MÉXICO: Cementos de Chihuahua recibe orden de embargo

El grupo cementero de Chihuahua (GCC), con operaciones en México y Estados Unidos, anunció que su filial GCC of América recibió una notificación de embargo emitida por una corte estadounidense. 

La nota fue enviada por la disputa que sostiene con la empresa Compañía de Inversiones Mercantiles (Cimsa), en torno a la venta hace cuatro años de su participación con la Sociedad Boliviana de Cemento (Soboce).

Desde entonces Cimsa, que en ese entonces tenía el control de Soboce, ha demandado a la compañía cementera mexicana por la forma en que vendió su interés de 47.02% en esa empresa a la compañía peruana Consorcio Cementero del Sur (CCS).

Para Cimsa, con esa venta Cementos Chihuahua incumplió el acuerdo por el que debió ofrecerle la opción de adquirir las acciones de Soboce en primera instancia. No es claro si la compañía mexicana incumplió con eso antes de la venta de su participación en Soboce a CCS.

Hasta ahora, sin embargo, Cimsa parece ir arriba en la disputa, pues ya ganó un fallo al respecto proveniente de la Comisión Interamericana de Arbitraje Comercial. 

Ese fallo fue el que de hecho provocó que la corte del Distrito de Colorado, en Estados Unidos, emitiera la mencionada notificación de embargo.

USA: Cement plant moving ahead in Brady

The Brady City Council voted to authorize two proposed sales tax rebate incentives for a proposed cement plant that would be built in McCulloch County, during a meeting Tuesday.

Houston-based U.S. Cement is proposing to build a plant and quarry on close to 500 acres 6 miles north of Brady along U.S. Highway 377 where it intersects with Farm-to-Market Road 1121. The plant would produce white cement, which is used in pool surfacing and kitchen and bath countertops.

The city sales tax rebate economic development incentive for the proposed plant would not exceed $297,000 over nine years, or up to $33,000 per year.

The Brady Economic Development Corp. incentive would be a one-time payment of $250,000, plus $34,000 up to nine years, which would be a total package of $556,000 over 10 years.

The vote passed 4-1, with council member Shelly Perkins casting the lone dissent.

The council has authorized the city’s director of community services and EDC Director Peter Lamont to pursue negotiations with U.S. Cement before it goes back to the city council for final approval.

“I’m sure there will be some back and forth on some of the qualifications,” Lamont said. “Once we get all the language, terms, conditions and all the attorneys agree, it will be brought to the council for final approval.”

Lamont said he wanted to get past Thanksgiving before holding a conference call with cement officials.

Some of the qualifications are that U.S. Cement generates a plant and quarry that improves the property value of its location by $175 million and provides 200 permanent and full-time jobs. There will have to be a 100-foot buffer zone away from anything it doesn’t own, and the plant will have to purchase all of its natural gas from the city.

Lamont sees the cement plant as a way to diversify Brady’s economy.

Those opposed to the cement plant are not against the plant itself, but where it will be located. There are 37 homes within 3,000 feet of the proposed plant and residents are worried about strobe lighting, blasting in the quarry, noise and dust pollution, truck traffic, emissions and a decrease in property values.

Residents living in the affected area have attended city council meetings and expressed their concerns during public comment.

“We still have hope that Royal White Cement (parent company of U.S. Cement) will look for another piece of property,” said Dale Matthews, an Austin-based attorney who is helping the opposition. “That there will be no approval of the incentive package if they insist on this location, and find one that isn’t disruptive to the people living here.”

Lamont said finding another location will be up to U.S. Cement and at present, there are no active offers of other properties on the table.

Those opposed were frustrated and disheartened by the council’s vote, Matthews said, but the fight will continue.

“There are still lots of steps before a permit can be issued by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for construction of a plant,” Matthews said. “We will be involved all through the process.”

USA: New technique could make cement manufacturing carbon-neutra

Concrete surrounds us in our cities and stretches across the land in a vast network of highways. It’s so ubiquitous that most of us take it for granted, but many aren’t aware that concrete’s key ingredient, ordinary portland cement, is a major producer of greenhouse gases.

Each year, manufacturers produce around 5 billion tons of portland cement — the gray powder that mixes with water to form the “glue” that holds concrete together. That’s nearly three-quarters of a ton for every person on Earth. For every ton of cement produced, the process creates approximately a ton of carbon dioxide, all of which accounts for roughly 7 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions.

And with demand increasing every year — especially in the developing world, which uses much more portland cement than the U.S. does — scientists are determined to lessen the growing environmental impact of portland cement production.

One of those scientists is Gaurav Sant of the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA, who recently completed research that could eventually lead to methods of cement production that give off no carbon dioxide, the gas that composes 82 percent of greenhouse gases.

Sant, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and UCLA’s Edward K. and Linda L. Rice professor of materials science, found that carbon dioxide released during cement manufacture could be captured and reused. The study is published in the journal Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research.

“The reason we have been able to sustain global development has been our ability to produce portland cement at the volumes we have, and we will need to continue to do so,” Sant said. “But the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere creates significant environmental stress. So it raises the question of whether we can reuse that carbon dioxide to produce a building material.”

During cement manufacturing, there are two steps responsible for carbon emissions. One is calcination, when limestone, the raw material most used to produce cement, is heated to about 750 degrees Celsius. That process separates limestone into a corrosive, unstable solid — calcium oxide, or lime — and carbon dioxide gas. When lime is combined with water, a process called slaking, it forms a more stable compound called calcium hydroxide.

And the major compound in portland cement is tricalcium silicate, which hardens like stone when it is combined with water. Tricalcium silicate is produced by combining lime with siliceous sand and heating the mixture to 1,500 degrees Celsius.

Of the total carbon dioxide emitted in cement manufacturing, 65 percent is released when the limestone is calcined and 35 percent is given off by the fuel burned to heat the tricalcium silicate compound.

But Sant and his team showed that the carbon dioxide given off during calcination can be captured and recombined with calcium hydroxide to recreate limestone — creating a cycle in which no carbon dioxide is released into the air. In addition, about 50 percent less heat is needed throughout the production cycle, since no additional heat is required to ensure the formation of tricalcium silicate.

Sant said the method is analogous to how limestone cementation occurs in nature, where limestone forms the tough exoskeletons of coral, mollusks and seashells, and when microbes form limestone that cements grains of sand together.

Although scientists had examined this idea previously, Sant said it had never been demonstrated before with a view to carbon dioxide-neutral cement production — and that it actually worked faster than he and his colleagues expected. The cycle took just three hours to complete, compared with the more than 28 days needed for portland cement to react with water to near completion and reach its final hardest consistency.

The successful sample was very small, as required by laboratory conditions. But Sant said now that the process has been proven, it could, in time, be scaled up to production levels.

If cement manufacturers continue to operate as they currently do, and if proposed carbon taxes in the U.S. and other nations are eventually enacted, cement production would be much more expensive than it is now. Were that to happen, a new method for producing cement with little or no environmental impact would be of even greater interest, Sant said.

The study contributes to the goals of UCLA’s Sustainable LA Grand Challenge, a university-wide initiative to transition the Los Angeles region to 100 percent renewable energy local water and enhanced ecosystem health by 2050. Sant is also helping to develop the work plan for Sustainable LA.

The study’s co-authors were Mathieu Bauchy, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, Magdalena Balonis, a research scientist, postdoctoral scholars Kirk Vance and Isabella Pignatelli, and doctoral scholar Gabriel Falzone, all of UCLA.

The research was supported by the National Science Foundation and was conducted in the Laboratory for the Chemistry of Construction Materials in the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, the Electron Imaging Center for Nanomachines at the California NanoSystems Institute, and the Molecular Instrumentation Center in UCLA’s department of chemistry and biochemistry.

USA: Cement Consumption Forecast to Grow 5% in 2015 and 6.5% in 2016

Despite volatility in equity markets and concerns about global growth conditions, Portland Cement Association (PCA) Chief Economist and Group Vice President Edward Sullivan said “the fundamentals in the United States are sound and should support sustained growth in construction activity.”

The U.S. economy is characterized by steady and strong gains in net job creation, low inflation, low interest rates, improving business and consumer confidence, all of which paints an optimistic near-term outlook. While some sectors have been hurt by a strong dollar and low oil prices, these factors hold the potential of a growth dividend later in the forecast horizon.

PCA’s Market Intelligence group expects construction activity will grow 4.8% this year and even stronger growth is expected for next year. Cement consumption is expected to grow 5% this year and 6.5% in 2016. Each of the three key sectors on cement consumption, residential, nonresidential and public construction are experiencing growth. Typically, when all three sectors are positive strong volume gains materialize.

USA: Local cement facilities under new ownership in the Quad Cities area

Continental Cement Company has closed the deal to exchange a Bettendorf facility and cash for a cement plant and seven cement distribution terminals from Lafarge.

Continental’s parent company, Denver-based Summit Materials, bought the facilities – collectively known as the “Davenport Assets,” from Lafarge North America for $450 million in cash plus Lafarge gets the Continental/Summit cement distribution terminal in Bettendorf, Iowa.

The purchase doubles Continental’s cement capacity, giving Continental 2.45 million tons of cement capacity and eight cement distribution terminals along the Mississippi River between Minneapolis and New Orleans.

The purchase includes Continental acquiring the cement plant in Buffalo, Iowa.

“The newly acquired cement operations are a complementary fit with Continental’s existing cement plant in Hannibal, MO and cement distribution terminal in St. Louis, MO. The combined business will operate as Continental Cement Company,” said a statement from Continental’s parent company.

The announcement comes a week after the announcement that the Lafarge-Holcim global merger was completed in mid-July.

USA: Mitsubishi Cement Corp. expanding Long Beach operations

With the economy improving, demand for cement is on the rise.

In order to meet new demand for the construction material, companies are increasingly turning to imports in the wake of environmental regulations that make it expensive to produce in Southern California.

Mitsubishi Cement Corp. is on the way to reopening and expanding a terminal at the Port of Long Beach that will allow for increased supplies of imported cement. The harbor commission, which oversees operations at the port, certified the company’s environmental impact report this week, a significant step in the process.

Executives at the Henderson, Nev.-based company believe the demand for cement will no longer be satisfied with domestic supplies.

“Our plant and the other plants in Southern California are sold out and demand keeps rising,” Mitsubishi Cement Corp. vice president Bud Biggs said in an interview.

The company produces nearly 1.7 million tons of cement annually at its plant near the community of Lucerne Valley in the San Bernardino County desert.

Southern California’s demand for the raw material used in construction may exceed available domestic supplies sometime in 2016, according to forecasts from the Portland Cement Association, a trade group. Southern California’s consumption of cement increased by 8 percent from 2013 to 2014, data from the group shows.

Perhaps more relevant to Mitsubishi Cement Corp.’s plans, the trade group also expects imports to rise sharply in 2017. The Portland Cement Association expects imported supplies to increase at a moderate 4 percent and 5 percent this year and the next before jumping to a rate of nearly 37 percent in 2017.

Biggs said California cement producers’ abilities to meet expected increases in demand for raw materials are constrained by a state law that created a cap-and-trade program designed to limit greenhouse gas emissions resulting fromindustrial processes that include cement production or refining. Essentially, the law imposes an emissions “cap” on firms that can “trade” for credits that must be paid for in order to produce emissions that exceed the state’s allowances.

The California Air Resources Board has said the law is intended to create a financial incentive for firms to seek cleaner technologies.

Biggs, however, said it has effectively made it too expensive for cement companies to build new production facilities.

“It won’t get cheaper, let’s put it that way,” he said.

Mitsubishi Cement Corp. has not imported supplies at its Long Beach terminal since 2010, when shipments stopped as a result of the past economic downturn, according to port documents.

The approved environmental impact report lays out the company’s construction plans as well as the measures it must commit to in order to limit pollution locally.

As outlined in the report, Mitsubishi Cement Corp.’s plans call for upgrading its facilities to be able to load and unload ships and add capacity, enabling the company to build four new storage silos on dockside property that was previously the site of a banana warehousing operation.

If the company’s construction plans are completed as designed, Mitsubishi Cement Corp.’s footprint at the port would grow from a little more than 4 acres to nearly 6 acres. The company would also be able to unload shipments during construction, which may begin during the latter part of this year.

REMAINING ISSUES

Air-quality issues remain a concern. Mitsubishi’s plans call for dockside ships to limit their emissions by plugging in to shore-based power systems instead of burning their own generators, a process known as “cold ironing” in shipping industry jargon. Otherwise, Mitsubishi would install emissions-control equipment designed to reduce emissions.

During last week’s meeting, Angelo Logan of East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice spoke against the project, saying emissions levels contemplated in the environmental report would be greater than what people living in neighborhoods near the port should accept. He said in an interview the report should have paid particular attention to environmental justice issues, or how emissions may affect disadvantaged communities living near the ports.

Mitsubishi Cement Corp. may still have more work to do before construction can begin. The firm has to receive permission from the Southern California Air Quality Management District for its plans.

Harbor Commissioner Rich Dines also won the panel’s approval for a follow-up measure requiring that lease negotiations include a discussion of whether Mitsubishi can use better emissions control technology than what they have planned.

Port officials are planning to review the technology after five years.

If approvals are obtained, construction of the expanded terminal may begin in the late part of this year or early 2016.

USA: L’Italcementi, attraverso la Essroc, acquisisce due impianti negli Usa

Il Gruppo Italcementi, attraverso la filiale Nord Americana Essroc, ha firmato un accordo con Holcim per l'acquisto di un centro di macinazione della loppa d'altoforno a Camden (New Jersey) e di un terminal di cemento a Everett (Massachusetts).

L'accordo sarà perfezionato alla data di completamento della fusione fra Holcim e Lafarge e prevede l'assorbimento degli staff dei due impianti in Essroc. L'impianto di Camden può produrre fino a 500.000 tonnellate/anno di cemento da loppa. Attualmente Essroc produce questo materiale nelle cementerie di Picton (Ontario) e San Juan (Portorico), oltre che nel centro di macinazione di Middlebranch. Con l'integrazione dell'impianto di Camden la produzione totale di cemento da loppa potrà salire a oltre 750.000 tonnellate.

Essroc, uno dei principali produttori di cemento nel nord-est degli Usa, conferma con questa operazione il proprio impegno a cogliere le opportunità di crescita in un mercato molto dinamico e interessato a prodotti ad alto valore aggiunto. Grazie anche al sistema di marketing i.nova, viene ora proposto un ampio portafoglio prodotti con elevate caratteristiche sia in termini di performance che di sostenibilità.

In particolare infatti, il cemento alla loppa è un materiale che, oltre alle specifiche caratteristiche tecniche, permette di riutilizzare prodotti secondari derivati dall'industria siderurgica altrimenti destinati allo smaltimento, consentendo un positivo impatto complessivo in termini ambientali.

USA: Summit Materials Announces a Definitive Agreement to Acquire Cement Assets from Lafarge

Summit Materials (“Summit”) is pleased to announce it has signed a definitive agreement with Lafarge North America (“Lafarge NA”) to acquire Lafarge NA’s 1.2 million short ton (1.1 million metric ton) capacity Davenport, IA cement plant and seven cement distribution terminals (“Davenport Assets”) for $450 million, subject to certain post-closing adjustments, plus Summit’s Bettendorf, Iowa cement distribution terminal. The transaction is expected to close in July 2015, pending final regulatory approval and the closing of the Lafarge-Holcim global merger.

The Davenport Assets will be integrated into Summit’s Continental Cement Company business based in Chesterfield, MO. The combined business will have 2.45 million short tons of cement capacity across two plants in Hannibal, MO and Davenport, and eight cement distribution terminals along the Mississippi River from Minneapolis, MN to New Orleans, LA.

Summit CEO, Tom Hill, commented, “The Davenport Assets are an excellent fit with our materials-based growth strategy and a continuation of Summit’s proven track record of value-added acquisitions. The combination of the Davenport Assets and Continental Cement creates a strategically compelling and complementary multi-plant cement business in very attractive markets along the Mississippi. We are looking forward to welcoming the Davenport plant and terminal employees to Summit, and to servicing new and existing customers with high quality product from our expanded cement operations.”

The purchase price of $450 million is expected to be funded with a combination of debt and equity.

USA: Cement Shortage Not Expected

Green Bay’s shipping season is off to an early start. Passing some cargo early is important, especially for builders.

The S.S. Alpena, which brought cement, left Green Bay Monday morning. It’s one of two vessels that have been in port. The other exported petroleum.

Last year at this time, the brutal winter left thick ice, which delayed the start of the shipping season at the Port of Green Bay.

“Last year’s shipping season we lost a couple weeks, in the neighborhood of about four weeks, due to the ice conditions,” said Dean Haen, Brown County Port and Resource Recovery Director. “So this year we’re opening in a more normal shipping season starting here in the beginning of April."

That later starting date, and more project requiring cement in the area, created a problem for some construction companies.

This year they’re welcoming the more normal start to the shipping season before summer construction projects fully take shape.

“Things are definitely ramping up and in about a week to two weeks it’ll be at full capacity,” said Mike Ausloos, Northern Concrete Construction’s Director of Business Development.

About 200 ships are expected to use the Port of Green Bay this year. Officials anticipate those ships will transport more than 2 tons of cargo, including cement.

“We do still have some construction projects, road projects, the highway 41 reconstruction is still continuing,” Haen said. “We should see a high amount of cement coming into the port.”

USA: CRH's profits jump as United States finally repays investment

The chief executive of Ireland's biggest company, building materials firm CRH, believes it will benefit from years of "cyclical construction growth" in its major markets as economies improve.

Albert Manifold was speaking to investors as the firm reported better than expected results for 2014, with earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) climbing 11pc to €1.64bn.

Revenue at the group rose 5pc to €18.9bn last year. It generates about 60pc of its EBITDA in North America.

Chief financial officer Maeve Carton said that the group is "very well placed" to take advantage of opportunities that present themselves in the industry in the near and longer term.

Mr Manifold said the company experienced a strong start and finish to 2014, and that margins rose in all six divisions, helped by reorganisation and restructuring, as well as a review of underperforming assets.

He added that while the US had performed well last year, Europe has been largely lacklustre. However, he said there are signs that markets such as the Netherlands, which had its own property bust, are now improving.

He said that France will remain weak, although the company entered a deal last year that gives it an option to eventually wholly acquire a joint venture partner there, Samse.

Earlier this month, CRH confirmed that it had signed a deal to pay €6.5bn for assets being sold by rivals Lafarge and Holcim as those two firms offload assets to win anti-trust approval for their merger. CRH will hold an EGM on March 19 to secure shareholder approval for the acquisitions.

That will give CRH a foothold in countries such as the Philippines, where Mr Manifold said he had been trying to gain a presence for 15 years. It will make CRH the second-biggest cement maker in the country.

"It's very profitable business, with growth to 2020 and beyond."

"For us in 2015, our key objective is to close that deal and bed that (Lafarge-Holcim) deal down. We will still go out and acquire businesses, because the run-rate of our business demands us to do that," said Mr Manifold.

He said that CRH will use its platforms in India and China to slowly grow the company's presence in Asia.

"We invest a dollar in Beijing the same as we invest a dollar in Boston - we expect the same returns," he said.

Mr Manifold said the pipeline of potential acquisitions for CRH is "very strong and very good".

"The key for us is to retain our discipline," he added.

Mr Manifold also said the company's activities in Ukraine hadn't been significantly impacted by unrest there, as most of its business is in the west of the country.

Shares in CRH closed up 0.5pc in Dublin at €25.10.

USA: Holcim to sell Trident cement plant

Some of the 80 employees at the Trident cement plant near Three Forks thought the facility was safe from the antitrust hatchets that started swinging after the plant’s owner announced a merger with its primary competitor last year. But anyone who bet Trident would remain in the stable of assets owned by Holcim US Inc., has lost the wager.

The Trident plant will be sold to an Irish multinational, according to a joint statement issued Feb. 2 by Holcim and Lafarge, the companies whose $43 billion merger is expected to be final in the first half of this year. 

According to the statement, the assets to be divested include cement plants and other facilities in Europe, Canada, Brazil and the Philippines. The only U.S. holdings on the list are the Trident plant and some distribution facilities in the Great Lakes area. 

Holcim and Lafarge confirmed in the statement that the Irish building materials giant CRH had tendered a $7.4 billion offer (6.5 billion euros) to acquire the assets. If the deal is approved by regulators and CRH shareholders, it is expected to close by the end of June.

At No. 129 on the Fortune 500, CRH operates in 35 countries, employs 76,000 people worldwide and enjoys annual sales exceeding $20.3 billion. It is a leading producer of cement, aggregates and other building materials in Europe and other parts of the world, including China and India. 

CRH's North American arm is called Oldcastle. Based in Atlanta, Ga., Oldcastle was founded in 1977 and bills itself as "North America's largest manufacturer of building products and materials." 

Oldcastle leads the industry in the production of asphalt, aggregates, ready-mixed concrete, precast products and other construction materials. The company's growth strategy has been to acquire small- and medium-sized companies which keep their names and local focus. In Montana, it owns Helena Sand and Gravel in Helena and L.S. Jensen Construction & Ready Mix in Missoula. 

But Oldcastle doesn't manufacture cement; Trident would be CRH's only cement plant in North America, and whether it plans to operate the plant, sell it off or shut it down remains to be seen. The media relations office at CRH did not respond to our requests for comments for this story, but its chief executive told reporters during a Feb. 2 news conference that CRH likely will divest some of the assets it acquires from Holcim and Lafarge.

"Not all of these assets are going to remain long term in our group, that's for sure," CEO Albert Manifold said (as reported by Reuters for a Feb. 2 story. "Some of these assets, we will be required to take partners on."

Now more than 105 years old, the Trident plant has been owned by Holcim since the late 1980s. A significant economic force locally—employing more than six dozen people at relatively high wages for this area and kicking in six figures into the local tax base each year—Trident is the smallest of ten cement plants Holcim operates in the U.S., producing about 350,000 metric tons of product each year. By contrast, Holcim's Ste. Genevieve plant in Missouri, which opened in 2009 and is one of the largest cement plants in the world, produces more than 4 million metric tons.

Employees at Trident referred all calls about the merger to the company's Waltham, Mass., headquarters. Our efforts to reach a spokesperson, however, have been unsuccessful. 

While no Trident employees would speak on the record for this story because Holcim rigidly controls corporate communications, some employees anonymously told us that Holcim's decision to sell Trident was a surprise and “has everyone pretty stirred up.”

Another worker said local employees received no indication of sale plans from the corporate offices and were confused about the decision. 

“We thought we were okay—that we weren’t going to be affected” by the merger, the employee said. “This was a big shock. People are kind of stunned around here.”

USA: Cement Use To Grow 8% in 2015, But Low Oil Prices Won't Help Much

Growing job markets, consumer confidence and construction spending will contribute to higher cement consumption in the U.S. this year, rising an annual 8% to 93 million metric tons (MMT), according to the Portland Cement Association. Low oil prices will provide an added financial stimulus to consumers and contractors, but immediate cutbacks in the oil field are expected to offset any long-term gains in construction activity, PCA notes.

PCA expects housing starts to rise this year to 1.2 million units as 3 million new jobs are created, driving consumer spending and demand for residential construction, which is expected to account for nearly 60% of all cement consumption in the U.S. this year.

“There is broad based, and in some cases, unbridled optimism that has been absent for a decade,” said Ed Sullivan, the trade group’s chief economist on Feb. 3 as this year’s World of Concrete show was getting underway. “What we are seeing now is the healing of deep wounds.”

The Skokie, Ill.-based PCA forecasts cement use to grow another 7.9% in 2016 to 100 MMT. The two-year forecast comes on the heels of last year’s growth of 8.2% to 86 MMT, driven largely by nonresidential construction and public works, which combined accounted for 87% of U.S. cement consumption.

Visitors to the World of Concrete reflected optimism in PCA’s cement forecast. “Everything points to the market being good for awhile,” said Glen Teel, CEO of Baltimore-based Peri Formwork Systems Inc. Unlike prior shows, the company was exhibiting outside for the first time in a larger, 2,400-sq-ft booth Peri used to showcase new lines of form panels, slab systems and protective screens.

Crude Change

Low oil prices, if they continue, will help give “a little dose of extra” to consumers’ bank accounts, translating into increased construction spending, Sullivan noted. He cited data from the Energy Information Administration forecasting oil prices to average $55 per barrel this year and $71 next year.

“Without question, lower oil prices are good for the U.S. economy,” Sullivan said. However, he warned that the stronger economic growth will take a year or more to sink in and may have little effect on new construction starts.

“The timing for that to unfold is a long process,” Sullivan explained. “The positive impacts on construction activity occur next year, by and large, and they will be relatively small.”

In contrast, oil-producing states will be “harder hit” by the low oil prices, Sullivan said.

“When you have oil prices drop in half, you disrupt drilling activity immediately,” Sullivan said. “That will materialize in 2015. It’s a net minor negative, but keep in mind, not all regions will be impacted in the same way.”

State and local public works, benefitting from healthier tax receipts, is expected to contribute to some increasing cement use, accounting for 15% of consumption this year. If the federal government produces a long-term highway and transit bill, “that adds even more strength,” Sullivan said.

Low oil prices may not translate into low asphalt prices for paving roads, however. Crude oil this year is expected to cost 40% less on average than last year, but the cost of concrete pavements will remain competitive with asphalt, Sullivan predicted.

“What we are starting to see is a constraint in supply,” he said, because refineries are producing small amounts of asphalt overall from each barrel of oil.

“Asphalt prices aren’t going to fall very much,” Sullivan said.

USA: Dixon cement plant could reopen

A cement plant that has been idle since December 2008 has approached the city about reopening.

About 90 employees lost their jobs when St. Marys operations ceased. A few workers remained to oversee the plant’s use as a distribution terminal.

Dixon Mayor Jim Burke said representatives from St. Marys approached him about five months ago about the possibility of restarting manufacturing operations. The talks were in very early stages, so he was surprised to see the company’s classified ad in Sauk Valley Media publications looking for more than 65 workers, he said.

“We’re optimistic, and it would be a great thing to have the plant up and running again,” Burke said. “But honestly, I saw the ad and thought they might be jumping the gun.”

The plant is old and not nearly as efficient as many others owned by the company. St. Marys is part of Votorantim Cimentos, based in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Restarting operations would require a large capital investment, and the company is looking for help.

“We’re working with them to see if there are incentives to make it all work,” Burke said. “We would like to get Sen. Dick Durbin involved as we look at state options.”

The company had attributed the closing to a deteriorating economy and rising energy costs, but the Environmental Protection Agency also played a role.

The EPA fined St. Marys Cement and co-owner St. Barbara Cement $800,000 for violations of the federal Clean Air Act. In addition, the settlement called for the companies to spend nearly $2 million to upgrade pollution control on three of its four kilns. The fourth kiln had to be replaced or shut down.

The settlement was the first completed as a result of an EPA crackdown on Portland cement manufacturing facilities. EPA said the companies illegally modified the kilns at the Dixon plant in a manner that increased harmful sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions. In addition to failing to install the proper pollution-control equipment, the companies were cited for failing to get the proper permit before making the modifications.

When the company bought the Dixon plant from Cemex in 2005, it assumed liability for the kilns that were not operating up to EPA standards. St. Marys had said it was a coincidence the EPA settlement and the announcement to suspend operations occurred on the same day.

St. Marys had left the door open to resume operations in Dixon, saying the decision would be based on product demand rather than the cost of EPA compliance.

USA: PCA Forecast Sees Continued Growth for U.S. Cement Industry

Despite a late start to the construction season and weaker than expected housing start numbers, a recently released report from the Portland Cement Association (PCA) shows that cement consumption in the United States will meet 2014 forecast expectations.

PCA's cement forecast remains essentially unchanged since the September 2014 forecast. "The United States' cement market is expected to grow 8.2 percent in 2014, followed by similar rates of growth in 2015 and 2016," said PCA Chief Economist and Group Vice President Edward Sullivan. "However, minor adjustments have been made regarding the construction sub-sectors. Housing starts, for example, have been trimmed slightly compared to forecasts released earlier in 2014."

While single-family housing starts are not reaching projected levels, the report indicates a new emphasis on multifamily starts. Demographic trends and the still strict mortgage standards are pushing more potential homebuyers into rental units.

Additionally, the oil price environment has changed significantly since the summer and these new impacts have been integrated into the forecast projections for the paving sector. 

Going forward, Sullivan noted that the underlying economic fundamentals are strengthening and are reflected in the labor market. Sustained gains in monthly job creation, stronger state and local tax receipts, more favorable return on investments for commercial building and stronger household formation can lead to stronger construction spending in 2015. 

About PCA

Based in Washington, D.C., with offices in Skokie, Illinois, the Portland Cement Association represents cement companies in the United States. It conducts market development, engineering, research, education, and public affairs programs.

USA: Cement shortage delaying construction

A cement shortage has delayed some construction projects in Michigan, but roadwork that's wrapping up for the year hasn't been affected, officials said.

Last winter's freeze of the Great Lakes delayed the start of shipping in the springtime and other transportation issues have affected cement delivery, the Detroit Free Press reported (http://on.freep.com/1ASm3gU ).

Daniel DeGraaf, who heads the Michigan Concrete Association, said that if a homeowner wanted to get a driveway poured, for example, that person might be told to wait a month or longer. He said companies have been trying to balance needs of different projects.

"There's a myriad of priorities, and of course, every customer's project is most important to every customer," DeGraaf said.

Michigan Department of Transportation spokesman Jeff Cranson said the cement shortage hasn't been having an effect on the agency's projects.

But in the Detroit suburb of Huntington Woods, a new playground at Burton Elementary School was delayed due to the shortage. Principal Maribeth Krehbiel expects that the $460,000 playground will open around the end of the month, a few weeks later than hoped.

"I would love to have had it (done earlier), but what are you going to do if you don't have the product available?" Krehbiel said.

Deliveries to other Great Lakes states also have been affected. Lafarge North America, a major cement producer in Michigan with a plant in Alpena, said in a statement that the harsh winter weather in early 2014 led to a drop in construction activities and the demand for cement.

When the weather warmed, Lafarge said, construction and demand picked up.

"Transportation bottlenecks resulted in cement sufficient to meet pent-up customer demand was not able to make it to the Great Lakes region in what was an usually heightened and compressed seasonal demand period," the company said. Still, it said, "conditions are now returning to normal."

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2014/11/10/3530703_officials-cement-shortage-delaying.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

USA: Contractors Feel The Pinch Of A Cement Shortage

Minnesota’s building contractors should be busy this time of year finishing up projects before winter sets in. But for many of them, it’s not a lack of work, but a shortage of concrete that’s slowing them down.

Disruptions in the main ingredient – cement – means the vital building material is being allocated across the state.

With temperatures dropping and another building season nearing the end, E.W. Construction is eager to get concrete poured and framing started. But that has been a challenge, because the shortage is disrupting concrete deliveries and making it tough to schedule jobs.

Eric Wisner says his company has to shop around just to find it the concrete his jobs require.

“The other company I always go through told me maybe a week and a half until I get probably get concrete,” Wisner said.

Luckily, Wisner and his crew found another concrete supplier. But he’s not the only contractor feeling the concrete pinch.

“They’ll tell you, ‘maybe we’ll be able to get you some mud and maybe we won’t,'” contractor Darcy Voehl said.

Voehl had concrete jobs delayed all summer long. It wasn’t for a lack of work, just a lack of concrete. Voehl says the problems began with a major cement manufacturer out of state.

“They had one plant down in Mason City (Iowa), Lehigh Cement, that’s burned up. So I guess that really struggled and I think it’s a lot of just getting transportation of getting it here,” Voehl said.

The problem got worse with delays in river barge and rail shipping. The Mississippi was closed to barge traffic for over a month this summer as dredging crews opened up shipping channels that were closed due to flooding.

That’s why ready mix plants around the state were put on allocation to spread available supplies around.

But the shortage is also adding to the bottom lines of construction projects.

“We’re spending a little more money to get the concrete I need. Turned out that way for this job,” Wisner said.

Voehl hopes to make it to Thanksgiving if the weather holds, allowing time to complete his scheduled jobs.

“Plenty of business and things to do, but now we’re pounding on the door of Mother Nature you know. She’s going to win the battle here shortly,” Voehl said.

They can pour concrete foundations and slabs for several more weeks so long as the temperatures don’t plummet. Voehl says he hopes the situation with cement improves in time for next spring’s construction season.

Much like Gov. Mark Dayton acted on last winter’s propane shortage, the Minnesota Aggregate and Ready Mix Association wants the same for the cement shortage.

On Thursday, representatives of the group will sit down with Dayton’s staff to ask for longer truck driver hours and increased weight restrictions on Minnesota’s roads. Both are intended to move more of the cement into the state and at greater speed.

USA: Holcim cement plant mines limestone, other materials on-site

The Holcim (US) Holly Hill cement plant opened in 1966, ready to supply much-needed cement to the Southeast.

Prior to the opening of the plant, Home Branch, a tributary of Four Hole Swamp, ran through what is now the company’s quarry.

Holcim’s existing diversion canal re-routed Home Branch around the quarry in the late 1970s and early 1980s in order to divert water away from the mining operations.

Currently, a new stream channel through the middle of the quarry is being designed in an effort to protect it from potential flooding.

The on-site natural resources at the Holly Hill plant contribute to its production.

The quarry on the 3,700-acre property, a multiple bench limestone mine, holds more than 70 percent of the raw materials needed for making cement.

Material is quarried by bucket wheel excavator, conveyed to a belt wagon, crushed, transferred to a belt conveyor system and stockpiled in a storage facility.

The limestone is combined with other materials and used at the mine site to produce cement that is sold in bulk and bag for use in the construction industry.

Sedimentary textures and fossils indicate the limestone that is mined at the Holly Hill plant is in the Eocene Santee Formation, which was formed in a shallow marine and lagoonal environment.

Holcim’s Holly Hill cement plant has grown along with demand. The first shipment left the plant in May 1966. In 1972, a second kiln was added; a third kiln was added in 2001. In December 2001, the name of the plant at the time — Holnam — was changed to Holcim.

In 2003, a single dry-process kiln replaced the plant’s two wet-process kilns, boosting production to about 2 million metric tons of cement per year — nearly six times the plant’s original output.

The Holly Hill plant currently employs 188 people.

Parent company Holcim Ltd. is considered one of the nation’s leading manufacturers and suppliers of cement and mineral components. Holcim (US) has approximately 1,800 employees and operates 12 manufacturing plants and more than 50 distribution facilities in the United States.

USA: Holcim breaks ground on $95 million project in Hagerstown

With the loud rumble of a 500-foot-long cement kiln in the background, Holcim US Inc. celebrated a new milestone at its longtime Hagerstown plant Monday, one that ensures the local facility's vitality into the future.

Holcim officials and employees were joined by numerous elected leaders for a ground-breaking ceremony, officially kicking off a two-year, $95 million modernization project that will cut down on the plant's environmental footprint and create hundreds of construction jobs in the process.

"We're very excited today," Hagerstown plant manager Fernando Valencia said after the event at the facility off Security Road. "This is an important project for the company."

In addition to creating between 200 and 300 construction jobs during peak construction, Valencia said the plant modernization will decrease nitrogen oxide emissions by an estimated 60 percent and sulfur dioxide emissions by about 48 percent.

The project includes shortening the plant's existing rotating kiln, installing a state-of-the-art heat transfer tower over the top of the remaining kiln and installing an energy-efficient product cooler to replace the existing cooler, Holcim spokeswoman Robin DeCarlo said when the project was in the planning stages last fall.

Renderings of what the project would look like once completed were on display, with many Holcim employees on hand to discuss the project with numerous local and state elected officials on hand.

Speakers during Monday's gathering included U.S. Rep. John Delaney, Holcim executive Filberto Ruiz, Swiss ambassador to the United States Manuel Sager, Washington County Commissioner Terry L. Baker and Howard County Executive Ken Ulman.

Ruiz said cement is the second-most used commodity in the world, second only to water, and Holcim provides about 13 million tons of cement annually in 44 different states.

The company's continued investment will help the company continue to meet demands in the United States, where infrastructure reinvestment has become a national priority, Ruiz said.

"The cement industry is crucial to rebuilding our infrastructure and Holcim is committed" to providing that product locally, he said.

Delaney, D-Md., has been a vocal proponent of making a big investment in U.S. infrastructure, as evidenced by his bipartisan bill that could fund $750 billion worth of projects if passed into law.

"This is a significant commitment to this region," Delaney told those in attendance, highlighting having locally made materials for large infrastructure jobs a huge bonus for the region and the country.

Baker touted the company's willingness for continued investment in the county as a great thing for the nearly 100 employees who work at the plant.

"This is a really, really fantastic event for our community," Baker said after the ground-breaking ceremony. "It's going to provide opportunity for many generations to come."

The project comes after Holcim was hit with federal Clean Air Act violations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last year. 

Holcim — and the plant's former owner, St. Lawrence Cement Co. LLC — agreed to a settlement with the EPA and planned to invest $20 million or more to upgrade the Hagerstown plant to significantly reduce nitrogen and sulfur-dioxide emissions.

The settlement, reached in July 2013, required Holcim to reduce sulfur-dioxide emissions by 230 tons per year and nitrogen oxides by 92 tons per year by Sept. 9, 2016, according to an EPA news release previously announcing the settlement.

That would limit the sulfur-dioxide emissions to 655 tons per year and 1.8 pounds of nitrogen oxides per ton of "cement clinker" produced, the release said. Clinkers are lumps of limestone and clay produced in the kiln and later processed into cement.

If corrective actions were not taken, the EPA said the plant would be forced to shut down.

Valencia said the company's investment was not spurred specifically due to the EPA sanctions, but the modernization project provided "the most comprehensive solution" to the issue.

"This project is being done because it's the right thing to do," he said.

USA: Dragon Cement’s request to increase mercury emissions OK’d

Maine’s Board of Environmental Protection voted unanimously Thursday to allow the Dragon Products Co. LLC cement plant on Route 1 in Thomaston to increase its mercury emissions from 25 pounds per year to the federal annual limit of 42 pounds.

An official from the state Department of Environmental Protection said the amendment to the company’s air emission license means that Dragon Products would be allowed to emit 42 pounds per year, but it would only occur if the company increased cement production above current levels.

The board’s decision came under immediate criticism from one of the state’s leading environmental advocacy groups.

The Natural Resources Council of Maine expressed “deep disappointment” in the decision, which it said could lead to an increase in emissions of “toxic mercury by 70 percent” at the plant.

“In recommending support for this request … DEP is effectively surrendering the state’s ability to limit mercury emissions at Dragon, allowing the plant to pollute at the highest level permitted nationwide,” the organization’s statement said.

The Environmental Protection Agency increased the maximum mercury emissions limit for cement plants in 2010, based on an analysis of emissions produced by some of the best-controlled cement kilns in the country, said Marc A.R. Cone, director of the DEP’s Bureau of Air Quality. The DEP supported Dragon’s emissions-limits request.

Cone said market conditions will dictate how much cement the company produces. A 2008 state law had capped mercury emissions at 25 pounds a year for the plant. “We feel this standard (42 pounds) is protective of the public’s health,” Cone said Thursday night. “If they remain at the lower levels of production, their emission limit will be lower.”

Cone said he was told that production hours at the plant have dropped off this year, but Dragon’s environmental manager, Michael Martunas, could not be reached Thursday night.

In a memo addressed to the BEP, Cone says that the “proposed mercury emission limit meets the most stringent emission limitation that is achievable and compatible for existing cement plants.”

Under its new emissions license, Dragon Cement will be required to install a mercury emissions monitor in its emission stacks, a new regulation that will provide the DEP with “real-time data,” Cone said.

Mercury can harm nervous, respiratory and immune systems, especially those of children and developing fetuses. Maine residents have been warned to limit their consumption of fish caught in inland waters because of mercury pollution.

According to the Natural Resources Council of Maine, Dragon Cement emitted at least 13 pounds of mercury into the air in 2011-12.