Finally, some concrete results

PORTLAND — The Pacific Northwest can expect a big boost to its cement supply this fall.

Ash Grove Cement Co. has acquired a new import terminal facility from Goldendale Aluminum in Portland — a move, Ash Grove said, that will allow the company to increase its annual supply to the region by up to 800,000 tons of portland cement, the main ingredient in concrete.

Overland Park, Kan.-based Ash Grove is the only one of Portland’s four cement suppliers that does not currently import offshore cement to the Northwest.

Ash Grove has instead supplied Oregon and Idaho from its Durkee manufacturing plant in Eastern Oregon.

The Goldendale facility, scheduled to open in September, will allow Ash Grove to begin importing cement from manufacturers in China and India.

The facility is located on the Willamette River adjacent to Ash Grove’s current facility, which has storage capacity of 18,000 tons. The new facility brings capacity for Ash Grove’s Portland operation to 72,000 tons and increases its waterfront property to three-quarters of a mile.

“The Northwest and Rocky Mountain areas have been a very hot market in the last few years,” said Dave Baker, vice president of sales for Ash Grove in Portland. “As a result, we saw an opportunity here to buy this other terminal where we can import and supplement our supply to better serve the market.”

Ash Grove currently has five cement manufacturing plants in the Northwest and has expanded two of them in the past five years, increasing production to 900,000 tons from 500,000. The company has also begun construction on a new facility in Las Vegas but doesn’t expect production there to begin until 2009.

Construction industry demand for cement skyrocketed after hurricanes Rita and Katrina struck the Gulf Coast last year.

“In 2005, we had 32 areas (of the country) that ran short of cement at certain times of the year,” said Ken Simonson, chief economist with the Associated General Contractors of America. “With the demand for cement growing in 2006 and very little expansion of production, I think further supplies are limited.”

Cement prices will continue to increase in 2006, Simonson said in a January report on materials costs.

“The (Ash Grove) site will bring more cement into the Portland market and will help ease some of the shortfall,” said Rich Angstrom, president of the Oregon Concrete and Aggregate Producers Association.