Ash Grove Cement at Tail End of Expansion Mode in Kansas

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). In July of 2001, Ash Grove Cement Company (Overland Park, Kansas) started up a new cement plant in Chanute, Kansas (PEC 33000359, Plant 1521058). Constructed to replace an existing wet process plant, the new 1.5 million tons per year capacity plant produced about 1.3 million tons in 2003. Production could potentially increase to full capacity in 2004, as the company completed a $20 million grinding mill addition (PEC 33000658), during the summer of 2003, bringing the total number of finishing mills up to four, and debottlenecking finishing capacity, allowing the plant to finish/grind up to 1.5 million tons per year of cement.

For 2004, the company is concentrating on the addition of a $6 million cement storage dome at the Chanute plant. Engineering should be about complete on the project and construction is scheduled to begin this spring, with a winter construction completion schedule.

In 2003, Ash Grove purchased the remaining 50% ownership of North Texas Cement Company that it didn't already own from Hanson PLC, giving it full ownership of a 900,000 ton per year cement plant in Midlothian, Texas. The Chanute expansion and the Hanson acquisition give Ash Grove Cement over 7.5 million tons of annual cement capacity in the U.S, solidifying its position as the largest American owned cement producer in the country. Ash Grove is the fifth largest cement manufacturer in the U.S. behind, Lafarge North America, Holcim, Cemex, and Buzzi Unicem.

Ash Grove Cement Company, headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas, operates cement and lime plants in nine states across the country.