CEMEX UK – Screed & Mortar Division

With a strong commitment to delivering excellent support and innovative solutions, the CEMEX UK Screed & Mortar Division maintains an extensive range of screed products, covering a wide variety of applications
Solid results

With a global portfolio of leading concrete operating divisions, CEMEX represents a multinational building materials company headquartered in Monterrey, Mexico, with several subsidiaries situated around the world. Within the UK CEMEX currently generates annual sales valued at circa £775 million and delivers products and solutions ranging from ready-mixed concrete, cement and aggregates to the installation of asphalt materials, manufacture of concrete block paving, rail products, bespoke pre-cast, concrete building blocks and bricks.

This portfolio of products includes expert screed and mortar solutions, which offer increased design flexibility in both wet and dry applications. “The CEMEX Screed & Mortar Division is split into two operating units, which are comprised of a dry product division and a wet ready-mixed range. These two divisions technically sit as two different parts of the wider CEMEX business, which are each managed by the same commercial team,” elaborates Adam Leverett, Sales Manager London & Southern, Screed & Mortars. “The company’s dry products are comprised of Dry Mortar Solutions for bricklayers and Specialist Silo Solutions for Tunnelling and Civil Engineering Contractors, while the wet side of the business is focused on ready-mix products that are distributed from CEMEX concrete plants.”

CEMEX entered into the UK market for dry mortar products in 2002, through the establishment of its plant located at its Dove Holes quarry in Derbyshire. This plant allowed the company to provide dry mortar products between North Yorkshire and the Midlands, while in 2003 CEMEX further established a dry mortar facility at the Network Rail station yard in Bletchley, Milton Keynes. This plant also acted as a dedicated holding facility and allowed the company to move products by rail and to subsequently reach clients further south across the UK. This expansion was strengthened in 2007 through the opening of a sister plant to the Dove Holes site, which was opened in Braintree in Essex. These sites are each operated in accordance to strict CEMEX code of ethics, which established the company’s ground rules for operating responsibly with full consideration to the areas of sustainability, health and safety and the environment.

“All of our businesses are fully ISO 14001 and BES 6001 accredited and we have recently reached just over ten years of operation without injury in the Dry Silo Mortar business. We continue to maintain the highest levels of vigilance across all of our operations and stick to the mantra that ‘safety has no memory’,” Adam reveals. “In terms of sustainability, the Braintree plant includes one of the first condensing drying systems, which allows the re-circulation of heat around the plant itself. This enables us to lower overall fuel costs, as well as to reduce the site’s carbon footprint.”

In recent years the CEMEX UK Dry Mortar Division has been active across several high profile projects ranging from the iconic London Olympics to a paving solution in the city of Leicester. While operating in Leicester, CEMEX provided Larson Building Products with a BS 7533 bedding mortar to provide a compliant paving mortar system to P Casey (Land Reclamation) Ltd, which were the contract winners for renovation works to the city’s Jubilee Square and Cathedral Gardens. These works were given an additional air of notoriety through their association with the discovery of the historic remains of Richard III during September 2012. With projects embodying links that run from the UK’s early history to modern triumphs such as the London Olympic Games, CEMEX is able to demonstrate its place at the heart of the community.

“With regards to the London Olympics, we supplied our M4 Braintree Light mortar to the Velodrome care of Mace Construction. This is a special mix containing white cement instead of standard grey cement to give a cream finish,” Adam says. “The job used circa 200 tonnes of mortar in total and we also supplied the Copper Box and Handball Stadium for Winchmore Brickwork on behalf of The Buckingham Group. This was an M4 Black Dark coloured mortar, which was provided to the sum of circa 400 tonnes. In both scenarios the special mortar was specified and approved by the architect and main contractor in order to be the best aesthetic match with the bricks and blocks.”

“Specialist Silo Solutions was set up in 2014 in recognition of the opportunities and potential to supply very high technically demanding concretes such as spray concrete for tunnel linings and associated grouts through a modified silo set up. This innovative and new concept has made a big impact in the underground construction market revolutionising the working practices and economics of spray concrete tunnel linings. We have completed our first significant project in that field recently with Ferrovial Laing O’Rourke JV for the Northern Line Extention in central London. The second project is now underway for Dragados who are upgrading Bank Station for London Underground. Mike May, Commercial Manager for the Dry Mortar Business sees a huge demand for Specialist Silo Solutions products in the coming years with Thames Tideway, Crossrail 2 and HS2 all requiring innovative solutions for their spray concrete requirements.”

Within the market for wet screed products and mortars, CEMEX is able to deliver readymixed live solutions that can be used upon delivery to the site. CEMEX entered into the market for ready-mixed wet products within the UK through the acquisition of RMC, which had previously been working with wet screeds for more than 40 years. Today CEMEX continues to operate within this valuable market, which depends on the use of the best quality ingredients and sand. The company has undertaken several key projects, including town centre rejuvenations using wet screed products and is currently engaged with an important housing project in London.

“We are working with Hill Partnership on a housing programme at Muswell Hill in London. Our main plant in London is situated in Edmonton, which is a dedicated mortar and screed plant located in our target area of North London. The client is building over 160 units, of which 70 per cent will be for the over 55’s. We actually achieved the dry mortar side of the project via sub contractor GSQ Brickwork Ltd and then went on to win the flowing screed work through a further subcontractor called ALD Plastering,” Adam explains. “We will be using a new product called Supaflo HTC, which stands for high thermal conductivity. This is a liquid screed that is specifically designed, in conjunction with anhydrite binder partner Gypsol, for use with under-floor heating.”

With a strong presence throughout the UK and a comprehensive suite of products, CEMEX is a premier provider of leading concrete and associated solutions. The company’s mortar and screed divisions represent an important part of what the business has to offer and with a growing list of prestigious projects, is set to continue to deliver solid results throughout 2017 and beyond.

CEMEX UK – Screed & Mortar Division

Services: Screed and mortar solutions

8 March 201714 November 2022 Admin 7 min read