CRH Concrete wants to grow through acquisitions

A six-year price war in the Danish concrete industry has finally resulted in the players cutting capacity, reports Børsen.

A possible upturn in the construction sector is said to have been unable to offset the surplus capacity in the concrete sector. Two of the six biggest players in the

Danish concrete sector, H+H International and Ambercom, a family-owned producer of concrete panels, reported losses in 2013 and the other four: CRH Concrete, Spæncom, Boligbeton, and Confac and Romodan posted a profi

CRH, the Irish construction materials giant, has announced the co-option to its board of Lucinda Riches as a non-executive director. Ms Riches, 53, a British citizen, is a non-executive director of UK Financial Investments Limited, which manages the UK Government’s investments in financial institutions. She is a non-executive director of Diverse Income Trust, Graphite Enterprise Trust, the British Standards Institution and a non-executive member of the partnership board of King & Wood Mallesons. She is a

The Oyak Group, which has various cement interests Turkey, is looking into acquisition opportunities in the cement sector.

It is focusing on Europe (specifically the UK) and Africa, according to its cement group chairman Celalettin Caglar.

Caglar said that the group was also interested in acquisition opportunities that could arise from the merger of Holcim of Switzerland and France's Lafarge.

Lafarge has said two-thirds of divestments as a result of the deal with Holcim are expected to affect Weste

Market players report that two concrete manufacturers, Lujabeton and Betomix LO, will merge in the nearest future.

Lujabeton is a subsidiary of Finland's Luja, whose annual turnover totals approximately €500 million and Betomix LO is a division of Finland's Rudus, which has over €300 million turnover and belongs to Ireland's CRH Group.

The rumoured merger will allow the companies to occupy 5% of the St Petersburg and the Leningrad region market. Some experts think that both businesses will remain, but

Turkish cement company Oyak Cimento, part of conglomerate Oyak, has applied to the Competition Board (RK) to acquire fellow company Denizli Cimento.

Denizli Cimento is owned by CRH Group of Ireland and Turkish firm Eren Grubu.

An announcement was made in August 2014 to state that Turkish conglomerates Limak Holding and Sabanci Holding were also interested in the acquisition.