Sources: United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, Atlanta; Staff reports After nearly 30 months, plaintiffs and defendants appear to have closed a case alleging a price-fixing and market allocation conspiracy among four Sunshine State producers with integrated cement and ready mixed operations. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals filings throughout February cite a settlement of undisclosed terms; they…
Read MoreDay: March 7, 2012
Higher oil prices drive up state infrastructure costs
Source: Portland Cement Association, Skokie, Ill. Rising oil prices not only affect fuel and transportation costs, but they also have a direct impact on the cost of building and maintaining streets and highways, says PCA in a recent announcement. States are losing hundreds of millions of dollars due to outdated bidding policies that favor petroleum-based asphalt over other paving materials.
Read MoreDespite Improvement to Economy, Foreclosures continue to drag down housing starts, prices despite economy improvements
Source: Portland Cement Association, Skokie, Ill. Home foreclosures decreased dramatically in 2011, but industry experts are cautioning that this is not a reflection of improvements in the housing market, but a result of legal, process and “robo-signing” issues. At the 2012 International Builders’ Show in Orlando recently, Ed Sullivan, chief economist for PCA, said that the 1.9 million foreclosures reported…
Read MoreAsh Grove Durkee plant wins company’s top energy award
Source: Ash Grove Cement Co., Overland Park, Kan. Ash Groves Durkee, Ore., plant won top honors in the company’s annual Ash Grove Energy Management (AGem) Outstanding Plant of the Year competition for 2011. Since 2008, eight Ash Grove cement manufacturing plants and two grinding facilities have competed to earn the award. Each facility is evaluated on an extensive matrix of…
Read MoreASTM, AASHTO dedicate combined Cement & Concrete and Materials Reference labs
Source: ASTM International, West Conshohocken, Pa. A 34,000-sq.-ft. warehouse in Frederick, Md., has been converted to a shared ASTM Cement and Concrete Reference Laboratory (CCRL) and American Association of State Highway and Transportation Official Materials Reference Laboratory (AMRL), bringing the operations of six buildings under one roof.
Read MoreCement Totals—December & Year-End 2011
Source: U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Va. Total shipments of portland and blended cement in the United States and Puerto Rico were about 4.8 million mt in December 2011, according to the USGS. This was 16 perfect higher compared with shipments for December 2010. Total shipments for 2011 were approximately 72.2 million mt, up 3.0% compared to year-end 2010.
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