Ward Nye: I don’t think, they’re affecting number one our geographies that much and two, to the extent that inflation or varying degrees of it continues to go through. Frankly, if we can keep up with that or stay ahead of it Timna, it’s actually been an ally to our business, not an enemy to our business. So I do think if we had a strikingly different geographic profile then we have, I would probably feel differently about it than I do. But if we go back to that conversation I was having just a little while ago relative to our leading states and the degree of both public and private activity that we’re seeing in Texas and Colorado and the Carolinas and Georgia and Florida. Those are very powerful steady markets right now. And I’m even taken to by the continued resiliency in markets like Indiana and in Iowa as well.
Iowa is a state that has been very steady all the way through cycles for us including probably the single most steady market in which we participated during the great financial crisis. So, I just call that out, because it’s one of those states that doesn’t come to mind immediately, if you’re in New York or Chicago or Dallas or Los Angeles thinking about this industry. But it’s been one that for us that’s been actually quite important and very durable.
Timna Tanners: Okay. Helpful. And then just on the commentary on M&A. I know in the past you would have hoped to have some done by the end of this year now talking about next year. Is that just a timing issue? Or is there anything that you can share there?
Ward Nye: It’s more of a timing issue than anything else, Timna. Obviously, you know what the process looks like. You’re going to have dialogue with a potential company you want to acquire, you’ll go through a valuation process, you might go through a letter of intent contracting and then you also have regulatory processes that you have to go through. And none of that’s easy, but our team is essentially very good at it, but we’re going to be thoughtful as we do it. So it’s not the fact that you haven’t seen more done is not indicative of anything other than it’s just an ordinary process. Now part of what’s been different too in fairness, we’re typically not in the selling business. And we’ve been in the selling business for the last 1.5 years more than we ordinarily would be.
And you’ve seen what we’ve done relative to the reading plant in Northern California, the tax replan in Southern California and even relative to our ready-mix business in Colorado. I mean, if you think back to it between Stockton, Reading to Tehachapi and our Colorado business that we sold, that’s over $1 billion worth of divestitures. And that’s not ordinary for us. But again we talk about the fact that, it’s an aggregates-led business. And when we talk about cement, we talk about a strategic cement business. So — some years most years we’re going to be busier buying than selling. The last 1.5 years we’ve actually had more on the sell side than on the buy side for all the right reasons.
Timna Tanners: Got it. Thanks, again.
Ward Nye: Thank you, Timna.
Operator: Your next question comes from Tyler Brown with Raymond James. Please go ahead.
Tyler Brown: Hi. Good morning.
Ward Nye: Good morning, Tyler
Tyler Brown: I want to come back to cost a little bit. So it feels like costs are — they’re obviously remaining fairly sticky here. You mentioned a little bit of easing. So just specifically, where are you seeing some of that moderation? Are you seeing in labor consumables, is maintenance starting to roll? Just a little bit of color there, would be helpful.
Ward Nye: Sure. I’ll tell you, what I’ll do I’ll turn it to Jim, and ask him to come back and give you more granularity. If you think about overall cost, I mean have we seen supplies go up mid-single digits, yes. Have repairs gone up low double digits, yes, and contract services as well. But Jim, can give you a little bit more color on that.
Jim Nickolas: Yes. It’s largely the same story as before, which is a continuing slow moderation in cost inflation, still elevated versus historical levels, slowly coming back to normal from where it was very elevated, but it still remains elevated. I would say, the most problematic areas are parts costs are still quite high. I don’t see those coming down for a bit. But labor is behaving more and more normal, as we go on. But otherwise, I’d say, high single digits mid- to high single digit is the right way to think about it for the rest of this year getting a little bit better moderating next year. Again, I’m holding aside energy, which is very volatile and just holding that one aside because we don’t know where that ends up going. Does that answer your question?
Tyler Brown: Yes. No, that’s very helpful. I appreciate it.
Ward Nye: Thank you, Tyler.
Operator: Your next question comes from David MacGregor with Longbow Research. Please go ahead.
Ward Nye: David, are you there?
David MacGregor: I’m here now. Sorry, about that. I apologize. Congratulations, on a great quarter.
Ward Nye: Thanks so much David.
David MacGregor: Yes, I just wanted to sort of revisit the slide in your deck, on highway contract awards up 18%. And I get your thoughts in terms of what’s changing in the lag from awards to stone demand and stone shipments?
