HeidelbergCement

HeidelbergCement AG

Type	Aktiengesellschaft
Traded as	FWB: HEI BSE: 500292 NSE: HEIDELBERG
Industry	Building materials
Founded	1874
Headquarters	Heidelberg, Germany
Key people	Bernd Scheifele (CEO and chairman of the managing board), Fritz-Jürgen Heckmann (Chairman of the supervisory board)
Products	Cement, aggregates, concrete, asphalt
Revenue	€m 13,465 (2015)
Operating income	€m 1,846 (2015)
Profit	€m 800 (2015)
Total assets	€m 28,374 (2015)
Total equity	€m 15,976 (2015)
Number of employees	45,453 (2015)
Website	www.heidelbergcement.com

HeidelbergCement is a German multinational building materials company headquartered in Heidelberg, Germany. It is a DAX 30 Corporation. In 2010, it was the world's third largest cement producer, the market leader in aggregates and fourth in ready-mix concrete. In 2010 the company produced around 78 million tonnes of cement. The company employs some 45,453 people at 2,500 locations in more than 40 countries with an annual turnover of approximately €13 billion.

History

HeidelbergCement factories around the world

The company was founded on 5 June 1874 by Johann Philipp Schifferdecker, at Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It was making 80,000 tonnes per annum of Portland cement in 1896. Numerous other small companies were taken over from 1914 onwards, and by 1936 it was making one million tonnes per annum. Activities abroad began with the acquisition of part of Vicat Cement, France. Shipments reached 8.3 million tonnes in 1972. In 1977, a massive program of purchases in North America began with the acquisition of Lehigh Cement. In 1990, expansion in eastern Europe began. In 1993, it acquired part of SA Cimenteries CBR of Belgium, which already had a major multinational operation. Since then it has continued to expand, with complete buy-out of CBR, and purchases in eastern Europe and Asia. A major step was the acquisition of Scancem in 1999, with operations in Northern Europe as well as Africa. Indocement in Indonesia was included in 2001. In 2007, the British company Hanson was acquired, a transaction worth £7.85 billion (US$15,8 billion), which gave the company a stronger market position in UK and US, and turned HeidelbergCement into the world's leading producer of aggregates.

HeidelbergCement plant in Schelklingen, Germany

HeidelbergCement has (2010) 29 cement and grinding plants in Western and Northern Europe, 19 in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, 16 cement plants in North America, 14 in Africa and the Mediterranean Basin. The company sold Maxit Group and its 35% share in Vicat Cement to help finance its acquisition of Hanson plc in August 2007. In most of the Group’s European countries, HeidelbergCement is the market leader in the cement business.

Adolf Merckle was a big investor in HeidelbergCement . A capital increase in HeidelbergCement in September 2009, combined with a selling of shares from the Merckle family, opened up for other international owners and higher trading volumes on the stock exchanges.

In 2006, HeidelbergCement AG entered the Indian cement market with the acquisition of Mysore Cement.

Controversial activities in the West Bank

In Israeli-occupied West Bank HeidelbergCement's wholly owned subsidiary Hanson Israel manufactures ready-made cement, aggregates and asphalt for Israel’s construction industry. In March 2009, the Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din filed a petition with the Israeli high court demanding a halt to mining activity in West Bank quarries, including Hanson Israel's Nahal Raba quarry. According to research of the ARD magazine "Panorama" on 2 September 2010 and the ARD Studios Tel Aviv the minerals produced are brought to Israel without benefit the Palestinians communities. Palestinians from the village of az-Zawiya in the immediate vicinity of the quarry lay claim to the land. The Israeli Supreme Court rejected the petition from Yesh Din in December 2011.

See also

Main HeidelbergCement competitors are:

• LafargeHolcim
• Cemex

External links

• {{Official website|[1]