Subsidiary | |
Industry | Building materials |
Fate | merged with Holcim |
Founded | 1833 |
Headquarters | Paris, France |
Key people
|
Eric Olsen (Chairman and CEO) |
Products | Cement, Construction aggregates, asphalt production and concrete |
Revenue | €12.843 billion (2014) |
€1.881 billion (2014) | |
Profit | €770.36 million (2014) |
Total assets | €34.804 billion (end 2014) |
Number of employees
|
63,000 (end 2014) |
Parent | LafargeHolcim |
Website | www.lafarge.com |
Lafarge is a French industrial company specialising in three major products: cement, construction aggregates, and concrete.
On 10 July 2015 Lafarge merged with Holcim, a Swiss cement company. On 15 July the new company was officially launched around the globe under the name of LafargeHolcim, creating a new leader in the Building Materials sector.
Lafarge was founded in 1833 by Joseph-Auguste Pavin de Lafarge in Le Teil (Ardèche), to exploit the limestone quarry in Mont Saint-Victor between Le Teil and Viviers. The limestone is white and argillaceous, and yielded an eminently hydraulic lime.
In 1864 Lafarge signed its first international contract for the delivery of 110,000 tonnes of lime to the Suez Canal construction project. In 1980 Lafarge joined with the Belgian coal, coke and fertilizer company Coppée to become SA Lafarge Coppée.
Lafarge purchased a plant from the National Gypsum in early-1987. Ten years later, it bought Redland plc, a leading British quarry operator.
In 1999, Lafarge acquired 100% shareholding in Hima Cement Limited, the second-largest cement manufacturer in Uganda, with installed capacity of 850,000 metric tonnes annually, as of January 2011. In 1999, Lafarge entered the Indian market through its cement business,with the acquisition of Tata Steel's cement activity.This acquisition was followed by the purchase of the Raymond Cement facility in 2001. In 2001, Lafarge, then the world's second largest cement manufacturer, acquired Blue Circle Industries (BCI), which at the time was the world's sixth largest cement manufacturer, to become the world leader in cement manufacturing.
In 2006, Lafarge North America shareholders accepted a $3 billion tender offer from Lafarge Group which gave the parent company full control over the North American business, removing LNA from the New York Stock Exchange. Previously the Group had owned 53% of LNA shares.