Plans to double the size of a major cement plant at Fernley should provide some breathing room for the region's building industry, construction executives said last week.
Dallas-based Eagle Materials Inc.
said it plans to expand and modernize the Nevada Cement plant at Fernley in a project that is scheduled for completion in the autumn of 2008.
When the expansion is complete, the Nevada Cement plant will have a capacity of 1.1 million tons of cement a year, Eagle Materials said.
The work also will dramatically reduce fuel and electricity consumption, the company said.
In the fast-growing markets of northern Nevada and northern California that are served by the plant,more capacity is welcomed by the construction industry.
"Demand has been pushing pretty close to supply," said Frank Cavalier, ready-mix manager for Granite Construction's Nevada operations." As more cement is available in the market, it's a good thing."
While supplies in the last season weren't as tight as in the summer of 2004 when builders found themselves with only an allocated supply Cavalier said careful scheduling still was necessary to keep concrete trucks rolling.
Still, about half the cement used on the West Coast is imported, said B.J.Sullivan, the president of Sparks-based Clark & Sullivan Constructors.
Competition for foreign supplies of cement, Sullivan noted, continues to remain strong as the Chinese economy booms.
"The expansion of that plant is really significant," Sullivan said."It's good for the local economy, and it's good for the western United States."
Expansion of the Fernley plant is likely to be all the more important as transportation costs continue to rise, said George Del Carlo of American Ready Mix, the president of the Sierra Nevada Concrete Association.
Both trucking and rail costs have risen, he noted, putting a premium on supplies that are nearby.
Most of the cement imports into the region, Del Carlo said, come through the Port of Stockton for delivery by truck or rail to northern Nevada.
Eagle Materials didn't break out its planned investment in the northern Nevada facility, but it said the combined price tag for the work at Fernley and a similar expansion of a cement plant at Laramie,Wyo.,will be $320 million.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Eagle Materials said reserves of limestone to feed the Fernley plant are sufficient to last 13 years, and it has deals in place to expand those supplies.
The Fernley plant, operated by Centex Construction Products until early 2004,was built in 1964.
With more than 100 employees, it's the 12th-largest private sector employer in Lyon County, according to the state Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation.
The company didn't say whether it expects to boost employment after the expansion is complete.
