Italcementi join Blue Circle in e-cement venture
ITALCEMENTI, Italy's largest cement manufacturers and owners of France's second-largest cement producers, Ciments Francais, have paid £3 million for a 37.5% stake in e-cement.com, an internet-based business-to-business (b2b) procurement and cement trading exchange, making them equal partners with Blue Circle Industries.
Just2clicks, who launched the joint venture with Blue Circle in March 2000, will now hold 25%.
The e-cement.com trading exchange is said to be the first truly global and transparent marketplace for the procurement and sales of plant, parts, bulk materials and related products for the cement industry. It aims to provide reduced procurement and transaction costs for customers and suppliers, and increased buying power for independent purchasers.
Italcementi have just completed the sector's first multi-million pound supply, services and plant on-line auction through e-cement.com.
'Using e-cement.com allowed us to get the best possible equipment and services at the best possible price; it saved us more time and money than we thought possible by traditional methods,' said managing director Carlo Pesenti.
Chris Shelley, managing director of e-cement.com, said: 'The first turnkey auction for Italcementi has proved the value of our b2b services, which will be particularly useful in the fast-moving emerging markets.
'We will continue to target e-cement.com at the cement market and will also be broadening our services and targeting those sectors that are linked closely with our own, such as mining and quarrying, as well as the wider heavy building materials industry.'
