Canada: It has been announced that a controversial new US$1bn cement plant and marine terminal, to be constructed by McInnis Cement, will be part financed by the Quebec government and two provincial agencies. The authorities will inject US$350m into the Port-Daniel facility. The other US$650m will be provided by McInnis Cement, which is owned by the Beaudoin/Bombardier family that also controls Bombardier Inc, and aircraft and rolling stock manufacturer.
The McInnis project is scheduled to produce 2Mt/yr and will employ about 2400 workers during the construction phase. The plant will employ around 400 people directly and indirectly by 2016, when it is scheduled to start operations. The company has access to a 450Mt limestone reserve.
A union official who represents about 500 workers at two existing cement plants in St-Constant and St-Basile-de-Portneuf reacted with outrage to the project. "Our members are very angry," said Daniel Roy, Quebec director of Métallos, the United Steelworkers union. "We just don't get it. The cement industry is already in an overcapacity situation and at any given time, between 100 and 150 of our members are sitting at home on temporary furlough. Here they are announcing a huge project like that. It will inevitably mean layoffs at our current plants."
Another irritated party is Lafarge, which has long complained that the McInnis project would benefit unfairly from Quebec taxpayer money and would further distort the market, which already has oversupply. In September 2013 a Lafarge executive warned that the four established players, itself, Colacem, Holcim and Ciment Québec, would be unfairly disadvantaged.
