AggBeat

December 2007

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by , Senior Editor

Shelley Materials Open House a ‘Blast’

Shelly Materials Co.’s Ostrander Quarry hosted a public open house in late August, with more than 550 neighbors, customers, and employees in attendance, during which the company set off a blast that provided the operation with more than 15,000 tons of shot rock.

Shelley Materials Co.’s Ostrander Quarry set off a blast at its Aug. 25 open house so attendees would better understand what a blast entails. The blast provided the operation with about 15,000 tons of shot rock.

The company says it set off the blast during the open house to show what is entailed in the procedure to help attendees better understand the process. Other activities included bus trips into the quarry, booths set up by Shelly Materials, Ohio Geological Survey, Dyno Nobel, and Sauls Seismic, as well as obstacle courses, equipment displays, and rock painting.

The Ostrander Quarry produces more than 1,500,000 tons per year of limestone with No. 304 and No. 57 as the operation’s primary products.

Vulcan Christens Third Vessel for Yucatán Operation

Birmingham, Ala.-based Vulcan Materials Co. christened its third ship — the M/V H.A. Sklenar — in early October at the company’s Blakely Island sales yard located in Alabama’s Port of Mobile.

The ship is a Panamax class self-unloading vessel, the third that Vulcan operates and owns of this type, that will be used to transport increased production from Vulcan’s Yucatán Quarry.

The Sklenar and its sister vessels, the M/V W.H. Blount and the M/V Bernardo Quintana, are used to transport limestone aggregates from Vulcan’s Sac Tun quarry on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula to markets along the U.S. Gulf Coast, the east coast of Florida, and the Caribbean.

Vulcan acquired and converted the Sklenar to transport an additional volume of aggregates being produced from a major expansion and upgrade of the company’s processing facility in Mexico. The increased production and transportation capacity will allow Vulcan to meet strong market growth and demand for construction materials along the U.S. Gulf Coast and the east coast of Florida.

The plant expansion increased annual production capacity at the quarry from about 9 million tons to about 12 million tons. The new ship, which is named after Vulcan former Chairman and CEO Herb Sklenar, increases annual shipping capacity by more than 3 million tons. 

Randall-Reilly buys Aggregates Manager, Better Roads magazines

Tuscaloosa, Ala.-based Randall-Reilly Publishing Co., the nation’s leading business-to-business media company serving the transportation and construction markets,  acquired Aggregates Manager and its sister publication, Better Roads, from Des Plaines, Ill.-based James Informational Media Inc. The acquisition was publicly announced on Nov. 5.

“These acquisitions are a natural fit for our Construction Media Group,” says Mike Reilly, president and CEO of Randall-Reilly Publishing. “Better Roads  has distinguished itself as the leading magazine for highway professionals for 76 years, and Aggregates Manager is the voice of operations pros in the aggregates field,” he says.

Randall-Reilly’s other construction properties include Equipment World and Total Landscape Care magazines, EquipmentWorld.com, the Top Bid and TopBid.com used-equipment reference guides and Equipment Data Associates, the industry’s most complete source of equipment ownership data.

Randall-Reilly inherits an accomplished management team, including James’ four co-partners, Editorial Director Kirk Landers, Publisher Mike Porcaro, and Managing Partners James Moriarty and James Morrissey.

“I’ve known the James partners as fellow construction industry association members as well as competitors for years,” says Dan Tidwell, vice president and group publisher of Randall-Reilly’s Construction Media Group. “Being on the same team with these gentlemen is a partnership one can only dream of — but now it’s a reality.”

Tidwell also points out that the acquisition brings together some of the top editorial talent in the construction industry: Marcia Gruver, Equipment World’s editorial director, James’ Editorial Director Kirk Landers, who served as chief editor of Construction Equipment magazine for several years, and Randall-Reilly’s Vice President of Editorial Linda Longton, who previously served as editor of Equipment Today magazine.

From James’ perspective, the goal of the sale was to take the magazines to the next level, Porcaro says. “We chose Randall-Reilly after evaluating everyone in the market and felt we could serve our industries even better from within the Randall-Reilly group,” he says.

Reilly says of Better Roads and Aggregates Manager: “We’re ready to take these magazines to new heights. With the need to build and maintain North America’s highways and bridges reaching critical levels, and the subsequent need for aggregate in those markets and others, we’re poised for the magazines to continue their upward trend,” he says.”

Founded in 1934, Randall-Reilly Publishing is the premier business-to-business media company focused on the trucking, construction, and industrial markets. The company’s construction division covers the highway and heavy construction, landscaping, aggregates, and used-equipment markets.

Randall-Reilly’s trucking division serves the fleet, owner-operator, recruitment, truck stop, used truck and trailer, dealer and heavy-duty aftermarket segments.

The company also operates a company-sponsored publication division serving Fortune 500 companies and a UCC-filing database and research group. Randall-Reilly has offices in Tuscaloosa, Ala.; Atlanta; Chicago; Charlotte, N.C.; and New Berlin, Wis.

Producers, Manufacturers Gather for Training

Dyno Nobel and Sandvik Mining and Construction held a joint three-day Quarry Academy Oct. 2-4 at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colo., as an intensive training on all the major topics within the aggregates industry. This was the second official Quarry Academy.

Topics covered in the academy, which was attended by Aggregates Manager, included the following: drilling and blasting; crushing, including feed arrangements and cone dynamics and yield; mine planning; loading and hauling; fleet management; screening; safety; and several case studies. The courses were structured to help individuals understand the basics of aggregates operations, including process improvement — using daily work and behavior — to achieve economic efficiency.

Attendees of the academy also earned continuing education credits for their participation.

Mergers & Acquisitions

One significant acquisition that has recently taken place in the construction materials industry occurred on Oct. 12, 2007, when Carmeuse North America, a wholly owned subsidiary of Belgian-based Carmeuse Group, announced an agreement that it would acquire Oglebay Norton Co. The cash purchase price per share of $36 represented a 5.1-percent premium to the prior day’s closing price, and an approximate 16-percent premium to a previous offer of $31 per share made by private-equity firm Harbinger Capital Partners.

While the Special Committee of Oglebay Norton’s Board of Directors has approved the agreement, certain conditions remain that would allow a more favorable offer from another competing party. For example, Harbinger, which currently owns approximately 18 percent of Oglebay, could presumably make a higher offer for the business. Regardless, the current offer by Carmeuse places an approximate $520 million valuation on Oglebay, representing an approximate 9.5x trailing 12-month Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) multiple (through June 2007) for the company. The combination of the businesses will create one of the leading lime producers in North America, as well as a leading supplier of other chemical limestone and industrial filler products.

 — by Bill Watkins, managing director, National City Capital Markets. Watkins is a contributing editor and may be reached at 216-222-7134 or at William.Watkins@NationalCity.com .

St. Lawrence Cement Under Reorganization

St. Lawrence Cement on Oct. 3 announced the transfer of its Northeast U.S. assets to Holcim (US) Ltd. and the reorganization of its corporate administrative and information technology services, effective Jan.1, 2008.

The decision affects approximately 80 employees at the corporate head office but does not impact the regional headquarters in Longueuil and other Quebec operations, which employ more than 1,000 people.

All corporate administrative functions will be integrated with the existing offices of the regional headquarters in Concord, Ontario. The move enables St. Lawrence Cement to consolidate corporate administrative services and the majority of its executive team in one location.

St. Lawrence Cement says that once the reorganization is complete, it will offer some of the affected employees the opportunity to transfer to Concord. Other employees will be offered professional assistance services to help them find a new position as quickly as possible, the company says.