US: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has approved a final order settling charges, following a public comment period, that the proposed US$4.2bn merger of German cement producer HeidelbergCement and Italian producer Italcementi would likely be anticompetitive. Under the order, first announced in June 2016, the companies are required to divest to an FTC-approved buyer an Essroc cement plant and quarry in Martinsburg, West Virginia; seven Essroc terminals in Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania; and a Lehigh terminal in Solvay, New York. At the buyer’s option, the order also requires the merged company to divest two additional Essroc terminals in Ohio.
