Global cement and concrete players continue their North American positioning. The latest realignment will shelve one of the industry's oldest brands, Lone Star, as a fifth European heavyweight enters the U.S. cement elite and consolidates its portfolio under a new umbrella.

RC Cement Co. of Bethlehem, Pa., and Lone Star Industries, Indianapolis, were merged last month into a new company named Buzzi Unicem USA Inc. Sister RC companies also carrying the new identity will be Heartland Cement (Kansas); Hercules Cement (Pennsylvania); and Signal Mountain Cement (Tennessee). Corporate headquarters will be RC's Lehigh Valley office, with Lone Star's Indianapolis base serving as a Midwest Division. Seven Memphis-area Lone Star ready mixed plants will also see a name change in the coming months. Another holding of Italian parent company Buzzi Unicem SpA, San Antonio-based Alamo Cement Co., will operate separately.

By U.S. and Canadian production, Buzzi Unicem ranks fourth in this grouping of domestic operators and European parents:

• Lafarge North America, Reston, Va., and Lafarge Group, France
• Holcim (US) Inc., Dundee, Mich. and Holcim Ltd., Switzerland
• Lehigh Cement Co., Allentown, Pa., and HeidelbergCement, Germany
• Essroc Cement Corp., Nazareth, Pa., and Italcementi SpA, Italy

Buzzi Unicem USA's formation follows the parent company's takeover of Dyckerhoff AG. The German construction conglomerate had acquired Lone Star in late 1999, adding it to a U.S. portfolio that included post-tensioning supplier DSI (Illinois) and a 50 percent stake in Glens Falls Lehigh Cement (New York).

Lone Star was probably the best known cement name for much of the 20th century, at one point accounting for more than 5 percent of U.S. shipments. By today's standards, that share seems small, as each of the five European elite represent production capacity (U.S. + Canadian) ranging from 6.5 to 17 percent. Those higher volumes reflect a different domestic and global economic era and philosophical changes at the once heavy-handed Federal Trade Commission.

Along with fellow giants Universal Atlas and Penn-Dixie, Lone Star helped the industry transition from the pre-war to the Interstate Highway age. U.S. Steel sold Universal Atlas in the late 1970s to Lehigh Cement and St. Lawrence Cement. Penn-Dixie assets were liquidated in 1976 bankruptcy proceedings, with Lone Star, Essroc Cement and Holcim (then Dundee Cement) among the buyers.

The Penn-Dixie name has resurfaced. A 1,200-acre quarry and cement mill it operated in northern Michigan — sold to Holcim and used for its terminal — has been redeveloped into an upscale golf resort and residential community. Bay Harbor was named in the Urban Land Institute 2003 Awards for Excellence competition and cited in The Wall Street Journal for its ability to attract very affluent buyers to a remote site. Developer Victor International Corp. of Auburn Hills, Mich., notes that a coalition of strategic alliances undertook the largest land reclamation project in North America, transforming Bay Harbor into a successful, 800-home community to be built out by 2006. The site's former 2.5 million-yd. “moonscape” of high pH cement kiln dust is now the Bay Harbor Golf Club.

Even with five miles of scenic, Lake Michigan frontage, the Bay Harbor property took time to unload due to its environmental baggage. The eventual sale was augmented by legal provisions delineating liability for historic and future site contamination. By amending environmental laws, the State of Michigan has been at the forefront of creating brownfield redevelopment incentives. They have spurred projects like Bay Harbor and, as shown this month on pages 33-34, a new ready mixed plant and rock depot for Bay Aggregate Inc. Backed with legal and economic incentives, the Bay City operator effected a large brownfield swap — a 48-acre downtown site for a 100-acre plot on the edge of town. In a win-win transaction, Bay Aggregate now occupies land previously held by BP, a European multinational that has shelved brands no less than John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil.

e-mail: dmarsh@primediabusiness.com