Don Marsh – Concrete Products

Precast Show and World of Concrete: Productive industry exercises resume

May 11, 2021May 11, 2021 Don Marsh

The fluidity of public health and travel advisories from the White House to state houses to city halls forced Precast Show and World of Concrete organizers to promote their postponed events with pending labels. Backed with Operation Warp Speed vaccine development dividends, sound minded authorities have enabled the National Precast Concrete Association and Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute to stage the Precast…

Consensus inconveniences irk climate crowd

April 28, 2021April 28, 2021 Don Marsh

Increasing awareness of residential and commercial buildings’ contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions levels, mainly through electricity or direct fossil fuel consumption, is leading to more scrutiny of wall and roof system energy efficiency. The International Code Council Board of Directors has responded with “Leading the Way to Energy Efficiency: A Path Forward on Energy and Sustainability to Confront a…

Quikrete’s biggest, best bet yet: Forterra

March 18, 2021March 18, 2021 Don Marsh

Quikrete Holdings Inc. continues one of the most impressive deal making streaks to date for a private North American construction materials player. After making a name in hardware stores and lumberyards, then evolving plant footprint and stockkeeping unit offerings for big box home improvement retailing, the producer has reached deep into engineered or specified construction.

Cemex elections highlight unions’ dubious case for mail-in balloting

February 22, 2021February 22, 2021 Don Marsh

Members of prospective bargaining units at essential Alabama and Florida businesses are scheduled to vote this month on union representation. Despite safety team success in containing Covid-19 infection and spread throughout the target employers’ operations, National Labor Relations Board regional offices are allowing workers in both elections to cast ballots by mail versus the standard in-person, manual method. The former…

Consequential deals cap a year that couldn’t end fast enough

January 14, 2021January 14, 2021 Don Marsh

As we closed our 2020 work schedule producing this issue, a slew of post-Thanksgiving developments quickly sealed December as the most consequential month of a year we are pleased to see in the rearview mirror. While absent CRH, HeidelbergCement, LafargeHolcim, Martin Marietta, Summit Materials, Vulcan Materials and other deal catalysts or newsmakers of the past decade, the developments warrant cement,…

CalPortland moves CNG power upstream, from mixers to bulk tankers

January 8, 2021January 11, 2021 Don Marsh

Eyeing deliveries throughout southern California, CalPortland Co. is deploying compressed natural gas-powered bulk tankers as part of strategy to capture fuel economy and lower the net greenhouse gas emissions associated with cement production at its Oro Grande plant. The producer has staged 24 CNG-fueled tractors with double bulk trailers along a slow-fill island station and related fueling infrastructure at the…

Pacific Steel v. CMC reveals rebar market disruption and greening

December 21, 2020December 21, 2020 Don Marsh

Cement and cementitious materials producers are helping concrete customers improve carbon dioxide emissions reduction track records and or embodied carbon metrics. Additional improvements are in the offing for structural concrete as reinforcing steel top guns log CO2 cuts on trend lines sharper than their portland cement counterparts. Since the percentage of rebar in a column cross section can approach that…

Sound Succession

November 9, 2020November 9, 2020 Don Marsh

Wells Concrete builds Western Division flagship, upholding Rocky Mountain Prestress standards

Market forces best regulators for aligning cement and concrete with Paris Accord

October 24, 2020October 24, 2020 Don Marsh

Associated Builders & Contractors officials emphasize regulatory reform in their endorsement of President Trump for a second term. Nowhere is their praise more warranted—and substance of their observations better validated—than in his June 2017 withdrawal from the Paris Accord. Recall how that faux treaty, finalized in December 2015 under the United Nations Conference of Parties, held signatories to voluntary greenhouse…

Pipe, box culvert producers extend long tradition of value and integrity

October 19, 2020October 19, 2020 Don Marsh

Our 2020 association chairman’s report series concludes this month with Bill Waushabaugh Jr., who leads one of the best family owned and operated businesses in concrete production. He credits the success of Northern Concrete Pipe Inc., now in its seventh decade, to a loyal group of team members, both family and nearly so. Membership in the American Concrete Pipe Association,…