Concrete is one of the most consumed materials on the planet, with the global cement market projected to reach $481.73 billion by 2029, with more than 5% annual growth year over year.
But even with demand rising at this scale, producers know the reality on the ground doesn’t feel predictable.
One month, your plants run at full capacity; the next, your dispatch schedule looks thin. Demand can swell or fall the moment the weather shifts, a lender pulls back, or a regional project pauses.
Forecasting demand has never been more important for ready-mix producers, and never more challenging.
In this blog, we’ll walk you through what drives instability, why accurate forecasting matters, how cost volatility complicates planning, and which forecasting tactics help producers stay ahead. You’ll also see how Slabstack brings quoting, pricing, and dispatch data together so producers get a complete picture of what’s coming.
What demand fluctuations look like in the ready-mix concrete industry
Fluctuations in the demand for cement occur due to several factors, like weather shifts, regional competition, or jobsite delays.
Here are the core drivers that typically reshape demand:
- Weather shifts and jobsite delays: Rainy weeks, temperature drops, or prolonged heat waves can pause pours and stall production schedules. When multiple jobs extend at once, dispatch planning falls out of sync.
- Interest rates and construction funding cycles: When financing tightens, contractors start delaying their projects. Developers slow down, and residential builders hold off. Even a small change in lending conditions can ripple into your pipeline.
- Regional competition: If a competitor lowers pricing or enters a new submarket, demand moves with them. Most producers only notice this after a quarter closes, when win rates suddenly drop.
- Short-term spikes from mega-projects: Large infrastructure or industrial projects tend to create rapid, short-lived surges. Without visibility into quoting data, these spikes overwhelm plant capacity and force expensive scheduling adjustments.
- Supply constraints: Cement shortages, kiln outages, freight issues, or tightening SCM supply (fly ash, slag, calcined clays) disrupt production planning. When supply tightens, producers often trim volume or delay jobs, which directly affects demand forecasts.
As you can see, demand fluctuations in the ready-mix concrete industry are common and depend on a variety of factors. To remain profitable, you need to have the visibility to predict how these changes will affect your margins accurately. Let’s see why forecasting demand is so important for producers today.
Why accurate forecasting matters more than ever for concrete producers
Producers today operate with tighter margins, higher cost volatility, and more unpredictable schedules than ever before. Accurate forecasting gives teams the visibility they need to plan confidently, across plants, materials, labor, and pricing.
Here’s how forecasting clarity influences the business:
Quoting and margins
When demand visibility is weak, quotes often rely on outdated prices or assumptions. This leads to underpricing, margin erosion, or delayed approvals. With accurate forecasting, pricing decisions reflect current demand signals, live costs, and real conversion likelihood, so every quote protects profitability.
Inventory planning
Unclear demand leads to overstocking of cement and SCMs or scrambling when supply tightens. Forecasting helps producers order the right amount of raw materials at the right time, avoiding expensive rush purchases and reducing waste.
Production scheduling
Plants run smoother when your team knows what’s coming. Accurate forecasting prevents idle days, overloaded schedules, and last‑minute reshuffling. Dispatch can allocate trucks and drivers more efficiently, and plant operators can manage batching loads with fewer surprises.
Cash flow
Forecasting also stabilizes billing cycles. When you understand how much volume is likely to convert, and when, you can predict incoming revenue, align expenses, and avoid cash crunches tied to sudden demand dips.
Customer relationships
Finally, reliable forecasting means fewer missed deadlines and fewer schedule changes. Customers get consistent communication and smoother project execution, which strengthens trust and increases repeat business.
Accurate forecasting helps reduce uncertainty and gives producers a clear view of what’s ahead, so teams can plan with confidence and stay organized. Read on to know 4 tactics that you can use to improve forecasting in your business.
4 forecasting tactics concrete producers can use to stay ahead
Producers who forecast well don’t rely on spreadsheets or gut feel. They combine historical data, real-time quoting trends, cost signals, and market intelligence. Here’s how.
1. Use historical trends grounded in current quoting data
Historical data offers helpful baselines, but relying on it alone can limit accuracy. That’s because seasonal patterns change over time, competitors adjust their activity, and material costs often move.
Producers get better accuracy when they pair historical demand with:
- Live quoting activity
- Win/loss insights
- Updated margin requirements
- Current plant performance
This combination reveals which jobs are most likely to convert, how soon orders will hit dispatch, and where regional demand is building.
2. Scenario planning for cost and demand swings
Scenario planning can help you prepare for different outcomes. But instead of relying only on expected demand, you need to look at a full range of possibilities.
For example, you may plan for a summer surge based on historical patterns, but also map out what happens if a key commercial project shifts its start date.
Producers may also review how rising cement prices or fuel costs could affect job profitability. By walking through these situations in advance, you can make clearer decisions about purchasing, staffing, pricing, and fleet readiness.
3. Real-time market intelligence
Producers who stay informed about real-world signals forecast more accurately.
Modern forecasting includes tracking cement kiln outages, changes in SCM availability, local construction indicators, fuel movement, major project announcements, and competitor activity.
You can do this by checking regional DOT updates, subscribing to construction news alerts, reviewing supplier notices, monitoring permit activity from local planning offices, and talking regularly with contractors about project timelines.
This steady flow of information can help your team spot changes early and adjust production, labor, and pricing before issues reach the dispatch schedule.
4. Use the right tools to connect quoting, pricing, and dispatch
A connected system makes forecasting stronger by keeping all pricing, quoting, cost, and dispatch information in one place. When data flows into a single platform, you see patterns earlier and make decisions with more confidence.
This also helps your team reduce manual updates and gives sales and operations the same information at the same time.
But the key is to choose the right tool that fits the day-to-day reality of ready-mix operations. Slabstack, the best software for concrete producers, provides you with a platform to manage all your data in one place.
Our CRM is built specifically for heavy building material suppliers and brings quoting, dynamic pricing, cost data, and dispatch activity into a single shared system so you get complete visibility into upcoming demand. Get in touch with our experts to know more.
Common forecasting mistakes concrete producers make (and how to avoid them)
Before we explain more about how Slabstack can help you predict demand accurately, let’s go over some of the common forecasting mistakes concrete producers make.
Mistake 1: Relying solely on national averages or broad indexes
National data doesn’t capture the realities of each local market.
You may see national indicators suggesting steady demand, while your region faces new competitors, limited aggregate supply, or tighter permitting timelines.
Local contractors may also shift project schedules for reasons that never show up in broad indexes. That’s why, when forecasting relies on national data alone, you lose sight of the forces that actually affect your plants day to day.
Mistake 2: Ignoring lead times or project lag
Quotes rarely convert on a predictable schedule. Some contractors green‑light pours within days, while others take weeks to finalize financing, permits, or site access.
Without tracking these timelines, producers often misjudge when demand will hit dispatch. A quote that looks inactive may suddenly turn urgent, or a high‑value project may stay in limbo longer than expected. Forecasting improves when producers monitor how long each customer typically takes to convert a quote.
Mistake 3: Skipping subcontractor and contractor input
Subcontractors and site crews often know about shifts before anyone else. They see when a foundation pour will slide because utilities are delayed or when the weather conditions slow down work.
If this information never reaches sales or dispatch, forecasts drift away from reality. Regular check‑ins with field teams and contractors can help you stay aligned with how projects are actually progressing.
Mistake 4: Using outdated spreadsheets or manual quoting
Manual spreadsheets fall out of date quickly. Costs move, mix designs change, and new job details come in, but the spreadsheet stays the same unless someone updates it by hand.
This creates inaccurate quotes and unpredictable margins. When quotes don’t reflect current pricing or material availability, producers risk overcommitting or underpricing work. A digital system, like Slabstack, automatically updates costs to remove this friction and keeps forecasts accurate.
But if you’ve been making these mistakes, here are some warning signs that you might have noticed.
Early signs your concrete forecasting is failing
Producers often notice issues gradually, long before they realize the root problem is broken forecasting. These signs help you diagnose trouble early:
- Sudden material shortages that weren’t predicted
- Over-ordering cement or SCMs that sit unused
- Frequent schedule reshuffling by dispatch
- Idle trucks on some days and overloaded on others
- Missed deadlines because projected demand didn’t match reality
- Managers debating which numbers are correct
- Unexpected margin erosion that appears weeks later
When these symptoms show up, your demand visibility is already slipping, and you need a unified forecasting system that can help.
How Slabstack helps concrete producers forecast with confidence
Slabstack, the best software for concrete producers, gives you a single view of upcoming demand by connecting quoting, pricing, costing, and dispatch data onto one platform.
Producers get:
- Live pricing for cement, SCMs, aggregates, and freight
- Dynamic pricing models
- Quote-level demand forecasting to see what’s coming
- Plant and region forecasting dashboards
- Win/loss insights
- Two-way dispatch integration
- Unified sales + operations visibility
With these tools, you gain the confidence to plan ahead, protect margins, and respond proactively to demand changes.
If you’re ready to strengthen forecasting and bring clarity to your sales and operations, now is the time to modernize your process.
See how Slabstack brings quoting, pricing, and forecasting together. Get in touch.
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