Holcim to shut down Dundee cement plant

11/13/2008

DUNDEE Holcim Ltd., the Swiss owner of the former Dundee Cement plant, announced yesterday that it intends to shutter the facility by the middle of next year because of declining cement sales.

About 40 employees of the plant will lose their jobs within the next 90 days as the plant shuts down one of its two cement kilns. The remaining 125 employees are to be laid off by mid-2009 when the second kiln is shut down, company officials announced.

An additional 170 employees in Holcim s adjacent corporate offices are unaffected, a company spokesman said.

At one point, the plant, which is 50 years old, had about 200 employees and produced about 1.1 million tons of cement annually. It is one of 14 plants operated in the United States by Holcim.