September 2012 – Concrete Products

$446M Lafarge NA asset deal yields Eagle Materials Great Plains platform

September 27, 2012 Concrete News

Sources: Eagle Materials Inc., Dallas; Lafarge Group, Paris; CP staff

By Don Marsh

Eagle Materials is projecting a November or December closing on Lafarge North America properties in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma: eight ready mixed concrete plants, two aggregate quarries plus a fly ash distribution business strategic to Kansas City; Sugar Creek, Mo., and Tulsa, Okla., cement mills; and six cement terminals in the four states. In the 12 months leading up to June 30, 2012, the operations logged $178 million in revenue.

Ozinga Brothers charts future of CNG fleet power; dedicates commercial fueling station

September 25, 2012 Concrete News

Sources: Ozinga Brothers Inc., Mokena, Ill.; CP staff

One of the top independent ready mixed concrete operators has leaped to the forefront of a revolution in heavy duty truck and fuel specs, announcing a projected eight-year migration from diesel to compressed natural gas power in its 500 mixer and support vehicle fleet, plus an extension of its CNG supply infrastructure to a commercial fueling station.

Improved ROI metrics key to green-building market share growth

September 25, 2012 Concrete News

Source: McGraw-Hill Construction, New York A report announced during the White House’s 2012 GreenGov Symposium reveals that in order for green building to continue to gain market share at a comparable rate to the past decade, more far-reaching benefits need to be demonstrated to drive construction buyers to increase their level of related investments. Often dubbed “triple bottom line,” the…

Crony capitalist mindset rises in EPA fly ash rulemaking

September 24, 2012 Concrete News

Sources: CP staff; IBA Green Inc., Newport Beach, Calif.

A subsidiary of a publicly traded energy company, Pioneer Exploration, is claiming processes to neutralize the purported toxicity of coal combustion fly ash and waste incineration bottom ash, then recycle treated material into infrastructure-suited geopolymer concrete.

Elematic pens production partnership with China National Building Materials

September 24, 2012 Concrete News

Source: Elematic Oy, Finland

Elematic is extending its precast concrete production technology through a joint venture agreement with China Triumph International Engineering Group Co., CTIEC), part of China National Building Materials Co.

Competing in a “Low Price” World

September 20, 2012 CP Staff

In most industries, the business environment remains brutal; growth is slow or non-existent and price competition rampant. The question on the minds of many business executives is simple: How can I increase profits and grow when all my customers care about is low price, low price and low price?

Fast Track to Waste-Free Manufacturing

September 20, 2012 CP Staff

In his still-insightful 1999 book, Fast Track to Waste-Free Manufacturing: Straight Talk from a Plant Manager, John W. Davis discusses how to improve a manufacturing operation by a simple and relentless focus on waste. The methodology he describes is really applicable to improving any process in your business.

We Need Less Leadership!

September 20, 2012 CP Staff

In her thought-provoking book, The End of Leadership, Barbara Kellerman writes: “One of the problems plaguing the leadership industry is its fixation on developing good leaders, while ignoring completely the problem of stopping or at least slowing bad leaders. Stopping bad leadership is as important as creating good leadership.”

Prospering in precast/prestressed

September 20, 2012 Don Marsh

We focus this month on precast/prestressed in advance of the PCI Convention and National Concrete Bridge Conference, September 29–October 2 in Nashville. Plant and project visits remind us how the segment has fared during the recession: Producers tied to the transportation market, fair to strong; those in commercial building, fairly weak. Among the companies we examine are Florida’s Finfrock Design-Construction-Manufacture (pages 26–29) and Texas Concrete Partners (pages 30–33).

Construction executives: Romney best bet for broad industry recovery

September 20, 2012 Concrete News

Source: Engineering News-Record

Construction leaders believe the industry’s recession will carry through mid-2013. According to the ENR Construction Industry Confidence Index (CICI) for the third quarter of 2012, construction and design firm executives believe that the market in the near term will continue to be flat, and that Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s election represents the best bet for a broad recovery in 2013.