Board receives tour of upgraded US plant
The board of directors for Grupo Argos, our parent company, visited the cement operations at our Martinsburg Plant this week. During their first visit to the Martinsburg Plant, the board of directors learned more about the U.S. operations, economy our vision for the future, and they received a tour of the plant.
Built on decades of history, the Martinsburg Plant, which sits on more than 1,000 acres, began in 1898 as a stone quarrying operation that eventually evolved into limestone and aggregates, and it was not until the 1920s that the manufacturing of Portland cement began. In the 1950s, underground quarrying ceased, and production turned exclusively to cement. At that time, operations expanded with enhanced equipment including two wet-process kilns, and a third was added in the 1960s. In its final years of operation, the annual capacity stood at about 0.6 million metric tonnes per year (MT/yr) of clinker or 0.65 MT/yr of cement.
In 2010, the Martinsburg Plant completed a massive overhaul of the plant when it was switched from three wet-process kilns to a single dry-process line. Now 38 percent more energy efficient than the median of the U.S. industry, the upgrade increased the plant’s clinker production capacity from around 0.6 MT/yr to 1.6 MT/yr. The Martinsburg Plant’s cement grinding capacity is 2.2 MT/yr, which allows for significant growth opportunity, specifically for specialty products.
With its state-of-the-art operations, the Martinsburg Plant is ideally situated to economically and efficiently serve a large market through a vast logistics network. In addition to dispatching cement by truck, the plant has a rail link that gives it access to two different rail lines.
The production capability of the Argos Martinsburg Plant enhances our integrated logistics network and allows Argos to better serve its customers by leveraging its value proposition.
