Lafarge

Company history

1833 is a historical date for the entire world construction community. It is this year France that the first production of Lafarge is launched in the south-eastern part.

In 1864, the company signed its first international contract to supply 110,000 tons of cement for the construction of the Suez Canal. Already by 1914 Lafarge had cement factories in all parts of France. At this time, the company becomes the leader in cement production in the country's domestic market.

In 1926 Lafarge opened the first factory outside France in the United Kingdom. Great Britain

A new page in Lafarge's history opens in the 1950s. For several years, Lafarge has developed from the status of the main national manufacturer to the rank of number one in the world in the construction materials market.

In 1956, Lafarge opened the first cement plant in Canada (North America).

By the end of the 1960s, Lafarge in Canada became the third largest cement producer in the region, with a production capacity of 900,000 tons of cement per year.

In 1980, after the merger of Lafarge (in Canada) and American Coppee, the formed Lafarge Coppee group became the leading cement producer in North America.

Since 1982, Lafarge has been doing a lot of work to expand production in Europe. First, Lafarge acquires an 83% stake in the German manufacturer Portland Zementwerk, then assets in the Swiss company Cementia, Asland (Spain), Aslan (Turkey) and Perlmooser (Austria).

In the 1990s, it developed its presence in Eastern Europe: East Germany, the Czech Republic, then Poland, Romania, Russia and Ukraine.

In 1994, Lafarge takes a foothold in the Asian region and opens its offices in China, Indonesia, the Philippines, India and South Korea.

In 2002, the Gypsum branch of Lafarge acquired Gyproc (branches of British PlasterBoard) in Germany, Poland and Central Europe.

In 2004, Lafarge Group acquired the Ecuadorian cement company Selva Alegre and Hupfer assets with operations in France and Switzerland.

2022: $778 million fine for bribes to terrorists

On October 18, 2022 the French , Lafarge, a major manufacturer of construction materials, pleaded guilty to transferring money to terrorist organizations. Under the terms of the agreement Ministry of Justice USA with Lafarge, he will pay a fine of $777.78 million.

The process is related to the activities of the Syrian unit Lafarge Cement Syria (LCS). The investigation established that Lafarge, which has been part of the Holcim group since 2015, transferred money to the ISIS group (banned in the Russian Federation) and other terrorist structures in exchange for the possibility of the LCS cement production plant. The amount of payments between August 2013 and October 2014 amounted to approximately $10.24 million.

French cement maker Lafarge fined $778 million for bribes to terrorists

{{quote 'At the height of the Civil War, Lafarge made an unthinkable choice by putting the money in the hands of one of the most barbaric terrorist organizations in the world in exchange for the ability to sell cement, US Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement. }} In an official statement, Holcim notes that it voluntarily conducted a large-scale investigation into Lafarge's activities under the leadership of a large American law firm and under the control of the board of directors.

{{quote 'Lafarge SA and LCS took responsibility for the actions of individual executives whose conduct was a gross violation of the company's code of conduct. We deeply regret this behavior and are working with the US Department of Justice to resolve the issue, the published document says. }} During the investigation, as the Ministry of Justice emphasizes, it was not revealed that any of the persons involved in the actions of the LCS shared or supported the methods, goals or ideology of terrorist groups. And therefore, individual charges have not yet been brought against anyone. Nevertheless, the investigation is still ongoing, which means it is too early to put an end to the matter.^[1]

Currently

French company Lafarge is the world's largest manufacturer of building materials. The company's enterprises are located in 76 countries of the world. The number of personnel is more than 80 thousand people. The company's revenue in 2006 amounted to 16.9 billion euros, in 2005-16 billion euros.

Lafarge's net income in the first quarter of 2007 was 362 million euros ($493 million), a 6% increase compared to the same period in 2006.

The company's products

• CEMENT (sales: €7.595 million; 40,067 employed)

The company sells cement in the assortment, hydraulic binder mixtures and lime for construction, repair and public construction facilities.

Sales by Region: North America: €1.553 million, Western Europe: €2.273 million, Asia Pacific: €1.117 million, Rest of World: €2.652 million.

• FILLERS AND CONCRETE (Sales: EUR 5.377 million; 21,339 employees)

The company sells fillers, commercial concrete mixture, ready-made concrete and bitumen coatings for builders of engineering structures, roads and buildings.

Sales by Region: North America: €2.496 million, Western Europe: €2.160 million, Rest of World: €721 million.

• ROOFING MATERIALS (Sales: EUR 1.514 million; 11,512 employees)

The roofing plant implements high-quality roofing solutions: concrete, ceramic and roofing tiles, roofing elements and exhaust systems.

Sales by region: Western Europe excluding Germany: EUR 756 million, Germany: EUR 329 million, Rest of the World: EUR 429 million.

• GIPS (sales: 1.462 million euros; 6.068 employees)

The gypsum company sells gypsum board systems, gypsum blocks and plaster for construction finishing work, during new construction and for repair.

Sales by Region: North America: €331 million, Western Europe: €751 million, Rest of World: €380 million.

In Russia and the CIS

In 1996, the Lafarge group began to develop business in the market of the countries of the former USSR. In 1996, Lafarge acquired the largest stake in OJSC Voskresenskcement (Moscow region, 87.5% of shares), OJSC Voskresensky Cement Plant, OJSC Afanasyevsky Quarry. The total production capacity of these enterprises is 2.5 million tons of cement. In 1998, the Voskresensky Cement Plant OJSC, Voskresenskcement OJSC and Afanasyevsky Quarry OJSC merged, which leads to the creation of a single complex that allows regulating the interaction between product production and raw material production. Lafarge managed to stabilize production at 1.2 million tons, which is 60% of production capacity utilization (while in the Russian Federation as a whole, the capacity utilization rate in the cement industry is less than 40%).

Also in Russia she owns the Uralcement plant (Chelyabinsk region, 92% of the shares).

According to the latest data, Lafarge plans to build a cement plant in the Kaluga region, the project cost will be more than 230 million euros.

In 1999, Lafarge acquired a controlling stake in Nikolaevcement (Lviv region), the largest cement producer in Ukraine. Today, the company owns 3 enterprises in Ukraine: Lafarge Gips CJSC, Klesovsky Quarry of Non-Metallic Minerals Technobud LLC, Lafarge Roofing Systems LLC.

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