Fives FCB, the cement and minerals arm of multinational design and manufacturing firm Fives Group, announced massive expansion plans in the United States on Monday.
The company says it is opening Fives FCB USA Inc., a facility in Birmingham, Alabama, to provide closer access to U.S. customers. The Fives Group's North American business has become the conglomerate's biggest market by far: the company reported the equivalent of $2.5 billion in orders last year, about $920 million of which came from North America. Total North American sales, meanwhile, eclipsed $990 million in 2024.
The subsidiary will improve the availability of value-added low-clinker blended cement and supplementary cementitious material (SCM) production equipment from Fives Group. SCMs are mineral additives used in concrete to improve durability and sustainability. According to the company, the new plant will help customers improve profitability and facilitate flexible, productive, and less energy-intensive operations.
Fives, whose legacy traces back to in France in 1812, now has some 9,200 employees globally. It has been doing business in the U.S. since 1859.
According to Yan Huerre, commercial director of Fives FCB, Fives Group is growing in every aspect, which includes some 1,500 employees in the U.S. He said the investment will help Fives provide faster solutions to the U.S. market.
The company chose a location near its sister company, Fives North American Construction Services, in Birmingham. Huerre told Industrial Equipment News (IEN) that the spot simply makes sense: it places the new subsidiary close to the company's existing workshop, engineering resources, purchasing, manufacturing, and field services.
Fives FCB USA will leverage this network to promote Fives' solutions, including equipment and integrated plants.
Huerre said the company has done business in North America from the outside for many years, but as the market has evolved, clients required innovative, better-performing technology — and it's much easier to make it happen with a local footprint.
Fives FCB is already a member of several local industry associations, including the Portland Cement Association (PCA), the Construction & Demolition Recycling Association (CDRA), and the American Coal Ash Association (ACAA).
Growing Interest in Sustainable Cement Products
Over the past few years, U.S. producers have shown a growing interest in high-quality blended cements and low-carbon SCMs, such as natural or artificial pozzolana, coal ashes, or slags of various types, to reduce the clinker content in cement and cement content in concrete.
Huerre called it a new trend in an otherwise stagnant U.S. cement market. He said cement production has always been the same: clinker plus gypsum. It's an energy-intensive process, but Huerre said that the new trend is to put less clinker in the cement.
Processing SCMs or introducing processed SCMs in existing facilities, while ensuring optimal quality and efficiency, demands new industrial solutions or process adaptation in thermal activation, drying, selective grinding, or fine classification.
Fives is one of the few players that can offer all the necessary solutions with the capacity to assess, on a case-by-case basis, future product quality and process performance through a combination of semi-industrial pilot testing and a large installed base of industrial experience. The subsidiary hopes to help smooth the transition to low-clinker cement and SCMs in terms of efficiency, flexibility, reduced environmental footprint, and all-in-one profitability.
Huerre said that it's a simple equation: the subsidiary offers more production of a more profitable product that is more environmentally friendly. He also noted the benefit of having a nearby factory, because manufactured items can be preassembled as much as possible before sending them to the customer.
If you can make products for customers locally in two weeks instead of three, it means a huge savings for customers, Huerre said. He added that the U.S. is a sought-after market due to its substantial investment in infrastructure and the residential market. He noted that importing materials doesn't make sense because the country is so big. By being local, customers can realize cost savings simply in transportation costs.
The company has also found success in recycling concrete, a "huge sleeping value" because old concrete is typically reused by breaking block into smaller parts, and reusing it as backfill.
Instead of just crushing the material, Huerre said Fives can liberate the three components mixed at the beginning, recovering good-quality aggregates and sand that can be used in new concrete and cement.
He said backfill costs about $3 per ton, aggregates fetch $40 to $50 per ton, and sand could reach $60 to $70 per ton. The company, he said, has seen a great deal of interest in reclaimed materials.
The company's effort is part of a larger industry-wide push to lower clinker content and reduce the industry's CO2 footprint by 40% by 2030 to 2035. The endgame is to be carbon neutral by 2040 to 2050.
Although the engineering prowess is established, the subsidiary is still looking for human capital, specifically skilled U.S. labor, which has been challenging due to very low unemployment rates in the country. Staffing is also a global issue for Fives; it now has some 1,000 open positions internationally.
A look at Fives Group technology:
The FCB Horomill (horizontal roller mill).Fives Group- The FCB TSV Classifier ensures product classification efficiency, with its THF and UHF (for very high and ultra-high fineness) versions, meets the demands of applications such as high-quality low clinker cement or products micronization.
- Advanced and proven solutions for clay flash calcination deliver a unique process that fully unlocks clay's potential as a highly reactive SCM with targeted color and lowest carbon emissions.
Clay flash calcination equipment.Fives Group
