Displaying items by tag: New York

US: A lawsuit raised by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) against CCC Group alleges that black construction workers were subject to racial discrimination and harassment during the construction company’s work on an upgrade at the Lafarge Ravena cement plant in 2016. The EEOC says that the workers were the target of racial language, were threatened and made to carry out more dangerous and physically taxing tasks. It added that it only took legal action after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through the agency’s conciliation process.

CCC Group says it investigated the claims from one former employee in 2017 about ‘inappropriate comments’ after it was reported to the EEOC. However, it says that the complaint was never reported internally and that the EEOC refused to share information about the allegations. Subsequently, it was unable to determine what happened. The construction company only became aware of the other allegations when the EEOC filed its lawsuit in June 2020. CCC Group said, “We take all such allegations very seriously and continue to thoroughly investigate these claims. Regardless, CCC Group will continue its commitment to ensure that any such conduct is not tolerated or allowed to occur in our workplaces.”

800 workers were involved in the upgrade to the plant in New York State, which brought it to its present integrated capacity of 2Mt/yr.

This story was updated on 16 June 2020 following comment from CCC Group

Canada: McInnis Cement has closed a US$380m refinancing deal. US$230m will be provided by an increase McInnis Cement’s senior loan from a syndicate of 11 Canadian and international banks and the remaining US$150m comes in the form of a loan by the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) and Beaudier. This refinancing also makes it possible to repay a bridge loan granted by BlackRock in 2016.

The cement producer also provided details on various projects it is undertaking. Two new cement silos will be built at the company’s integrated cement plant at Port-Daniel–Gascons. Nearly 200 workers will be mobilized on the site during the peak construction period of the two silos, during the autumn of 2019.

Its Bronx Terminal in New York, US has doubled its loading capacity for customers. A second truck-loading lane is now fully operational. A new 40,000t warehouse is currently under construction at its Providence Terminal in Rhode Island, US bringing the total storage capacity to 75,000t. A new truck-loading lane will also be added and commissioned in time for the 2020 spring construction season. McInnis Cement has also confirmed the charter of the NACC New Yorker, a 24,000t self-unloading vessel, in conjunction with Nova Marina Carriers. It will join other vessels in its fleet including the NACC Quebec (14,000t), the Cielo di Gaspesie (35,000t) and the Resolute unloading barge.

US: Brazil’s Votorantim Cimentos has acquied United Materials, a producer of aggregates, concrete and building materials, for an undisclosed amount. The purchase was conducted by its subsidiary Votorantim Cimentos North America. United Materials operates four ready-mix concrete plants, one aggregate quarry and two building materials units in the western part of New York state. It has around 140 employees.

US: Lafarge North America, a subsidiary of LafargeHolcim, has officially opened the upgrade to its Ravena cement plant in New York. The upgrade work took three years at a reported cost of US$300m.

“By modernising the plant, we have transformed it into an efficient, competitive and state-of-the-art facility that will allow us to meet the growing needs of our customers and remain a strong partner to the community for the foreseeable future,” said John Stull, chief executive officer (CEO) US Cement, LafargeHolcim. He added that the plant has supplied cement for high profile projects, including the Tappan Zee bridge reconstruction and One World Trade Center Memorial.

Upgrade work focused on building a new clinker production line to modernise the previously wet process plant. Following the work the plant now has a clinker production capacity of 2Mt/yr with improved emissions levels and higher operational performance.