CRH expects the market for supplementary cementitious materials (SCM) to double in the USA by 2050, the head of the country’s largest building materials producer said following the publication of its 2Q25 results.
CRH CEO, Jim Mintern, made the comments after the industrial giant reported a better than expected nine per cent rise in core profits and forecast full-year earnings of US$7.5-7.7bn, versus a prior range of US$7.3-7.7bn.
Total revenues of US$10.2bn (2Q24: US$9.7bn) increased by six per cent driven by the positive impact of acquisitions and disciplined commercial execution, which offset lower activity levels in weather-impacted regions. Net income of US$1.3bn (2Q24: US$1.3bn) was two per cent ahead of the prior year. CRH says this growth reflects a strong underlying operating performance, which more than offset higher depreciation and interest expenses, as well as reduced gains from divestitures and disposals of long-lived assets during the period.
The Irish-headquartered, US-listed firm, which makes about 75 per cent of its profit in North America, recently agreed to acquire US SCM supplier Eco Material Technologies for US$2.1bn last month to meet growing demand for the alternative ash-based products.
"In particular what attracted us (to the deal) is that when you look out in the US, we estimate that the SCM market is going to double between now and 2050," mr Mintern said.
"This deal puts us right up there in terms of size and leadership levels in the US (and) gives us a very good growth platform."
The acquisition will boost CRH's capacity in the 135Mt US SCM market to about 25Mta, he added. CRH is the third largest cement manufacturer in both North America and Europe.
CRH's second quarter adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of US$2.5bn were ahead of the US$2.4bn expected by an average of seven analysts polled by LSEG SmartEstimate.
Mintern said the increase in the lower end of its full year guidance range was based on trading in the seasonally important month of July and a year-on-year increase in the volume and margins of contracted work across all major US product lines.
