Displaying items by tag: Ash Grove

The last week marked a step change to the US industry with the news that Ireland’s CRH has agreed to buy Ash Grove Cement. The latter is the largest remaining cement producer still owned by an American company. Its history dates back 135 years to its founding in 1882, with links to the Sunderland family for over a century. Following the acquisition, each of the top five cement producing firms in the US will be operated by multinational corporations based in foreign countries.

Although this scenario is not new to many other countries around the world, it is rare for a nation with a cement industry of this scale. The US is the third biggest cement producer worldwide. Out of the top ten cement producing nations Global Cement Magazine identified in its Top 100 Report 2017 feature [LINK] in December 2016 only Egypt doesn’t have a local company to match the multinationals. China has China National Building Material (CNBM), for example and India has UltraTech cement and so on and so forth.

The actual sale covers Ash Grove Cement’s eight cement plants and 23 cement terminals, as well as its ready mix concrete and aggregate businesses, for US$3.5bn. Altogether its cement plants have a production capacity of 9.5Mt/yr and this really puts into contrast the Cementir Italia deal last week. HeidelbergCement has agreed to buy that company for around Euro57/t. CRH is buying Ash Grove Cement for US$368/t. That’s more that five times as much!

To be fair they are very different markets, with Italy’s cement sector consolidating near the bottom of a business cycle and the US growing with some promise. For comparison with other recent US acquisitions, CRH is offering to pay about the same as Summit Materials did to Lafarge for a cement plant and seven terminals in mid-2015. Other than that a few of the more recent transactions have been between US$200 – 300/t. The gradual price inflation for cement production capacity indicates that there is confidence in the US cement market.

In terms of CRH’s enhanced presence in North America following the completion of the deal, it currently operates two cement plants in the US: the American Cement Sumterville plant in Florida, a joint venture with Elementia, and the Trident plant in Montana. The CRH US division also runs five terminals in the Midwest and Northeast. This compliments Ash Grove Cement’s presence in the West, Midwest and South. Throw in CRH’s Canadian cement plants in Ontario and Quebec and CRH has the makings of a seriously strong cement business in North America. The only obvious impediment could be the close proximity of the CRH Trident plant and the Ash Grove Cement Montana City plant. Both are in Montana within 115km of each other and they are the only integrated plants in the state. A Federal Trade Commission arranged divestment in this location seems likely.

Ash Grove Cement’s chairman Charlie Sunderland, described CRH as his company’s biggest customer when the acquisition was announced. Buying Ash Grove Cement fills in one more piece in CRH’s construction materials puzzle in North America. Its American divisions have generated more than half of its revenue since at least 2014 dominating asphalt, aggregate and ready mix concrete markets. Yet it has lacked a cement market presence to match this. This changes when the deal with Ash Grove Cement completes.

US: Ireland’s CRH has agreed to buy Ash Grove Cement for US$3.5bn. The American cement producer operates eight cement plants across eight US states, combined with ready mix concrete, aggregates and associated logistics assets across the US midwest. Once shareholder and regulatory approval is obtained the deal is expected to complete by the end of 2017.

"Ash Grove is an excellent addition to CRH's portfolio of businesses across North America as we seek to deploy our capital into high quality businesses that enhance our global asset base and provide opportunities to create shareholder value. We welcome the Ash Grove team to CRH and look forward to further developing our longstanding relationship as part of one company," said Albert Manifold, chief executive of CRH.

Before the purchase agreement Ash Grove Cement was the largest domestically-owned cement producer in the US. The company has operated for 135 years and over a century of this time it has been run by the Sunderland family.

US: The Portland Cement Association (PCA) has announced the winners of the 2017 John P Gleason Jr Leadership Awards, honouring individuals who have exhibited leadership in association activities in support of member company objectives and operations. The awards will be presented at the PCA’s Fall Congress in Chicago.

Daniel Nugent, Senior Vice President, Technical Services and Government Affairs, Buzzi Unicem USA won the award for Business Continuity for his leadership role in industry regulatory and legislative initiatives, including greenhouse gas emissions and other significant issues that impact cement manufacturing operations. He serves on a variety of PCA committees, including the Energy and Environment Committee and Government Affairs Council. Finalists for this award included Hamid Farzam, Vice President of Technical Services and Quality Assurance for Cemex USA and Steve Regis, Senior Vice President of Corporate Services for CalPortland Company.

Matthew Wood, Sustainable Products and Promotion Manager, Ash Grove Cement Company, won the award for Market Development for the promotion of cement-based products at the national and local level, such as roller-compacted concrete and full-depth reclamation paving solutions. He is also a member of the PCA’s Sustainable Development Committee and LEED Accredited Professional. Finalists for this award included David Gray, Market Manager for GCC of America and Larry Rowland, Manager of Marketing and Technical Services for Lehigh Hanson.

Ruben Guerrero Jr, Director of Corporate Affairs, Salt River Materials Group won the award for Young Leaders for his active engagement in the PCA’s network of public policy and communications committees, including the Government Affairs Council, Industry Communications Committee and State Government Affairs Task Force. Finalists for this award included Desirea Haggard, Environmental Manager, CalPortland Company and William Kissel, Senior Environmental Manager, Titan America.

US: Ash Grove Cement has announced that its Chief Operating Officer J Randall Vance has been promoted to Chief Executive Officer. Charles Sunderland, who has held both the chairman and CEO titles, will remain as chairman of the Overland Park-based company.

Vance joined Ash Grove in 2011 as Chief Financial Officer, according to a release. In 2014, he was named as president and COO, filling a position that had been vacant since the death of Charles Wiedenhoft in 2010.

US: The Portland Cement Association (PCA) has announced the winners of its Chairman’s Safety Performance, Safety Innovation and Energy and Environment Awards. The awards recognise outstanding safety performance in the manufacturing of Portland cement, creative safety-enhancing projects in the cement industry and outstanding environmental and community relations respectively.

“The facilities recognised today are to be congratulated for their safety achievements,” said Allen Hamblen, PCA chairman and president and chief executive officer of CalPortland, in relation to the Safety Performance Awards.

Winners of the 2017 PCA Chairman’s Safety Performance Awards:

Category: Less than 226,000 hours
Buzzi Unicem USA – Chattanooga, Tennessee
LafargeHolcim US – Morgan, Utah
Lehigh Hanson, Inc. – Tehachapi, California

Category: 226,001 - 289,000 hours
Ash Grove Cement – Foreman, Arkansas
GCC Permian – Odessa, Texas
Lehigh Hanson, Inc. – Leeds, Alabama

Category: 289,001 - 563,000 hours
Cemex USA – Brooksville, Florida
Cemex USA – New Braunfels, Texas
Martin Marietta Materials – New Braunfels, Texas

Winners of the 2017 Safety Innovation Awards:

Milling/Grinding
Ash Grove Cement, Montana City, Montana

Pyroprocessing
Cemex USA, Balcones, Texas

Distribution
CalPortland Cement Terminal, Portland, Oregon
LafargeHolcim US, Corporate Program, Chicago

Winners of the 2017 Energy and Environment Awards:

Energy Efficiency
Cemex USA Construction Materials, Pacific, LLC, Victorville, California

Environmental Performance
Cemex USA Construction Materials, Pacific, LLC, Victorville, California

Land Stewardship
Continental Cement Company/Green America Recycling, Hannibal, Missouri

Outreach Winner
Mitsubishi Cement Corporation, Lucerne Valley, California

US: The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has blamed the management of Ash Grove Cement’s policies, procedures and controls for the death of a worker at its Midlothian cement plant in May 2016. Roderick Barnes, a maintenance worker aged 46 years, died from a fall from the top of a slurry tank. In its report on the incident the MSHA said that the cement producer failed to provide protection around openings through which workers could fall and that that it failed to use fall prevention and protection devices. The MSHA has issued five citations for violations of the Mine Act is relation to the event.

Brazil/US: FCT Combustion has released details on contracts it has been awarded from CSN Cement Brazil and Ash Grove Cement. CSN Cement Brazil in Arcos, Brazil has ordered a Turbo-Jet kiln burner with a maximum thermal power of 102Gcal/hour for high sulphur petcoke, heavy fuel oil, alternative solid fuel and alternative liquid fuels firing for its 6500t/day cement kiln. Ash Grove Cement in Seattle, Washington in the US has awarded a contract for 63Gcal/hour Gyro-Therm MKII kiln burner for natural gas firing.

FCT Combustion has also opened new offices in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and São Paulo, Brazil.

US: Ash Grove Cement has appointed Chengqing (Cheng) Qi as its technical centre director at the company’s headquarters in Overland Park, Kansas. In his new role, Qi will oversee operations of the company’s technical centre. Greg Barger, an American Concrete Institute (ACI) Fellow and Ash Grove’s long-time technical centre director, will retire in 2017. Barger will continue in this role and work alongside Qi until the transition is complete.

Most recently Qi served as technical manager for a cement manufacturer where he was responsible for troubleshooting cement, concrete and aggregate performance, testing materials and evaluating new material sources. Prior to that, he was with Professional Service Industries in Fairfax, Virginia, as a materials engineer and petrographer.

Qi has authored or contributed to more than 20 technical papers in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. He is a member of multiple technical committees for the ACI and ASTM International.

Qi holds a doctorate in civil engineering, with an emphasis on cement and concrete materials, from Purdue University’s School of Civil Engineering in West Lafayette, Indiana, and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in materials science and engineering from Southeast University in Nanjing, China.

US: A worker has died from a fall at the Midlothian Ash Grove Cement plant in Texas on 10 May 2016. The worker, Roderick U Barnes, was a maintenance mechanic at the plant according to the Waxahachie Daily Light newspaper. Barnes had been working on the top of a concrete mixing tower. The Mine Safety and Health Administration and Ash Grove Cement are conducting investigations into the cause of the accident.

US: Ash Grove Cement has donated US$20,000 to a Nebraska conservatory to help fund a workshop and laboratory and support conservation efforts.

"Ash Grove Cement is delighted to support The Nature Conservancy of Nebraska and its important project, Niobrara Valley Preserve," said the Plant Manager of Ash Grove Cement in Louisville, John Dale. "We believe that conservation is vital to the future of the state, which is why we've contributed to The Nature Conservancy throughout the Plains states for the past 20 years."

The donation will go building a new workshop and laboratory for a research facility as well as conservation and ranching support. At 60,000 acres, the Niobrara Valley Preserve is one of the largest and most visited preserves in the US. Donations like the one from Ash Grove Cement help to keep the conservatory open for research and teaching purposes.

"The Nature Conservancy is grateful for the support of the Ash Grove Charitable Foundation to help build a new workshop / laboratory at our Niobrara Valley Preserve," said Conservation Director Mace Hack. "This is a part of a comprehensive plan to transform this special place into the world-class home for teaching and learning that today's conservation challenges demand."