Heidelberg Materials

HeidelbergCement (FWB: HEIG) is a German cement and building materials company. It is currently (as of 2007) the worlds fourth largest cement producer and the market leader in aggregates. I n 2006 the company produced around 80 million tonnes of cement. The company employs some 65,000 people at 2,700 locations in 50 countries with an annual turnover of approximately EUR 15 billion. The company was founded on 5 June 1874 by Johann Philipp Schifferdecker, at Heidelberg, Baden-Wurttemberg, 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 Ci...