Lafarge are a French industrial company that is a world leader in building materials and specialises in cement, concrete and construction aggregates. Their main headquarters are situated in Paris and have a presence in 61 countries.
Lafarge are a French industrial company that is a world leader in building materials and specialises in cement, concrete and construction aggregates. Their main headquarters are situated in Paris and have a presence in 61 countries.
Joseph-Auguste Pavin founded the business in 1833 in Le Teil to take advantage of a Limestone quarry that was located between Le Teil and Viviers. The limestone that came from this quarry was white and argillaceous and produced a particularly hydraulic lime.
1864 – Lafarge sign its first international contract and deliver 110,000 tonnes of lime to the construction project for the Suez Canal.
1980 – Lafarge join Coppee a Belgian coal, coke and fertizer company and become SA Lafarge Coppée.
Early 1987 – Lafarge purchase a plant off of the National Gypsum Company
1997 – Larfarge purchase Redland plc
1999 – Lafarge gains 100% shareholding in the second-largest cement manufacturer in Uganda Hima Cement Limited. After this they would go on to acquire Tata Steel’s cement activity and use this to enter the Indian Market.
2001 – Lafarge purchase the Raymond Cement facility and then go on to acquire Blue Circle Industries (BCI) which leads them to be the world leader in cement manufacturing.
2006 – Lafarge offer its North American shareholders $3 billion to take full control of the North American business, which they accept.
2007 – Lafarge rid themselves of their roofing division and sells it to a private equity group. Later on in the year Lafarge would purchase the Orascom Cement Group, an Egyptian-based cement producer from Orascom Construction Industries (OCI)
2008 – Lafarge spend $349 million for the acquisition of Larsen & Toubro Ready Mix-Concrete (RMC)
2010 – Lafarge makes an agreement with STRABAG and creates a common company in cement in the Central Europe region and strengthens its presence in Brazil.
2011 – Lafarge announces its plan to build a cement plant in Langkat, North Sumatra and Indonesia with investment of up to 5 trillion Indonesian Rupia ($585 million). The company also launches 3 plants in Syria, Nigeria and Hungary and creates a joint venture with the company Anglo American in the UK and sells most of its South American, Asian, European and Australian gypsum operations.
2013 – Lafarge adopts a new motto “Building Better Cities” to reflect the groups objective of contributing to improving cities with innovative development of construction products, systems and solutions addressing key challenges of urbanisation:
- contribute to more connected cities
- contribute to more housing in cities
- contribute to more durable cities
- contribute to more compact cities
- contribute to more beautiful cities