The company said it has brought in a specialist firm to investigate claims that the UK cement market is not operating properly. The move is in response to the growing number of complaints being received about material shotages, high prices and a perceived lack of genuine competition among suppliers, the BAA said.
 
Director Robert Durward said: "For some time now we have been getting reports of independent companies experiencing difficulty in getting competitive prices for cement.  Although the readymix sector has experienced the biggest problems, the precast sector is also being hit by high prices and supply side difficulties. This raises a number of competition issues and we have therefore brought in CDC to investigate the matter further."

The BAA has hired German consultant Cartel Damage Claims. The company is currently seeking more than E200m compensation on behalf of 29 German companies following a successful state prosecution in Germany.

The global supply of Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) is now dominated by six international companies, Cemex, Holcim, Heidelberg, Lafarge, CRH and Dyckerhoff with other companies such as Anglo-American and Hanson playing a lesser but still important part. Although recent cement shortages have been exacerbated by technical issues, the problems of price and supply in the cement market are longstanding.
 
Durward said: "The recent acquisition of two of the major UK quarry companies by international cement manufacturers would appear to be adding to the pressure already being felt by the independents. However, the German convictions were a major turning point and it is significant that the delivered price of cement in Germany, at around E48, is now less than half that being paid by independents in the UK."
 
The UK cement industry is made up of four manufacturers: Buxton Lime Industries, (Anglo-American) Castle Cement, (Heidleberg) Cemex UK Cement and Lafarge Cement who together operate 15 major plants across the country. Another multi-national cement manufacturer, Holcim was recently acquired Aggregate Industries.

Of the UK’s five major quarry companies, only Hanson does not have access to in-house Ordinary Portland Cement. However, Hanson recently acquired Civil and Marine which produces cement substitutes from five UK slag grinding plants.

The UK cement industry manufactures around 12 million tonnes of cement at 15 major plants across the country. A further 1.5 million tonnes is imported through various terminals.