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Two cement plants near Tehachapi will have the same owner sometime next year if a deal announced by Martin Marietta last month goes through.
Martin Marietta became the fifth owner of the cement plant just east of the city of Tehachapi last year, finalizing a deal with Lehigh Hanson Inc., to acquire its West Region business for $2.3 billion in cash on Oct. 1. This included the Tehachapi plant once known as Monolith Portland Cement Company. Lehigh purchased the plant in 1995.
According to reports in trade publications, by March of this year, Martin Marietta had entered an agreement to sell some of those assets — including a cement plant in Redding — to CalPortland. And on Aug. 9, the company announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell the Tehachapi cement plant and related distribution terminals to CalPortland for $350 million in cash.
CalPortland’s Mojave cement plant is about 15 miles southeast of the Tehachapi plant.
Taiheiyo Cement, a Japanese company, confirmed the agreement with an announcement that its consolidated subsidiary, CalPortland Company — headquartered in Jurupa — will acquire the Tehachapi plant and two related cement-distribution terminals.
According to Taiheiyo’s new release, the acquisition will enable CalPortland to meet the growing demand for cement in the Western United States.
Of interest locally, the company said the acquisition will further reduce carbon dioxide emissions intensity at the Tehachapi plant by improving plant facility management, increasing the plant’s operating rate and further converting production to blended cement.
“As a result, we expect steady growth in revenue and profits for the Taiheiyo Cement Group’s U.S. cement business, which in turn will contribute to the achievement of the medium-term management plan from fiscal years 2022 to 2024,” the company said in a statement.
The deal is expected to close early next year, subject to completion of regulatory review.
Martin Marietta’s exit would reduce the number of cement manufacturing companies in California from five to four.
According to a January report from the U.S. Geological Survey, California is the third-largest cement-producing state in the country, after Texas and Missouri. The leading cement-consuming states are Texas, California and Florida, in that order.
Air quality
Air quality is among environmental concerns related to cement plants. The Tehachapi and Mojave operations are two of three cement plants within the Eastern Kern Air Pollution Control District. The third is National Cement in Lebec. Along with mines in Mojave and Boron, military bases at Edwards and China Lake and sanitary landfills in Mojave, Ridgecrest and Tehachapi, the three cement plants are among 10 entities within the district that are subject to requirements of Title V of the Federal Clean Air Act. Title V requires operating permits for certain sources emitting regulated air pollutants.
In December 2019 — when the Tehachapi plant was still owned by Lehigh — the United States Environmental Protection Agency announced a settlement with the company in which it and a related company agreed to invest about $12 million in pollution control technology at 11 portland cement-manufacturing plants in eight states to resolve alleged violations of the Clean Air Act. The Tehachapi plant was included in that settlement.
And in December 2011, the EPA and Department of Justice announced that CalPortland had agreed to pay a $1.425 million penalty to resolve alleged violations of the Clean Air Act at its Mojave plant. The company also agreed to spend about $1.3 million on pollution controls to reduce harmful emissions of nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides, pollutants that the EPA said can lead to childhood asthma and smog.
In addition to its investment in pollution control, the Tehachapi plant won Energy Star certification from the EPA in 2018 (while owned by Lehigh). And at its Mojave plant, CalPortland was recognized for outstanding environmental and community relations efforts by the Portland Cement Association, winning an award for energy efficiency. CalPortland has also won Energy Star certification at least 16 times, most recently in 2020. The Mojave plant is powered partly by wind energy.
In April, CalPortland announced that it will reduce its carbon emissions by 10 percent on a per ton basis by converting the plant to a blended portland-limestone cement. According to a statement from the company at the time, “this equates to removing 25,411 gasoline-powered vehicles off the road for one year.”
An industry report published in 2019 in response to criticism from the Sierra Club said “the California cement industry is subject to some of the most stringent local, state, and federal regulations in the world with respect to toxic and criteria air emissions (e.g., mercury, particulate matter, NOx, SO2). Furthermore, if California does not source its cement locally then it will most likely import it from distant locations, particularly China, which will result in additional transportation-related emissions that are likely to outweigh any insignificant differences in production-related emissions.”
CalPortland air district permit
Earlier this year, CalPortland requested a permit from the Eastern Kern Air Pollution Control District to increase its current carbon monoxide (CO) emission limit at its Mojave Cement Plant.
Copies of the application, the district’s analysis and related information is available online at kernair.org. Oct. 10 is the deadline for written public comments.
According to Tina McIntyre, vice president marketing for CalPortland, the Mojave plant will not modify or install additional equipment as part of the permit request.
“Instead,” she said in an email, the plant “is requesting an increase to the current CO emission limit to better optimize operation of the current process.”
She said the plan is asking “to increase the CO emission limit to a value consistent with current Best Available Control Technology requirements for the industry to ensure CalPortland operates the cement kiln in a manner that improves clinker product quality and allows operational flexibility.”
McIntyre noted that CalPortland is not requesting an increase to any additional emission limits.
And she said the increase in the CO emission limit “will result in an improvement of consistent clinker quality and potentially decrease actual NOx (nitrogen dioxide) emissions.”
She added that prior to requesting the proposed increase to the CO emission limit, CalPortland worked in conjunction with third-party air quality technical consultants and Eastern Kern Air Pollution Control District to ensure the increase requested is in line with the requirements outlined by the air district.
History
Both the Tehachapi and Mojave cement plants produce portland cement — a powdery product used to make concrete. The cement was developed in England and named for the resultant product’s resemblance to a building stone from the isle of Portland off the British coast.
The companies have provided local employment for decades.
CalPortland was established as California Portland Cement Company in 1891 and its original cement plant in Colton is believed to have been the first portland cement plant in California. The Mojave plant, built around 1956, was its third plant. Although the Colton plant later closed, the company has plants in Arizona and California and additional operations in Oregon and Washington.
The city of Los Angeles built the cement plant east of Tehachapi in 1906 and operated it until 1914. The plant’s purpose was to make cement for construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct and the adjacent company town was called Aqueduct but renamed Monolith in 1910. In 1920, U.S. Potash Co. leased the plant from the city and in 1921 a company called Monolith Portland Cement Company was formed to buy and operate the plant. One of the organizers, Coy Burnett, bought out his partners to become president and owner in 1923 and remained in that role until 1970. In 1989, Calaveras Cement Company bought the plant. In 1995, Lehigh Cement Company, through parent Heidelberg Cement Group, bought Calaveras Cement Company and took over operations in Tehachapi. In 2002 the company was renamed Lehigh Southwest Cement Company. Lehigh sold to Martin Marietta in a deal that closed in October 2021.
Claudia Elliott is a freelance journalist and former editor of the Tehachapi News. She lives in Tehachapi and can be reached by email: claudia@claudiaelliott.net.
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