CalPortland Cement Deal Terminated After Investigation, FTC Says

Cement producer CalPortland Co. abandoned plans to acquire $350 million in assets from competitor Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. after a Federal Trade Commission investigation.

CalPortland’s proposed purchase of a cement plant would have enabled the company to unilaterally raise prices with control over half the Southern California market, the FTC said in its announcement Friday. The deal was made public in August.

“The transaction would have reduced the number of cement suppliers in Southern California from five to four, further concentrating an already concentrated market, and was presumptively illegal,” FTC Bureau of Competition director Holly Vedova said in a statement. ...