doing very well. Backlogs are healthy. I think there is some pin-up demand out there that will go later on once the world gets a little clearer.
As it comes to the Vulcan way of selling and Vulcan way of operating, I attribute the consistency and improvement in unit margins over the last two-plus years. That's what I attribute that to because it just gives us a lot of clarity and forward-looking information to our sales group and our operators of how we run our business. We're a little bit further ahead in the Vulcan way of selling, and you're seeing that in price, and you're seeing that in execution of how we run our markets and ability to see forward in those markets. Vulcan way of operating, good quarter, but one quarter does not a trend make, so we got to prove that out. I am pleased with the technology that's now being put to work in our 125, 120 largest operations, very early stages of that.
I think, again, we'll have to do a lot of hard work for our operators throughout 2025 and beginning of 2026, but it is paying off, and we are seeing improved efficiencies. You put all that together, and it just gives us a model that is able to take advantage of tailwinds and offset headwinds of how we consistently execute.
Kathryn Thompson (Founding Partner and CEO)
Great. Thank you very much.
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
We'll take our next question from Trey Grooms with Stephens. Please go ahead.
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
Hey, Trey.
Trey Grooms (Managing Director)
Hey, good morning, Tom. Morning, Mary Andrews and Mark.
Mary Andrews Carlisle (Senior VP and CFO)
Morning.
Trey Grooms (Managing Director)
Congrats on the good quarter.
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
Thank you.
Trey Grooms (Managing Director)
The profitability has been touched on several times here, but 20% cash gross profit improvement, that's per unit. That's about as strong as we've seen. I know there has been some puts and takes, and it sounded like the moderating inflation, of course, the productivity improvements. I guess the one piece that I want to try to get my head around on as far as kind of thinking about the cadence as we move through the year would be on the things you pointed out, Tom, around some maybe delayed expenditures with stripping and things like that that I understand are hard to call when that's going to happen, especially when weather is not your friend in a given quarter. Is there anything that you could give us on how to think about maybe the cadence of that?
Is it going to be lumpy in a quarter here or there? How should we think about just the profitability as we kind of go through the quarters here?
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
Sure. I'll take that kind of in pieces. First of all, volume, as we said, it'll be back half loaded, both from a timing and a comp perspective. I think that's how I'd look at volume. On pricing, I think we'll be pretty consistent. I would guide you to that five to seven, quarter-to-quarter. I think we'll be pretty consistent as we operate through the year with price. Cost, it's a harder call. As I always say, that cost is going to be lumpy. As an investor, you want it that way because we need to spend the money when we need to spend the money and proactively not try to time it, or you'll have unpredicted maintenance and higher maintenance costs. Again, volume back half loaded, price pretty consistent, five to seven, cost a little bit lumpy.
Look, we had a great start to the year on cost. I would love to tell you we're going to beat the guide of low to mid, but we just need to see a few more quarters before we go there. Obviously, operators, that is their goal. That's what they want to do, but we got to play that out for a little while.
Trey Grooms (Managing Director)
Yeah, understood. I guess just with that, if you could maybe touch to the downstream segments because you're expecting, I think, some improvement there as well, which we saw some in the quarter. Is that kind of still the thought around downstream?
Mary Andrews Carlisle (Senior VP and CFO)
Yeah, Trey, our downstream businesses are performing really well. We still expect them to contribute cash gross profit of about USD 360 million for the year, two-thirds asphalt, probably one-third ready mix. Importantly, like you said, that's really a combination of strong unit profitability growth and the legacy operations coupled with the contribution from the acquisition. Both asphalt and ready mix got off to a good start, and we still expect that level of profitability for the year.
Trey Grooms (Managing Director)
Yep. Got it. Thank you. I'll pass it on. Good luck.
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
We'll take our next question from Garik Shmois with Loop Capital. Please go ahead.
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
Good morning.
Garik Shmois (Managing Director)
Oh, hi, thanks. Hey, good morning, and congrats on the quarter. I was hoping you could speak to pricing in a little bit more detail. First, if you could maybe help us understand where you are on integrating Wake Stone and getting pricing there up to the average. Then, just on the mid-years, I know it's early days, and you mentioned traction should be similar to prior years, but just curious if you're getting any pushback or what kind of feedback you're getting considering the private construction slowdown from your ready-mixed customers, or are you seeing perhaps some more understanding given the expectations for inflation moving forward?
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
Yeah, so I think that I would call, like I said, I would call pricing as expected. Our January ones went well. Mid-years, we are just starting those conversations, so to be seen. Pricing is always easier with growing demand, and we are seeing that. Where we got some challenges on the private side, we are seeing good growth on the public side, which is always helpful. That is also a lot more predictable. I guess I would call it as expected from a pricing perspective and to be seen kind of with mid-years.
Mary Andrews Carlisle (Senior VP and CFO)
Yeah. Just overall, Garik, I think as it relates to the acquisitions, same as expected. Performance was good in the first quarter. We continue to expect the approximately USD 150 million of contribution for the full year and working hard to capitalize on our Vulcan way of selling and Vulcan way of operating disciplines to capture synergies with the acquisition as well as improving the legacy business.
Garik Shmois (Managing Director)
Okay. Makes sense. Thank you.
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
We'll take our next question from Steven Fisher with UBS. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
Morning.
Steven Fisher (Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst)
Thanks very much. Morning. Thanks very much. Congrats on the profit performance. Just wanted to follow up a question on the bidding, which you've addressed a couple of times where you said some things are paused, which sounds like it's really on the private side. Within those pauses, how broad would you say those are? Is that mainly kind of very interest rate sensitive commercial-type projects, or is it also on things that are more perhaps structural in nature, things like the data centers or semiconductors or pharma bio, or we're seeing these bigger projects that seem to have good momentum? I'm just curious how broad you're seeing that hesitancy on the decision-making to move right ahead.
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
I'd tell you, I'd tell you it's not real broad. You're seeing some big commercial projects that people are taking bids on and not pulling the trigger. As far as public work, it's a go, and nothing's being paused there. I don't think it's that wide out there. As far as data centers, that is a bright spot for us. We're doing a lot of data center work right now. 6% of the data centers that are under construction are in our footprint. If you look at what's coming up in data centers, 80% of the proposed data centers are within 30 mi of a Vulcan quarry. That'll be a really bright spot for us and one that is a go.
I think it'll be interesting to watch the data center over the next few years because that's going to lead to substantial power generation construction, which will be very aggregate intensive for us over the next three to five years. That will too be a bright spot coming on non-residential. The pause is big commercial work. I don't think it's that widespread. It's just interesting that you see some of those big projects, we'll bid it, and the timing's just pushed back. I think for me, it's good news because sooner or later it's going to go.
Steven Fisher (Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst)
Terrific. Thank you.
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
We'll take our next question from Timna Tanners with Wolfe Research. Please go ahead.
Timna Tanners (Managing Director)
Hey, good morning. Wanted to ask about not the direct impact of tariffs. I recognize you said those were limited, but the impact of the tariff-related uncertainty perhaps on your customers and acquisition candidates. Just wondering if there's anything incremental you can touch on there, please. Thanks.
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
Yeah. To be clear on tariffs, we're constantly evaluating the possibilities of our impact on our business. I think our model really limits the direct impact for Vulcan. At this point, we don't think tariffs move the needle on our cost outlook. You got to remember, we own our largest cost, which is cost component, which is the rock in the ground. You also got to remember, our model allows us to rapidly offset any cost volatility. You saw that when we had breakneck inflation, which is probably a lot bigger impact than the tariffs. As you said, a watch for us on tariffs is the cost impact of private construction. I think that is a little early to call, but it is something that I think we need to be thoughtful of.
Timna Tanners (Managing Director)
Okay. Regarding M&A candidates, are they acting differently because of the uncertainty, or can you speak to your customers' impact? Again, recognize that the minimal impact direct is great.
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
Yeah. On the heavy construction business, like ready mix and asphalt, I do not see a big impact at this point as far as customers are concerned. As far as M&A, we call out some smaller deals that we are talking about right now. I do not think tariffs are having a big impact. What I do think is with M&A, it typically slows in times of volatility, and you are seeing that right now. We may have to let the world spin a little bit before you see substantial M&A, but I think that is a temporary pause.
Mary Andrews Carlisle (Senior VP and CFO)
Yeah. I think, Tim, importantly for us, we have the balance sheet obviously very well positioned for future growth as M&A opportunities do arise. The key for us is obviously to continue to be disciplined as we evaluate those so that we can deliver attractive returns on capital over time and continue to grow our leading aggregate positions. We like our position and are well prepared to act in the M&A market if any of this uncertainty does impact that.
Timna Tanners (Managing Director)
Got it. Okay. Thanks again.
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
We'll take our next question from Jean Veliz with D.A. Davidson. Please go ahead.
Jean Veliz (Analyst)
Hi. Congrats on the recording. Thank you.
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
Thank you.
Mary Andrews Carlisle (Senior VP and CFO)
Good morning.
Jean Veliz (Analyst)
Yeah, good morning. You mentioned that on the private bookings was up slightly. Do you mind commenting a little bit about what kind of works are you seeing that are picking up slightly through your bookings?
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
Yeah. I think the bright spot on the private side is data centers, and the majority of those are in our footprints. I think on the public side, obviously, highway work is up, a really bright spot for us is infrastructure. The non-highway work, which is water, ports, and airports, those bookings are up substantially. Again, a bright spot. On the private side, I think it is two things: data centers are up, and we're starting to see kind of the bottom on warehouses. We think we've hit the bottom on that, so it's not as big a drag as it was maybe a year ago.
Jean Veliz (Analyst)
With the comment on warehouses, does that offset some of the residential, or is this just a nice pickup that you hope to carry on into 2026?
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
I think the offset on single family is really on the public side, is really highways and non-highway infrastructure. I mean, data centers help a little bit, but the real offset is the public demand.
Jean Veliz (Analyst)
Great. Thank you so much.
Operator (participant)
We'll take our next question from Michael Feniger with Bank of America. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Michael Feniger (Director of Equity Research)
Hey, guys.
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
Morning.
Michael Feniger (Director of Equity Research)
Morning, Tom. Morning, everyone. Thanks for having me in. I just wanted to ask, Tom, with the conversation around tariffs, in terms of just your own price cost, I mean, if contractors out there are bracing for higher input costs for materials, equipment, other areas, does this give you cover to be able to raise pricing even if your own costs, it looks like, are actually trending lower? We see what's happening with oil prices today and diesel. I am just wondering, with the amount of aggregates that is in these projects, if all these other items are seeing inflationary and your customers are bracing for that, how do you kind of think about that when it comes to pricing relative to your costs that might not be going up to that degree?
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
I think, first of all, we don't price on cost. We price on earning it with our customers. I think if you look at tariffs, you also got to put a little bit in perspective of what we saw with inflation over the last two or three years, which was breakneck, and the market absorbed it. I think the tariff thing will shake out. I don't think it'll have an impact on pricing when it comes to aggregates.
Michael Feniger (Director of Equity Research)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
We'll take our next question from Philip Ng with Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Hey, good morning. It's Chess Brown on for Phil. Just a question on asphalt. Obviously, we always come down here in the first quarter and then take another step down into Q. Just curious kind of how that kind of translates into your own pricing and then on the cost side, kind of what the lags are there. Thank you.
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
I thought asphalt had a good performance in the quarter despite the cold weather. The cash gross profit was up 24%. We did have some savings with liquid, which is about USD 3 million, but that product line continues to perform extremely well. I think that with the public demand growth that we're seeing, it's a good story for the asphalt business and a good story for the aggregate component of the asphalt business. A real support for us.
All right. Thanks. I'll turn it over.
Operator (participant)
We'll take our next question from Michael Dudas with Vertical Research. Please go ahead.
Michael Dudas (Equity Research Analyst)
Thank you, operator. Good morning, Tom, Mary Andrews, and Mark.
Mary Andrews Carlisle (Senior VP and CFO)
Good morning.
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
Morning.
Michael Dudas (Equity Research Analyst)
For Mary Andrews, you highlighted in your paper marks your cash conversion, which is very solid. Maybe you can talk about for the next several quarters how that looks, any meaningful changes from what we've seen in history. As you think about CapEx growth versus maintenance and this deferred or maybe delay in M&A, given the volatility that we've seen, maybe we'll see more in stock prices, and you did buy back some stock, but you had the debt repayment. Is that something that's certainly on the table maybe in the near term if we still get that volatility on the repurchase side?
Thank you.
Mary Andrews Carlisle (Senior VP and CFO)
Yeah. I think first, as it relates to cash conversion, that has stayed at an attractive level. We would expect that to continue going forward. From a CapEx perspective, for 2025, we still plan to spend the USD 750-800 million that we had communicated. As you know, that's a bit higher than last year, primarily due to some spending on some large plant rebuild projects. I would tell you, we've been consistently reinvesting at what we believe to be appropriate levels for the needs of the business. I wouldn't anticipate any big changes there. We are always evaluating lots of different gross CapEx opportunities. To the extent that we believe those can deliver good growth and attractive returns over time, we'll evaluate those as they come up. It could be a good use of capital going forward, depending on what the other opportunities are.
Really, no changes to our approach to capital allocation at this point.
Michael Dudas (Equity Research Analyst)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
We'll take our next question from Angel Castillo with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Angel Castillo (Stock Analyst)
Hi. Good morning. Thank you for taking my question and congrats on the strong quarter. Just two quick ones for me. First, on the power generation opportunity that you mentioned, could you just give a sense of kind of the order of magnitude of how much more kind of intensity in terms of aggregates power generation might be? Just to clarify, is that kind of just the nuclear side, or is there broader kind of power generation being more aggregates intensive? Maybe one last one on price would just be you talked a lot about it from the VMC side, but curious if you're seeing anything in terms of competitors, discipline, or mom-and-pops, and kind of trends in how they're going about mid-years.
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
I'd take the pricing question first. On the mid-years, it's a little early on those as we're just beginning those conversations. I think that when it comes to mid-years, we have those conversations every year and have had that probably for the last four years. No surprise and to be expected. Nothing's changed as far as timing or the conversations on mid-years. As far as power generation, I would tell you it's probably going to be more of a late 2026, 2027 play and go on for probably about five years. Those will be extremely aggregate intensive. Those will be big projects. I expect more gas generation power projects than nuclear early on, maybe nuclear later, but too early to call on that one.
Those will be, and they'll be in the markets like Texas, Georgia, Virginia, Arizona, Illinois, where the big data center projects are, is where I expect a lot of those, and even some in other states. There is just a lack of power generation that we're seeing right now. If you talk to the power generation companies, they're just going to have to expand. I think we'll see that over the next five years.
Angel Castillo (Stock Analyst)
Very helpful. Thank you.
Operator (participant)
We'll take our next question from David MacGregor with Longbow Research. Please go ahead.
David MacGregor (President)
Yeah. Thanks for taking the questions and congrats on the strong quarter.
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
Thank you.
David MacGregor (President)
I guess I wanted to just follow up on the discussion around tariffs and you're noting that it's not going to be very impactful to the business, but I'm just wondering about the downstream in ready mix. You've got tariffs that are likely to hit Mediterranean, Southeast Asian imports, as well as the port levies on many of these cement-carrying vessels. I'm just wondering how you expect that to come into play in terms of the ready-mix market and how you manage your margins through that. Secondly, if I could just ask about the cost performance, which was really impressive. Obviously, diesel, petroleum, liquid asphalt, you're getting a break there. Anything going on in terms of maintenance and repair, subcontracting services or parts, any kind of moderation in inflation in those boxes as well?
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
On the cost piece first, we have seen some moderation on inflation. It is not coming down. It is just not going up as fast as it was a year or two ago. That is helpful. I think operating efficiencies has helped that too. As I said, we actually just pushed some costs back in the year because it was too cold to do some projects that we wanted to do. As far as tariffs, I do not see a big impact on our business or the ready-mixed concrete or the asphalt businesses on tariffs at this point. Obviously, that could change, but at this point, we do not see a big impact on it.
David MacGregor (President)
Thank you.
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
We'll take our next question from Brian Brophy with Stifel. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Andrew Maser (Research Analyst)
Hello. This is Andrew Maser on for Brian. Thank you for taking my question. I just wanted to ask another on the plant automation journey. I think earlier in the call, you said that these tools are now implemented in 125 locations or 75% of volumes. I was wondering where you expect these numbers to be by the end of this year or next year. Is there any way to frame the benefits that you're beginning to see from these initiatives, either from a volume throughput or unit cash cost savings perspective? Thank you.
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
Yeah. Let me be clear. We've put the instrumentation in the top 100, 120 plants. We have not fully implemented that instrumentation at this point. Probably maybe 20-30% of the plants are we getting the full efficiencies out of. I think it'll take this year and a little bit into next year before we can match the technology to the operating abilities and the production. What you're trying to do there is maximize throughput, minimize downtime, and maximize throughput of critical sizes, whether it's asphalt rock or concrete rock. That's where the efficiencies come in. Again, early stages of getting the full benefit out of that. Too early to call what that means except for degrees of good. Each plant, when you look at these, you may get 4% out of one plant and 10-12% efficiencies out of another plant.
Way too early to call about what that means from a tons per hour, tons per critical size hour, or dollars per ton benefit. It sure is going to help. That is why we do it.
Operator (participant)
There are no further questions on the line at this time. I'll turn the program back to Tom Hill for any additional or closing remarks.
J. Thomas Hill (Chairman and CEO)
Thank you for your time this morning. Thank you for your interest in Vulcan Materials Company. We hope that you and your family stay safe and healthy, and we look forward to talking to you throughout the quarter. Good morning.
Operator (participant)
This does conclude today's program. Thank you for your participation, and you may now disconnect.