Financial Instruments

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2012

Financial Instruments

6. Financial Instruments

The Corporation’s financial instruments include temporary cash investments, accounts receivable, notes receivable, bank overdraft, publicly-registered long-term notes, debentures and other long-term debt.

Temporary cash investments are placed primarily in money market funds, money market demand deposit accounts and Eurodollar time deposits with the following financial institutions: Bank of America, N.A., Branch Banking and Trust Company, JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., Regions Bank, Fifth Third Bank, and Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. The Corporation’s cash equivalents have maturities of less than three months. Due to the short maturity of these investments, they are carried on the consolidated balance sheets at cost, which approximates fair value.

Customer receivables are due from a large number of customers, primarily in the construction industry, and are dispersed across wide geographic and economic regions. However, customer receivables are more heavily concentrated in certain states (namely, Texas, North Carolina, Iowa, Georgia and South Carolina, which accounted for approximately 57% of the Aggregate business’ 2011 net sales). The estimated fair values of customer receivables approximate their carrying amounts.

Notes receivable are primarily related to divestitures and are not publicly traded. However, using current market interest rates, but excluding adjustments for credit worthiness, if any, management estimates that the fair value of notes receivable approximates the carrying amount.

The bank overdraft represents the float of outstanding checks. The estimated fair value of the bank overdraft approximates its carrying value.

The carrying values and fair values of the Corporation’s long-term debt were $1,144,247,000 and $1,204,965,000, respectively, at June 30, 2012; $1,060,084,000 and $1,087,726,000, respectively, at December 31, 2011; and $1,085,915,000 and $1,053,281,000, respectively, at June 30, 2011. The estimated fair value of the Corporation’s publicly-registered long-term notes was estimated based on level 1 of the fair value hierarchy, quoted market prices. The estimated fair value of other borrowings, which primarily represent variable-rate debt, approximates its carrying amount.