Dragon Cement in Thomaston, Maine, USA, is planning six more layoffs, following 65 layoffs in the last year. The manufacturing operations are being closed and the plant will shift to a distributional model, said Thomaston Town Manager, Kara George. The plant currently employs 26 people.
Giant Cement, which has owned Dragon Cement since 2006, cited growing operating and logistics costs, including the price of energy, as the reason for shutting down the plant.
Though the plant continues to process residual materials into cement, it has started a new distribution process, which includes importing loads containing 30,000t of bagged cement into Searsport, then trucking it into Thomaston and distributing it to customers, Ms George said. This has already happened once this year, and will happen again in October.
Ms George said rail transportation is also no longer available, because the short line between Brunswick and Rockland was not receiving enough business. Therefore, Dragon Cement will use trucks to import and distribute cement.
While activities in the quarry are currently on hold it still has reserves suitable for both cement manufacturing and aggregate production, she added.
