Sources: Commercial Metals Co., Irving, Texas; CP staff
On the heels of two nine-figure investments in concrete reinforcement milling capacity, Commercial Metals has agreed to acquire 33 rebar facilities plus steel mills in California, Florida, New Jersey and Tennessee from Gerdau S.A.
Read MoreSources: HeidelbergCement AG, Germany; CP staff
Lehigh Hanson parent company HeidelbergCement estimates a €200 million ($240 million) charge against net 2017 profit due to accounting measures stemming from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act —the sweeping tax reform President Donald Trump signed into law late last year. The law reduces the federal corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent, but requires companies like HeidelbergCement to recalculate loss carried-forwards and deferred tax assets on losses in their consolidated 2017 financial statements. The one-time action will not impact earnings before tax or cash flow in 2017, HeidelbergCement notes, adding that the new U.S. tax rate will positively affect group net profit and cash flow beginning in 2019.
Read MoreSources: CP staff; Vulcan Materials Co., Birmingham, Ala.; U.S. Department of Justice
Vulcan Materials closed its planned $900 million acquisition of 36-site Aggregates USA on the final business day of 2017, along with a companion $290 million transaction through investor Blue Water Industries. The latter involves the sale of 17 Tennessee and Virginia quarries and yards, and abides a Department of Justice Antitrust Division settlement addressing coarse-aggregate production overlap between Vulcan and Aggregates USA in southwest Virginia, plus the Knoxville and Tri-Cities, Tenn., markets. Vulcan will assimilate the remainder of the portfolio—three Georgia quarries and 16 rail distribution yards in Georgia, Florida and South Carolina—into its Southeast platform.
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