UK: Real Green Concrete has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with mining company LKAB Minerals to develop cement-free concrete using cementitious materials supplied by LKAB Minerals and industrial byproducts. Trial blends are under production at LKAB Minerals’ Flixborough site in the East Midlands. The trials aim to develop a reduced-CO2 concrete with the same strength and durability but 30% lower water consumption than traditional cement based-concrete.
US: Heidelberg Materials North America has acquired a minority stake in precast concrete elements producer AmeriTex Pipe & Products. AmeriTex Pipe & Products supplies pipes, box culverts and other precast concrete products in Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio, Texas. The companies also concluded a long-term materials supply agreement.
Heidelberg Materials North America CEO Chris Ward called the move the ‘latest step in optimising our portfolio to further strengthen our business in key growth markets such as Texas.’
South Korea: Sampyo Industrial has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with two D&B Group architecture firms – D&B Architects Office and D&B Partners Architects Office – for increased design-phase specification of its Bluecon Winter cold-weather ready-mix concrete. The parties will pursue a specification-in strategy to incorporate Bluecon Winter concrete into technical specifications from the early design phase and strengthen systematic quality control throughout the construction management phase. The strategy will target educational facility bidding and the design competition market.
Bluecon Winter concrete achieves compressive strengths of 5MPa within 36 hours, without additional curing, at air temperatures as low as -20°C.
D&B Group said "In both public and private construction markets, including educational facilities, adhering to project timelines and preventing safety accidents at winter sites are paramount."
US: The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has stipulated that Taiheiyo Cement subsidiary CalPortland must sell three ready-mix concrete plants in San Diego, California, in order to be allowed to proceed with a planned US$712m acquisition of ready-mix concrete assets from Vulcan Materials. Concrete, aggregates and asphalt producer Holliday Rock would in turn acquire the former CalPortland assets.
DOJ Antitrust Division Acting Assistant Attorney General Omeed Assefi said "The Division's pursuit of structural remedies in this case provides a signal to the broader market about how to structure transactions that deliver efficiency to the market while protecting competition that benefits consumers."
