Displaying items by tag: CRH

UK: Low Carbon Materials has participated in a trial project to build roads with lower embodied CO₂ emissions. The company supplied its ACLA carbon-negative aggregate for use in repairs to the M11 in Essex. National Highways has reported that CRH subsidiary Tarmac and Sweden-based construction firm Skanska also collaborated in the project.

National Highways’ research, development and innovation director Joanna White said "Solutions like this could have a real impact on our road to net zero carbon, so we are delighted that we have been able to accelerate the development of the product and get it on one of our roads for testing.”

US: CRH has acquired ready-mix concrete and aggregates producer Ary Corporation. The Commercial Observer newspaper has reported that Ary Corporation operates nine ready-mixed concrete plants and 25 aggregates sites, along with construction and paving services and seven asphalt plants.

CRH’s Americas Materials Solutions president, Scott Parson, said "We are delighted to welcome all Ary Corporation employees to the CRH family. The acquisition expands our existing footprint in Colorado and presents CRH with attractive opportunities for development and growth. As North America's leading integrated supplier of aggregates, asphalt, ready mixed concrete and construction services, we look forward to serving customers in Colorado with our unique combination of building materials, products and solutions."

UK: CRH subsidiary Tarmac has partnered with sensors specialist Converge to launch predictive AI-enhanced sensors for use in concrete mix optimisation. The equipment can reduce reliance on traditional cube testing, helping to shorten construction timelines. The sensors are available to all Tarmac customers.

Tarmac ready-mix concrete head Andrew Campling said "This new partnership with Converge means we can offer even more innovations to customers as part of our lower carbon CEVO concrete brand. Alongside other solutions, including our new online carbon calculator and the easy-to-use CEVO rating system, we're providing our customers with the tools to help them reduce carbon on construction projects."

Converge CEO Raphael Scheps said "The pairing of CEVO with Converge's sensors and AI technology is a perfect match for concrete decarbonisation. By packaging our technology with Tarmac's low embodied carbon mixes, contractors can build sustainably with the confidence that they're getting all the performance they need. We're proud to be partnering with Tarmac to offer leading AI solutions to the construction industry."

Australia: CRH has concluded a deal to acquire the remaining 57% of stake in Adbri not owned by Barro Group for US$1.4bn.

CRH CEO Albert Manifold said “We are pleased to reach this important milestone in the potential acquisition of Adbri in partnership with the Barro family. Adbri is an attractive business with high-quality assets and leading market positions that complement our core competencies in cement, concrete and aggregates, while creating additional opportunities for growth and development for our existing Australian business. We look forward to working with the Barro family over the coming years to enhance the long-term growth and performance of Adbri.”

US: CRH has completed its acquisition of a portfolio of ready-mix concrete and cement assets from Martin Marietta Materials for US$2.1bn. The portfolio includes a network of 20 ready-mix concrete plants in South Texas.

UK: CRH-subsidiary Tarmac has launched the new CEVO umbrella brand for its reduced-CO₂ concrete range. A colour-coded labelling system of strength and sustainability ratings also accompanies the new brand. The CEVO range will be the UK’s first to align entirely with the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE)’s Low Carbon Concrete Routemap. Tarmac has also released a new carbon calculator, benchmarked against the Green Construction Board standard and calculated in accordance with PAS 2050 lifecycle assessment methodology. This includes a major update to the new BS8500 British concrete standard, which allows up to 20% limestone filler in concrete. The company has also developed an alkali-activated material (AACM) system in line with the new standard.

Tarmac’s head of readymix concrete performance Andrew Campling said "We've listened to our customers and made the process of accessing transparent data and procuring lower carbon concrete as simple as possible. Through the benchmarking, the options to deliver carbon savings are even easier to understand and measure - it is designed to be specification made simple."

US: Ireland-based CRH has concluded a deal for the acquisition of Martin Marietta Materials’ South Texas business. This includes 20 ready-mix concrete batching plants, alongside the Hunter cement plant and a network of cement terminals on the Gulf of Mexico. The value of the transaction is US$2.1bn.

CRH CEO Albert Manifold said “The acquisition of these high-quality assets further strengthens our market leading position in Texas and increases our exposure to attractive, high-growth markets. Our ability to leverage our cement expertise and technical capabilities will enable us to enhance and optimise our existing footprint in Texas, resulting in significant synergies and self-supply opportunities. This transaction reflects our disciplined approach to capital allocation as well as our commitment to deliver further growth and value creation for our shareholders. We also believe there is significant potential to unlock additional growth opportunities across an expanded footprint in this attractive growth market.”

Romania: CRH subsidiary Romcim has acquired precast concrete producer Bauelemente from Michael Dietrich. Bauelemente operates plants at Aricestii Rahtivani in Prahova County, Bolintin in Ilfov County and Cristian in Sibiu County. The company will continue to operate under the new branding 'Bauelemente, a CRH company.' Romcim now controls six precast concrete plants, with 500 employees.

Romcim's building materials general manager Monica Tudor said "We are happy to welcome our new Bauelemente colleagues to Romcim and the CRH family."

Ukraine: Buzzi has agreed to sell its business in Ukraine to Ireland-based CRH for US$109m. The assets additionally include Buzzi’s Slovakian ready-mix concrete business. The Ukrainian business is comprised of the 2Mt/yr Volyn cement plant and 1Mt/yr Nikolajev cement plants, as well as ready-mix concrete operations in Kiev, Nikolajev and Odessa.

Via its local subsidiaries, Italy-based Buzzi Unicem operates five ready-mix concrete batching plants in Ukraine and six in Slovakia.

Germany: Ireland-based CRH has agreed to sell its subsidiaries Opterra Zement and Opterra Beton to Thomas Gruppe. Thomas Gruppe expects to complete its acquisition of the businesses later in 2022. Opterra Zement owns the 1.4Mt/yr Karsdorf, Saxony-Anhalt, cement plant and 0.5Mt/yr Sötenich, North Rhine-Westphalia, grinding plant, the latter of which is closed. Opterra Beton operates the Neufahrn, Bavaria, ready-mix concrete batching plant.

Thomas Gruppe said "For years, we have been pursuing a steady and long-term growth course in the field of cement and precast and ready-mix concrete. In the cement segment, our competitive position improved significantly with the purchase of the Erwitte (North Rhine-Westphalia) plant in 2017. Together with the grinding plant in Dorndorf (Thuringia), we have achieved a significantly larger area coverage in Germany, and also in the Netherlands, and benefit from synergy effects." It continued "We would like to continue on this growth course. An opportunity like the one to take over the cement plant in Karsdorf does not come often. The Karsdorf plant, with its gigantic limestone deposits, its market position of well over 1Mt/yr of cement and its experienced team, enables us better to supply our customers, and to leverage improvement potential. In addition, Karsdorf is of sufficient size for us to implement CO₂ separation technology in its production of clinker for the Dorndorf grinding plant." Thomas Gruppe concluded "We are convinced that cement will become a clean building material and believe in its future."