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…
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Quikrete’s biggest, best bet yet: Forterra
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.
Read MoreCemex elections highlight unions’ dubious case for mail-in balloting
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…
Read MoreConsequential deals cap a year that couldn’t end fast enough
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,…
Read MorePacific Steel v. CMC reveals rebar market disruption and greening
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…
Read MoreResilient-construction investments warrant first, life cycle cost sharing
Without referencing specific materials, a new National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) report offers proposals that could reveal how portland cement-based products outshine alternatives in building and infrastructure. A Roadmap to Resilience Incentivization builds an economic and stakeholder equity case for robust construction methods, informed by a prior NIBS report’s compelling payback math—$1 invested equals $5 saved—for building above code…
Read MoreMarket forces best regulators for aligning cement and concrete with Paris Accord
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…
Read MorePipe, box culvert producers extend long tradition of value and integrity
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,…
Read MoreIndustry keeps rising to the occasion
Public health matters, travel restrictions and a bow to limited gathering realities preempted our plan to distribute this issue at the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association ConcreteWorks Conference and Expo, originally scheduled for next month in Colorado, along with the National Mixer Truck Driver Championship. Concrete Products shares the disappointment producers, drivers and others feel with the absence of a productive powwow at the Gaylord Rockies Resort, but looks forward to marking National Mixer Driver Appreciation Week, October 5-9, and the virtual ConcreteWorks, October 7-8.
Read MoreEssential, responsible employers lessen need for OSHA virus exposure standard
Our Chairman’s Report series continues this month with visits to Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute’s Marshall Brown (ACM Chemistries; pages 50-52) and Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute’s J. Seroky (High Concrete Group; pages 54-57). When asked how their organizations addressed national and state government pandemic response mandates from mid-March on, their refrains are consistent with what we heard last month from 2020 National Concrete Masonry Association Chairman Tom Finch (RCP Block & Brick): Producers successfully expedited new measures to identify and isolate potential virus spread among team members and customers. Thanks to online conferencing tools, ICPI, NCMA and PCI members have been able to spontaneously share best practices and metrics for ensuring healthy workplaces in unchartered waters.
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