Forecasting trend changes of cement demand in the United States: An exploratory study

This work explores the feasibility of predicting major changes in the trend of cement consumption in the United States based on numerous publicly available economic time series data. The study demonstrates both the challenges and potential inherent in such a forecasting task. A key challenge is the...

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Main Author: Ardavan Yazdanbakhsh
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-03-01
Series:Results in Engineering
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590123024021029
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author Ardavan Yazdanbakhsh
author_facet Ardavan Yazdanbakhsh
author_sort Ardavan Yazdanbakhsh
collection DOAJ
description This work explores the feasibility of predicting major changes in the trend of cement consumption in the United States based on numerous publicly available economic time series data. The study demonstrates both the challenges and potential inherent in such a forecasting task. A key challenge is the large number of available predictor time series with different lengths. To address this, a unique segmentation method was developed to handle length discrepancies, and a series synchronization procedure was designed to minimize the lag order of forecast models. Two variable selection techniques were developed for time series of different lengths utilizing lasso and combinatorial optimization. In addition, a novel validation technique was devised using the bootstrap to evaluate models based on the variance of predicted time series values at the most recent known time points. The results revealed significant potential for trend change forecasting as the models correctly predicted the direction of most trend changes. However, the predicted magnitudes of these changes were often smaller than the observed values. Furthermore, the study found that correlations between time series and their relative lags varied over time. Future research should focus on more robust models with higher lag orders that can better adapt to dynamic relationships between time series.
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spelling doaj-art-0f2274880f79433faa80ab77b91c7e332025-01-08T04:53:24ZengElsevierResults in Engineering2590-12302025-03-0125103859Forecasting trend changes of cement demand in the United States: An exploratory studyArdavan Yazdanbakhsh0Department of Civil Engineering, City College of New York, New York, USAThis work explores the feasibility of predicting major changes in the trend of cement consumption in the United States based on numerous publicly available economic time series data. The study demonstrates both the challenges and potential inherent in such a forecasting task. A key challenge is the large number of available predictor time series with different lengths. To address this, a unique segmentation method was developed to handle length discrepancies, and a series synchronization procedure was designed to minimize the lag order of forecast models. Two variable selection techniques were developed for time series of different lengths utilizing lasso and combinatorial optimization. In addition, a novel validation technique was devised using the bootstrap to evaluate models based on the variance of predicted time series values at the most recent known time points. The results revealed significant potential for trend change forecasting as the models correctly predicted the direction of most trend changes. However, the predicted magnitudes of these changes were often smaller than the observed values. Furthermore, the study found that correlations between time series and their relative lags varied over time. Future research should focus on more robust models with higher lag orders that can better adapt to dynamic relationships between time series.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590123024021029ForecastingTime seriesCementDemandEconomic indicators
spellingShingle Ardavan Yazdanbakhsh
Forecasting trend changes of cement demand in the United States: An exploratory study
Results in Engineering
Forecasting
Time series
Cement
Demand
Economic indicators
title Forecasting trend changes of cement demand in the United States: An exploratory study
title_full Forecasting trend changes of cement demand in the United States: An exploratory study
title_fullStr Forecasting trend changes of cement demand in the United States: An exploratory study
title_full_unstemmed Forecasting trend changes of cement demand in the United States: An exploratory study
title_short Forecasting trend changes of cement demand in the United States: An exploratory study
title_sort forecasting trend changes of cement demand in the united states an exploratory study
topic Forecasting
Time series
Cement
Demand
Economic indicators
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590123024021029
work_keys_str_mv AT ardavanyazdanbakhsh forecastingtrendchangesofcementdemandintheunitedstatesanexploratorystudy