Saint-Gobain has headed back to the attention of the cement sector this week with a deal to buy GCP Applied Technologies and a joint-venture with Cementos Argos in Colombia.
The first development carries on the French conglomerate’s move into the construction chemicals market. In October 2021 it acquired Chryso for Euro1.02bn. Other recent deals include agreements to buy Romania-based construction chemicals company Duraziv in May 2021 and Mexico-based IMPAC in October 2021. The GCP Applied Technologies deal is valued at Euro2.3bn with closure planned by the end of 2022. As Saint-Gobain put it, “The combined platform of Weber, Chryso and GCP offers customers a highly comprehensive portfolio of construction chemicals solutions with strong complementary geographic footprints.” It says that it sees the planned acquisition as the “logical next step” to expand its market share in admixtures and additives. It also reckons that Chryso and GCP Applied Technologies are complimentary geographically with Chryso positions mostly in Europe, Middle East and Africa and with GCP’s positions in North America, Asia-Pacific and Latin America. Once the deal goes through, Saint-Gobain will operate 75 production sites in the sector in 38 countries. The specialty building materials part of GCP will then be integrated into the CertainTeed subsidiary in North America.
The arrangement in Colombia concerns a joint-venture intended to focus on lightweight and sustainable building materials. Detail is scarce beyond an announcement by Cementos Argos on its website but the focus appears to be on bringing in Saint-Gobain’s mortar products and/or technology into the local market.
This move towards the lightweight building materials market may sound familiar. That’s because it is similar to what Holcim has also been doing recently, notably with its acquisition of Firestone Building Products earlier this year. It is interesting though to see both companies targeting the lightweight sector from different places. Both have also framed their intentions in terms of sustainability goals. Notably, Saint-Gobain has far lower carbon emissions than many cement producers. For example, Holcim reported sales of around Euro22bn in 2020 with absolute gross Scope 1 CO2 emissions of 110Mt. Saint-Gobain reported sales of around Euro38bn with total Scope 1 CO2 emissions of 7.9Mt.
At an investors event in October 2021 Saint-Gobain’s chief executive officer Benoit Bazin said that the group’s ambition was to become the worldwide leader in light and sustainable construction. Saint-Gobain’s business portfolio was diverse already before the GCP announcement, with its construction products focused on ‘lighter’ materials such as gypsum wallboard, insulation and glass. Its expansion into the construction chemicals market is of relevance to the cement industry directly through the supply of admixtures for cement and concrete. It’s also of interest to wider trends in construction because the acquisitions show another company chasing the lightweight building materials market. One expectation, as countries and companies have signed up to net zero carbon commitments, is that the demand for lightweight materials in the building envelope will grow and companies are reacting accordingly. The question at this stage is whether there is space in their growing market for all of them.