%0 Journal Article %9 journal article %J Mining Science %@ 2300-9586 %V 132 %N 39 %D 2011 %F Smakowski2011 %T Perpectives of mineral aggregates market in Poland %X In 2009, the supply and demand for mineral aggregates surged to the all time record levels, rising to 185 and 188 million tons, respectively. That rise was mainly due to huge UE structural and cohesion funds aimed to improve transport infrastructure and housing and industrial and sanitary construction projects. These trends continue in the case of natural crushed aggregates. In turn, the demand for natural (sand and gravel) aggregates started to fall as the global financial crisis began spreading throughout the Central Europe to lead to significant downfall in the Poland’s building sector in the years 2008–2009. Some decrease in supply of artificial aggregates since the year 2008 may be explained as due to exhaustion of . stockpiled metallurgical slag and mining waste rock and other material suitable for their production. Marked reductions in funding for road construction works till the year 2013, recently announced by the Polish government, along with uncertainty in relation to the funding in 2014 and thereafter, will undoubtedly result in decrease of demand for unprocessed natural aggregates and crushed aggregates by about 25–30 and 10 million tons per year, respectively. The above listed factors should lead to drop in total supplies and demand for mineral aggregates down to the level of 150–160 million tons per year. If the scale of funding of transport infrastructure construction improves after the year 2014, the total supplies and demand for mineral aggregates may rise again, even up to about 200 million tones per year in the optimistic scenario. %A Smakowski, Tadeusz J. %P 259-276 %U http://www.miningscience.pwr.edu.pl/Perpectives-of-mineral-aggregates-market-in-Poland,59916,0,2.html