ready-mixed concrete – Concrete Products

LafargeHolcim looks downstream of core business in Strategy 2022

March 19, 2018 Concrete News

Sources: LafargeHolcim Ltd., Zurich; CP staff

Coupled with the release of 2017 financials showing moderate year-over-year sales and EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) gains, LafargeHolcim outlined a five-year plan to drive profitable growth and simplify the business to deliver resilient returns and attractive value to stakeholders. Strategy 2022 – Building for Growth targets annual net sales growth of 3 to 5 percent and recurring EBITDA of at least 5 percent, and is based on four value drivers:

Argos USA channels cement kiln-derived CO2 to ready mixed concrete

February 28, 2018 Concrete News

Sources: CP staff; CarbonCure Technologies, Halifax, N.S.

Argos USA has anchored a five-member consortium targeting a closed loop model of carbon dioxide capture and recycling in cement and concrete production. In an early-2018 demonstration, the company used CO₂ from its Calera, Ala., cement plant in commercial concrete produced at its Glenwood, Ga., batch plant. That Atlanta-area ready mixed operation is among nearly 100 sites, primarily in the U.S., equipped with CarbonCure Technologies CO₂ storage and injection devices. The CarbonCure process uses the greenhouse gas to promote cement hydration in high to zero slump concrete.

Market leaders, cement suppliers form UtahRMCA, team with NRMCA

October 6, 2017 Concrete News

Sources: National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, Silver Spring, Md.; CP staff

NRMCA has announced a partnership with the newly formed Utah Ready Mixed Concrete Association (URMCA), citing it as the latest example of national, regional and state leaders working toward the common goal of making ready mixed concrete the building material of choice across all sectors of the built environment.

Mixer driver survey finds lower vacancy rates, fewer capacity constraints

September 14, 2017 Concrete News

Source: National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, Silver Spring, Md.

NRMCA 2017 Mixer Driver Recruitment and Retention Survey results are markedly brighter than those of the previous two years. Some 36 percent of respondents turned down business due to lack of drivers in 2016, versus 51 percent the prior year, while the driver vacancy rate dropped about two points for a third consecutive year, to 4.6 percent as of December 2016. Just over 90 percent of 2017 survey respondents cite plans to hire additional mixer drivers this year, up from 72 percent last year.

PB Materials adds ready mixed, aggregate assets in energy-rich Texas region

September 5, 2017 Concrete News

Source: WL Ross & Co. LLC, New York; CP staff

Odessa, Texas-based PB Materials Holdings Inc. (PMB) has closed on the assets of three Lone Star State peers in ready mixed concrete and sand & gravel. The combined plants, fleets and reserves of ARM Concrete and Kermit Concrete, both Lubbock, and WUUD Aggregate, Kermit, provide additional vertical integration throughout PBM’s west Texas and eastern New Mexico market footprint.

Ash Grove elevates COO Vance to CEO; Sunderland remains chairman

August 21, 2017 Concrete News

Sources: Ash Grove Cement Co., Overland Park, Kan.; CP staff

Ash Grove President and Chief Operating Officer J. Randall Vance has been promoted to chief executive officer. He succeeds Charles Sunderland, who is part of the fourth generation of Sunderland family members to lead the company and remains chairman of the board.

CalPortland approaches $100M in Energy Star-rooted savings

April 10, 2017 Concrete News

Sources: CalPortland Co., Glendora, Calif.; Environmental Protection Agency; CP staff

A 1.1 percent energy intensity reduction across ready mixed concrete, cement and aggregate operations, totaling $682,000 in savings, has netted CalPortland the 2017 EPA Energy Star Partner of the Year – Sustained Excellence Award. Efficiencies attained in 2016 bring the West Coast producer to 15.6 percent energy intensity reduction and $96 million cumulative savings since 2003.

Summit Materials inks deals for Everist Materials, Razorback Concrete

January 6, 2017 Concrete News

Sources: Summit Materials Inc., Denver; CP staff

Summit Materials will broaden its Rocky Mountain and South Central region ready mixed concrete, aggregate and asphalt market footprint with the acquisition of Everist Materials LLC in Silverthorne, Colo., and Razorback Concrete Co. in West Memphis, Ark. Scheduled for closing before the end of February, the transactions enable Summit to expand its integrated, materials-based model in growing markets, notes CEO Tom Hill.

Organizations – September 2016

September 20, 2016 Concrete News

Don Clem, P.E., has joined the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association as vice president, Local Paving, responsible for implementing strategies that increase the use of ready mixed concrete in pavements for parking lots, streets and local roads, and other applications. He will cover the NRMCA Rocky Mountain Northwest Region from a Denver base, working with local, regional and state technical and promotion partners to support concrete pavements through promotion, design and construction activities.

CSHub at MIT develops hazard mitigation metric

September 19, 2016 Concrete News

The Concrete Sustainability Hub at Massachusetts Institute of Technology has developed Break Even Mitigation Percent (BEMP), a new tool to estimate the cost of weather hazards on a building. In a new research brief, “A break-even hazard mitigation metric,” CSHub staff finds that a $10 million non-engineered wood building is expected to face more than half a million dollars in hazard related damages over 50 years, while a $10 million engineered concrete building is expected to face only $165,000 over the same period.