Growing demand spurs new plants

The Florida Materials Division is working to meet customers’ demands for block by building three new block-manufacturing plants around the state. The new plants will improve the division’s production capacity by approximately 19 million units a year. Located in Davenport, Ft. Pierce, and Jacksonville, the new plants will be much more cost efficient than most of the existing manufacturing facilities. A second production line is being added to the existing state-of-the-art facility at the Rinker Materials Davenport plant that opened just a year ago.

All of the new plants will be similar to the Florida Materials Division’s current plant in Davenport. All of the equipment in the new plants is custom built to Rinker Materials’ specifications. By standardising equipment, Rinker Materials is able to better support the plants with safety training, operator training, spare parts and maintenance expertise.

The first new plant to start production will be in Ft. Pierce, which should begin producing block this month. The new Davenport plant should begin production in May, followed by the new Jacksonville plant in September.

Coping with urban sprawl

Due to the accelerating development of the City of Tianjin, urban encroachment is becoming a real issue for commercial premises around the city. Rinker Materials Tianjin has not escaped this issue.

Rinker Materials’ Nankai concrete plant in Tianjin, close to the center of the city, was closed and pulled down in December and was reconstructed on a new site in the Hebei district of Tianjin.

The relocation project was implemented at an extremely rapid pace and was completed within 3 months with the team often working in minus zero degree winter weather to achieve the target recommissioning date.