January 2013 – Page 3 – Concrete Products

Mexico joint venture aligns Lafarge with world’s top wealth holder

January 14, 2013 Concrete News

Sources: Lafarge S.A., Paris; CP staff

Lafarge will boost its cement production stake south of the border in partnership with Elementia, a consortium whose holdings include concrete pipe and fiber cement siding businesses in Mexico, plus a cement mill under construction in the country’s central region. A joint venture will span a) Lafarge plants in Vito and Tula, with combined output near 1 million metric tons; and, b) the new mill, with which Elementia was chartering Cementos Fortaleza, whose capacity slightly exceeds the sister facilities’ total.

Cemex outlines enterprise-wide, water usage optimization plan

January 14, 2013 Concrete News

Source: Cemex S.A.B. de C.V., Monterrey, Mexico

Cemex will apply a methodology this year to initially measure concrete, cement and aggregate operations’ water footprint, then define actions to increase their water efficiency and reduce total volume consumed.

Portland, magnesium phosphate binders sprout biological concrete

January 11, 2013 Concrete News

Source: Structural Technology Group of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Spain

Researchers at UPC/BarcelonaTech have patented a concrete that supports natural, accelerated growth of pigmented organisms, focusing on the effect of layering two cement-based materials for a finished structure and surface: 1) a conventional carbonated concrete, based on portland cement, with which technicians could obtain a material of about pH 8; and, 2) a concrete with magnesium phosphate cement binder, yielding a hydraulic, slightly acidic conglomerate that does not require any treatment to reduce its pH.

Rallying for resiliency

January 9, 2013 Don Marsh

Understandably upstaged by federal tax policy wrangling are common sense U.S. House and Senate measures compelling states and builders to promote sound, performance-based residential and commercial construction practices. One bill introduced before Hurricane Sandy, and a second one after, have an underlying message to public and private property owners: If a future weather event sends you to Washington, D.C., with hat in hand for relief, demonstrate for all federal taxpayers a commitment to homes or buildings equipped for high wind and water delivered in vertical or horizontal bursts.

Eastern Concrete brands storm-resistant mixes for Sandy recovery zone structures

January 8, 2013 Concrete News

Source: U.S. Concrete Inc., Euless, Texas

Eastern Concrete Materials, Inc. has introduced two high performance products: Con-Tite EF Waterproof Concrete and Sea-Site EF Saltwater-Resistant Concrete. Built on U.S. Concrete’s EF Technology platform of environmentally friendly mix designs, they are targeted for use in rebuilding ravaged areas affected by Superstorm Sandy, and protecting concrete structures subject to damage from water, and air or waterborne salts. The products are immediately available to the New York metropolitan and northern New Jersey construction markets.

Joint venture picks concrete alternatives for record height tower’s modular units

January 7, 2013 Concrete News

Sources: Skanska USA, New York; CP staff

Preliminary specifications for a residential project anchoring the 22-acre Atlantic Yards development in downtown Brooklyn, N.Y., indicate modular apartment units with drywall and steel stud enclosures, plus floors of Versaroc cementitious board and conventional metal decking bearing on a 32-story steel frame.

Oldcastle caps 2012 with Hanson plant swap, two deals in ready mixed

January 7, 2013 Concrete News

Source: CRH Plc, Dublin; CP staff

In a wrap up of July–December 2012 transactions for its Americas businesses, CRH reported a late-year asset exchange between Oldcastle Precast and Hanson Pipe & Precast—boosting the producers’ Oregon and Washington plus Florida market positions, respectively. The precast plant swap capped a six-month period where the Americas operations completed $330 million in acquisitions, including two two-plant ready mixed businesses joining Oldcastle Materials: Massachusetts’ Morse (October) and Tennessee’s Concrete Materials (December).

IMI approaches 50-plant mark in Kentucky with Transit-Mix Concrete deal

January 7, 2013 Concrete News

Sources: Irving Materials Inc., Greenfield, Ind.; CP staff

Irving Materials has acquired the ready mixed production assets of Transit-Mix Concrete Co. from Kim and Ann Anger, who had kept the Owensboro, Ky., business under family ownership as it approached its 75^th year. Transit-Mix is strategic to an IMI operation in Owensboro— part of the company’s 18-plant, western Kentucky network. A customer guide to plant locations indicates that Transit-Mix brings IMI to 49 concrete sites in Kentucky, from northeast-central markets to the Mississippi River.

TEC Products patents extrusion process for thin concrete brick inlays, veneer

January 7, 2013 Concrete News

Sources: CP staff; TEC Products, Hartland, Wis.

A line of thin concrete brick suited to precast panels and tilt-up walls debuted at The Precast Show and Icon Expo, January 11–13 in Indianapolis. The clay product alternative is based on an extrusion method for vacuum-packed concrete mixes TEC Products has developed over the past decade, and brought to commercialization at a production line near Milwaukee.

Early registration opens for Self Consolidating Concrete 2013 conference

January 7, 2013 Concrete News

Source: Iowa State University Institute for Transportation, Ames; CP staff

Discounted registration for the Fifth North American Conference on the Design and Use of Self-Consolidating Concrete (SCC2013) is available through February 25^th at the event website.