Setting aside metro-New York and its unique concrete, aggregate and cement supplier profile, Chicago was the last major U.S. market to draw significant investment from integrated, multinational producers. Three now have sizable stakes, as a fourth eyes a corporate beachhead a stone’s throw from Lake Michigan.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Miami, can tend to more pressing matters than In Re Florida Cement and Concrete Antitrust Litigation, a case of alleged producer price-fixing and market allocation originally scheduled for jury trial this month. Taxpayers will be spared the expense, while court staff and jurors are relieved of discovering a recurring obstacle in 25 months of case proceedings: Insufficient evidence to support alleged illegal behavior among Sunshine State producers with integrated cement and ready mixed businesses.
Plaintiffs alleging a price-fixing and market-allocation conspiracy among four major Florida ready mixed producers began the new year with a court order detouring the hospitable path they sought to injunctive relief and damages.
Read more: Florida Antitrust plaintiffs watch sun set on their class action quest
The European parent companies of two global admixture producers announced equity stakes in ventures aiming to partially or fully displace portland cement in concrete. Both upstarts offer investors claim of proactive measures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by lowering demand for a product of carbon-intensive processes.
Read more: Look who’s backing low-carbon alternatives to portland cement
Everyone has the same question, “When is this economy going to get better?” The answer is it will not come back in the near future. So what do you do?
