First online marketplace for aggregates industry aims to connect buyers, sellers and partners
GravelHUB has launched an interactive digital hub and marketplace designed to connect aggregate buyers, sellers and industry partners.
"Aggregate can often be challenging to source and we've created a user-friendly digital solution that is designed to open up the market considerably," said Tyler Knock, founder and CEO of GravelHUB.
Through the use of an interactive map, the purpose-built GravelHUB.ca platform simplifies and streamlines the purchasing process, ensuring that companies, governments and communities can source product quickly and competitively, while allowing sellers to directly target customers and increase their marketing reach, resulting in greater economic development and reduced environmental impact.
Wayne Morsky, Past Chairman of the Canadian Construction Association explains that the technology is transformative on several levels, including environmentally.
"GravelHUB.ca offers a sustainable way of managing a non-renewable resource. You could be trucking product in from quite a distance away and driving right past another source. When aggregates are moved in an efficient manner, greenhouse gases are reduced."
From an economic perspective, the launch comes at a crucial juncture for global economies.
"The aggregate industry plays a critical role in economic recovery. Infrastructure investment is one of the fastest ways to create jobs and jumpstart the economy," said GravelHUB's CFO, Connor Regier.
Aggregates - stone, sand and gravel - are the essential raw materials utilized in almost every infrastructure and construction project from roads to bridges, transportation, housing and public works.
In Canada, the mining, quarrying, oil and gas and construction industries are the third and the fourth largest contributors to the country's Gross Domestic Product, contributing $ 280 billion in March of 2020 alone. In 2017 Ontario aggregate industry, the largest in the country, generated $1.6 billion in production revenue and supported more than 28,000 jobs in aggregate-related sectors.
On the global front, the Global Aggregates Information Network indicates that global demand for aggregates is set to increase, estimating that global consumption will rise from 40 billion tonnes (5.3 tonnes per capita) to close to 55 billion tonnes by 2030, fuelled by the steady growth of infrastructure projects around the globe.
"The global market for gravel is $500 billion US annually, second only to oil among trading commodities," said Dennis Wilson, chief strategy officer for GravelHUB, noting that global infrastructure investment is expected to hit $49 trillion US by 2030.
GravelHUB.ca currently operates North America-wide with plans to launch globally.
