US: Holcim (US) Inc. has decided to permanently close its cement making operations at its Catskill facility, according to a New York State Department of Conservation Environmental Notice Bulletin. The company is also set to permanently close its Artesia plant in Mississippi. Both plants had previously been mothballed due to the stagnating US economy and low cement demand.
Holcim Vice President of Corporate Communications Robin DeCarlo said that the state of the economy had not improved. She said that this, along with a decrease in demand for cement across the US, had led Holcim to decide to permanently close the plants.
Speaking of the Catskill plant, DeCarlo said, "Nothing has really changed with the plant from the mothball status to the close. We still have staff there, we are still looking at our equipment and are maintaining our permits, so not much has changed."
DeCarlo said that there are no plans for Catskill at this point and that a timeline on the completion of the closures remains unclear. The announcement to cease operations at Catskill was reported to the Department for Environmental Conservation (DEC) for the sole purpose of changing Holcim's solid waste permit. This will allow it to dispose of its raw materials, according to DEC Region 4 spokesman Rick Georgeson.
