Holcim (US) Inc. announced in November that its Portland plant in Florence, Colo., has, over the last six months, been producing product at the plant's annual design capacity of 1.7 million metric tons. The company expanded the plant more than three years ago to more than double the former facility's annual capacity of 770,000 mt due to growth projections in the Colorado market.

Holcim also announced that it had started a feasibility study to further increase production by an additional 300,000 mtpy. This will be done through a number of process improvements and the development of anew cement products. “The strength of this market certainly challenged us this year,” said Paul Harrington, senior vice president of the Holcim Mountain region. “Peak demand combined with a brief maintenance outage unfortunately required us to put customers on an allocation program for almost two months. I'm happy to say thoughthat our customers have been back to full supply since mid-October and it should stay that way through the end of 2005 and into 2006.”

Plant Manager Rob Davies added, “While we have more than doubled the plant's annual capacity, the energy and environmental efficiencies of the new facility have resulted in overall improvement. We will work with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to obtain all the necessary permits prior to further increasing the production capacity.”

Expanding the Portland plant followed other projects implemented by Holcim to increase cement and mineral components supply. A new business strategy that was implemented this year has moved many operations to a local structure, closer to the market, and has assigned local responsibility and accountability for business growth and performance.

Cement manufacturing has been continuous at the Portland site since 1898. Since its construction, there have been numerous upgrades to the original plant, with additional production facilities commissioned there in 1948 and 1974.