Displaying items by tag: Missouri

US: Mississippi Lime has declared a force majeure event due to flooding by the Mississippi River caused by ‘significant’ precipitation in the central US. The flooding has impacted the lime producer’s distribution and supply capabilities. This is expected to cause delays in supplying products to customers and will incur additional costs that it will pass through as a surcharge. The company added that, despite this, the flooding has not affected production.

Flooding on the Mississippi River forced the closure of Mississippi Lime’s barge loading facilities in early May 2019 and an alternate barge loading facility later in the month. The company does not anticipate re-opening its facility until the flood waters recede to a safe level, possibly in late June 2019. In the meantime the closure of flood gates near the company’s Ste Genevieve, Missouri unit has forced the company to use an alternate rail route with reduced shipment capacity, additional transit time and higher cost for both inbound and outbound shipments. Mississippi Lime anticipates resuming rail shipments in late June 2019, depending on weather conditions.

US: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded Energy Star certification to Buzzi Unicem USA’s plants at Chattanooga in Tennessee, Festus in Missouri, Maryneal in Texas and San Antonio in Texas. This certification is awarded to a facility for superior energy performance in comparison to similar plants. This marks the 10th consecutive year that the Chattanooga, Festus and Maryneal plants have received certification and the fifth consecutive year for the San Antonio plant.

US: Apparent cement consumption grew by 3% year-on-year to 100Mt in 2018 from 97.4Mt in 2017, according to estimates from the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Production of Ordinary Portland Cement and masonry cement rose by 2% to 87.8Mt from 86.1Mt. Imports of cement increased by 14% to 14Mt from 12.3Mt. Texas, California, Missouri, Florida, and Alabama were, in descending order of production, the five leading cement-producing states and accounted for nearly 50% of US production.

The USGS said that construction spending increased ‘modestly’ during the year, largely owing to somewhat higher spending in the residential and public construction sectors. The non-residential private building sector declined slightly. The leading cement-consuming states continued to be Texas, California, and Florida. Production of cement remained below capacity, in part reflecting both the technical and environmental issues in returning long-idle kilns to full production at some plants, and the availability of imported cement in coastal markets.

US: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded its Energy Star certification to four of Buzzi Unicem’s cement plants. Plants at Chattanooga in Tennessee, Festus in Missouri, Maryneal in Texas and San Antonio in Texas have all received the certification. It is awarded to cement plants that score 75 or above on the Energy Performance Indicator (EPI), used by the EPA to measure energy efficiency. In addition, the plant must have a three-year history of environmental compliance. The Chattanooga, Festus, and Maryneal plants have received the certification eight consecutive years in a row.