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…
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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 States are losing hundreds of millions of dollars due to outdated bidding policies that favor petroleum-based asphalt over other paving materials.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.
Read MoreMartin Marietta, feds concur on Vulcan merger review, prospective consent order timeline
Sources: Martin Marietta Materials, Raleigh, N.C.; Staff reports A “Timing Agreement” will see Martin Marietta and U.S. Department of Justice officials meet in April to discuss resolution of any agency antitrust concerns surrounding the company’s proposed merger with Vulcan Materials Co. Discussions will proceed toward a consent order detailing potential asset sales or other measures to gain DOJ/Antitrust Division clearance…
Read MoreDrexel engineers develop cement with 97% smaller carbon dioxide, energy footprint
Source: Drexel University, Philadelphia Drexel University engineers are claiming to have found a way to improve upon portland cement. In research recently published in Cement and Concrete Composites the group served up a recipe for cement that is more energy efficient and cost effective to produce than masonry’s most prevalent bonding compound.
Read MorePCA’s Sullivan tells builders: Normal housing activity resumes 2016
Source: Portland Cement Association, Skokie, Ill. Home foreclosures decreased dramatically in 2011, but industry experts caution that instead of a housing market improvement indicator, they reflect legal, process and “robo-signing” issues.
Read MoreEssroc Nazareth plant hit with $82K EPA fine for reporting violations
Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C. The EPA recently announced that Essroc Cement Corp. has agreed to pay a $82,000 penalty to settle alleged violations of toxic chemical reporting requirements at its manufacturing Nazareth, Pa. facility. According to EPA, Essroc failed to submit three years of required reports on a regulated toxic chemical (lead) that was processed at this…
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