Crushed Stone Railroad Ballast

CRH plc (Dublin Ireland; NYSE: CRH — relocated NYSE primary listing from London 2023; formerly LSE primary; ~$35B revenue) is the world's largest building materials company by market capitalization and the #3 US crushed stone/aggregate producer through its Oldcastle Materials subsidiary. CRH's US aggregates business (Oldcastle) operates ~280 quarries across the US with particular strength in the US Southeast, Ohio River Valley, and Pacific Northwest. CRH/Oldcastle holds approximately 11-14% of US crushed stone market. CRH's Ireland headquarters and global scale make it the only non-US headquartered company in the US aggregate oligopoly. CRH has pursued an aggressive US acquisition strategy — purchasing Lane Industries, Pennsy Supply, and dozens of regional quarry operators over 30 years — making its US aggregate portfolio the product of hundreds of acquisitions rather than organic growth.

Class I freight railroad; operates ~18 captive quarries producing crushed-stone track ballast.

US's second-largest crushed stone and aggregate producer; major supplier of limestone, granite, and sand/gravel for road paving and construction across eastern and central US

US's largest construction aggregates company (NYSE; not a cement producer). Operates limestone, granite, and other crushed stone quarries across the US. Operated a major limestone quarry in Quintana Roo, Mexico through subsidiary Sac Tun for 30+ years — shipping 62,000-tonne loads of crushed limestone by self-discharging vessels to Tampa, New Orleans, Houston, and Brownsville. This quarry and port terminal were physically seized by the Mexican government in 2022-2023 in a USMCA-contested expropriation, cutting off a major seaborne limestone supply route to the US Gulf Coast.