Responding to the increasing use of blended cementitious materials in concrete, Cyclonaire Corp. has developed technology for terminal operators seeking to expedite batching and loading of portland cement, fly ash and ground granulated blast-furnace slag combinations.
Read MoreSources: Lafarge Group, Paris; Bluegrass Materials, Jacksonville, Fla.; CP staff
Lafarge North America’s pull back from key U.S. positions continues with the planned sale of Baltimore and western Maryland aggregates businesses to a four-year-old company backed by members of Florida Rock Industries’ founding family.
Read MoreLaunched in conjunction with the Construct Canada show in Toronto, the www.buildingbettercities.ca website offers customers and stakeholders rich content to understand the complete range of building solutions from Lafarge Canada Inc., the country’s largest construction materials producer.
Read MoreSources: Saint-Gobain, Paris; CP staff
Saint-Gobain anticipates a first quarter 2014 closing on the sale of its Roaring River, N.C., Terre Haute, Ind., and White City, Ore., fiber cement siding facilities to Alpharetta, Ga.-based Plycem USA Inc., which distributes fiber cement trim sourced from a Costa Rica plant.
Read MoreSources: Cement Association of Canada (CAC), Ottawa; CP staff
Members of CAC and peers from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s (WBCSD) Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) are convening October 1-3 in British Columbia to exchange ideas on best production, environmental management and market development practices. CAC is a partner with CSI in the Vancouver gathering, themed “Sustainable Construction: Building Tomorrow’s World” and hosted by the operators of the province’s two cement mills, Heidelberg Cement and Lafarge Canada.
Read MoreSources: World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), Geneva; CP staff
The WBCSD Cement Sustainability Initiative’s Getting the Numbers Right (GNR) database indicates producers reduced specific net carbon dioxide emissions per ton of cementitious product to 1,261 lb. (629 kg/tonne) in 2011 from 1,515 lb. (756 kg/tonne) in 1990.
Read MoreSources: Summit Materials, Washington, D.C.; CP staff
Ending a one-year drought of announced concrete and aggregate deals, Summit Materials has acquired Utah’s Westroc Inc. and certain Lafarge North America assets in Kansas.
Read MoreSources: CP staff; Bluegrass Materials Co., Jacksonville, Fla.; Vulcan Materials Co., Birmingham, Ala.
Lafarge North America’s sale of its Georgia quarries-four to Bluegrass Materials, two to Vulcan Materials-marks a retreat from the Southeast and Blue Circle America assets parent company Lafarge Group placed under its control the past 12 years.
Read MoreSources: 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.
Read MoreSources: 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.
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