Displaying items by tag: Americas

US: CRH has announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire Eco Material Technologies, a leading supplier of supplementary cementitious materials (SCM) in North America, for a total consideration of US$2.1bn. The business will subsequently operate as Eco Material Technologies, a CRH Company. CRH says that the deal positions it to meet growing demand for cementitious products for the modernisation of North America’s infrastructure and that it secures a long-term supply of critical materials in the region.

Eco Material is headquartered in Utah and operates a national network of fresh and harvested fly ash, pozzolans, synthetic gypsum and ‘green cement’ operations across a network of over 125 stockpiles, production facilities and terminals. The company partners with electric utilities to process and recycle approximately 7Mt/yr of fly ash and 3Mt/yr of synthetic gypsum and other materials, with additional capacity currently under construction.

The proposed transaction is subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions and is expected to close in 2025. CRH plans to fund the transaction with cash on hand and does not expect any change in its credit ratings.

Brazil: Mover, formerly Camargo Corrêa, has reached a preliminary agreement to sell InterCement to a group of the company’s creditors.

InterCement, currently the third-largest cement producer in Brazil by volume, filed for bankruptcy protection at the end of 2024 with a combined debt of US$2.6bn. Since then, the recovery plan has faced hurdles to gain approval, including opposition from US-based bondholders who objected to earlier agreements made while InterCement was still seeking out-of-court restructuring. They claimed conflicts of interest and preferential treatment for local creditors.

The company’s debt was previously held by three main banks: Itaú Unibanco, Banco do Brasil and Bradesco. However, in June 2025, a group of foreign creditors, along with Argentina-based Pampa Energía, acquired Itaú’s US$450m in InterCement debt, followed by Banco do Brasil’s US$310m. Bradesco has joined with the other creditors in the deal, meaning that the group now controls 100% of InterCement.

US: Eco Material Technologies, a marketer of supplementary cementitious materials and producer of green cement products in North America, has announced the opening of its new Lakeview Plant in southern Oregon. This milestone marks Eco Material’s first sustainably-built manufacturing hub in the Pacific Northwest.

Adjacent to Lake County's freight rail line, the Lakeview Plant can produce up to 0.3Mt/yr of low‑carbon cement replacements. By replacing 25 - 100% of traditional Portland cement in concrete mixes with Eco Material’s advanced supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) and proprietary ‘green cement’ blends, producers can reduce the carbon footprint of the cement portion of their concrete by up to 80%.

The Lakeview plant will create 30 permanent jobs, including skilled manufacturing roles and logistics positions. Approximately 75% of shipments will be distributed by rail using existing infrastructure.

“This facility represents more than just a new plant. It’s a powerful investment in Lake County’s future,” said Mark Albertson, Lake County Commissioner. “By pairing advanced, low-carbon building materials with local job creation and infrastructure development, Eco Material Technologies is bringing both economic vitality and environmental responsibility to our community. We’re proud to welcome this transformative project while creating a great partnership to benefit all of Lake County."

US: Eagle Materials recorded a record revenue of US$635m in the first quarter of the 2026 Fiscal Year (FY2026), a 4% year-on-year rise compared to the first quarter of FY2025. Its net earnings, however, fell by 8% to US$123m.
Commenting on the first quarter results, Michael Haack, president and CEO, said "Eagle had a solid start to FY2026. Against the current backdrop of ongoing macroeconomic and policy uncertainty as well as adverse weather conditions across many of our markets, our portfolio of businesses continued to perform well, and our end markets remained resilient.”

Revenue in the company’s Heavy Materials sector, which includes cement, concrete and aggregates, joint venture and intersegment cement revenues, increased by 5% to US$421m, primarily due to higher cement volumes and the contribution from a recently-acquired aggregates businesses in Western Pennsylvania and Northern Kentucky. Heavy Materials operating earnings decreased by 5% to US$87.3m, primarily due to higher cement production costs.

Cement sector revenue, including joint venture and intersegment revenue, was up 2% to US$348m, while cement sales volumes rose by 2% to 2.0Mt.

Mexico: Cemex has reported a 5.3% year-on-year decrease in its sales to US$4.13bn for the second quarter of 2025 compared to the same period of 2024. Its operating earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) also fell by 10.5% to US$823m.

The company attributed the declines to challenging demand conditions in Mexico and the US and a difficult comparison base in 2024. In Mexico, this related to strong infrastructure spending in 2024 prior to national elections. Cemex noted that higher local currency prices in key markets and strong volume performance in its Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region partially mitigated the results. The EMEA region recorded its highest-ever first-half operating EBITDA.

The company’s reports stated “Our operations in Europe continue progressing on decarbonisation with net CO₂ emissions in the quarter reaching a new record low of 418kg/t cement equivalent. Demand conditions continue to improve in the Middle East and Africa with volumes expanding at double-digit rates, fuelled by housing, non-residential projects and large infrastructure works.”

Cemex’s sales in Mexico fell by 23% to US$1.06bn in the second quarter of 2025 compared to the US$1.38bn in 2024. Domestic grey cement, ready-mixed concrete and aggregates sales volumes contracted by 16%, 15% and 19% respectively. In the US, Cemex blamed the drop on high rain levels in various places and continued poor performance of the residential market. Due to this sales fell by 6% to US$1.3bn.

Argentina: An investment group presided over by Argentina-based businessman Marcelo Mindlin has moved one step closer to becoming the new owner of the cement company Loma Negra. The local group is negotiating the acquisition of Loma Negra shares that are currently in the hands of InterCement, the cement company of the Brazil-based holding company Camargo Corrêa. If the deal goes through, Mindlin will control 52% of Loma Negra’s shares, while the remaining shares are listed on the Buenos Aires and New York stock exchanges.

InterCement said in late July 2025 that it had reached an agreement in principle to negotiate the sale of the shares of Loma Negra, within the framework of a restructuring of its liabilities. The deadline for the completion of negotiations is 15 August 2025. Subsidiary Loma Negra is the leading cement producer in Argentina, with a market share of close to 45%. The company will celebrate its centenary in 2026.

US: Environmental groups have welcomed the imminent start of work to rehabilitate Heidelberg Materials’ former Permanente cement plant and quarry in California, which ceased operations in 2023. The project, to start on 29 July 2025, will clean up a polluted section of the Permanente Creek, which flows from the Santa Cruz Mountains past the quarry site an into the San Francisco Bay.

The work was required as part of the settlement to a lawsuit filed in 2011 by the Sierra Club against Lehigh Southwest Cement company, which was subsequently acquired by Heidelberg Materials. Under the settlement, the company is required to restore 2.7km of the creek by 2030. The restoration will remove sediment that contains selenium, nickel and other heavy metals that have washed out of the quarry over the years. Workers also will plant native vegetation, build pools for trout, and stabilise slopes. The project's cost is estimated at US$25m, according to Heidelberg Materials’ David Perkins.

Environmental groups have said the work is overdue. "We're relieved that it's finally actually happening," said Katja Irvin, Guadalupe Group chair of the Sierra Club's Loma Prieta Chapter, based in Palo Alto. "There is mining waste in the creek, and concrete barriers in the creek. The slopes have been eroded. All of those problems eventually will be fixed.”

Mexico: Yakup Bayram, the CEO of PaneraTech, has been announced as the first keynote speaker at the 19th Unified International Technical Conference on Refractories (UNITECR) due to take place on 27 - 30 October 2025 in Cancun, Mexico. Bayram will discuss the use of artificial intelligence in refractories. He is also scheduled to moderate a panel entitled ‘Sustainability With Intelligence in the Refractories Industry.’ The call for papers for the event has closed and around 180 presentations are currently planned.

UNITECR held its first event in 1987 in Tokyo, Japan. The most recent outing took place in in Frankfurt, Germany, in 2023. The event, hosted by the German Refractory Association, featured over 200 speakers and more than 1100 participants in total. The meeting in 2025 is being hosted by the Latin American Association of Refractories Manufacturers (ALAFAR).

Mexico/US: Grupo Cementos Chihuahua (GCC) reported that sales in the US were up by 8% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2025 (April – June 2025), due to higher ready-mix concrete and cement volumes of 21% and 4% respectively. In Mexico, which represents 25% of consolidated net sales, it recorded a 13% decrease in ready-mix concrete volumes and a 6% decrease in cement volumes, impacted by an industrial slowdown and negative currency exchange effects.

The company recorded a fall in earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of 12% to US$118m, while sales rose 1% to US$364m. Net income fell by 18% to US$73.5m from US$89.6m in the second quarter of 2024.

Argentina: The La Metropolitana recycling plant in Donovan despatched 14.1t of end-of-life tyres for industrial co-processing at Cementos Avellaneda’s La Calera plant. The facility uses the tyres as an energy source under a circular economy model. The initiative is promoted by the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development to support environmental protection and proper waste management.