Important historical milestones

1889

• beginning of the construction of the first cement plant in Slovakia for the production of Portland cement in Ladce under the trade name “Ledeczer Portland – Zement Fabrik des Adolf von Schenk – Ledecz”

1895

• the factory employed 500 employees, mainly from the vicinity of Ladce, with a high share of manual labour

1908

• first attempts with automated production in Schneider shaft (further attempts continued in 1920)

1911

• Žilina Holding Company for the production of cement and lime “Zsolnauer Zement und Kalkfabrik –Akziengesselschaft” became the new owner

1926

• installation of new automated shaft furnaces according to the Hauenschild system

1933

• beginning of the production of calcium aluminate cement under the name “'Bauxit'”

1939 to 1943

• significant drop in production, owner - the Hungarian General Credit Bank

1950

• the new owner Slovenské cementárne a vápenky, n. p (Cement and lime works, national enterprise) the cement plant Ladce (in the following years, the cement plant is a part of the Production Unit of Cement and Lime Works in Slovakia, which were managed from the level of the General Directorate in Trenčín. The legal forms of the company changed, since 1981 it was the form of a concern)

1963

• change of the construction concept from shaft furnaces to a rotary kiln

1969

• commissioning of the modernized plant

1971

• exceeding the production threshold of 400,000 tonnes of cement per year

1977

• another growth of cement production, exceeding the threshold of 600 thousand tonnes per year

1978

• separation of the Vápenka Žirany plant and joining of the Lietavská Lúčka Cement Plant

1982

• beginning of incineration of end-of-life tyres

1986

• fundamental solution of the weakest link of the production – the quarry management (road construction)

1990

• separation of the Lietavská Lúčka Cement Plant, gaining of independence and separation from VHJ CEVA production unit

1995

• privatisation of the company, principal owner of Portlandcement, a. s. Ladce – employee company

1997

• start of the production of concrete mixes, establishment of the subsidiary Ladce Betón, s.r.o., Bratislava

1999

•  addition of shareholding structures - the companies Berger Holding GmbH Passau and Lafarge Betón, s.r.o., Bratislava

2000

• approval of the “Investment Master Plan” – an extensive reconstruction and modernization of the cement plant in order to further increase performance, - beginning of the reconstruction of the rotary kiln exchanger (reconstruction continued in gradual steps until 2008)

2001

• implementation of the investment task “Building of the coal management”

2002

• combustion of meat-and-bone meal, later application of the Biotrix technology

2003

• record production and sale of cement, exceeding the limit of 700 thousand tonnes per year

2005

• increase of the capacity of the cement mill and packaging plant, construction of the line for combustion of solid alternative fuels
• record production and sale of cement, exceeding the limit of 800 thousand tonnes per year
• granting of the European patent for the “Method of production of chromium-free cement using the technology developed by Považská cementáreň, a. s. Ladce”

2006

• record production and sale of cement, exceeding the limit of 900 thousand tonnes per year
• modernization of the rotary kiln (continuation of previous stages of improving the performance of the rotary kiln)
• a significant increase in the share of alternative fuels (more than 1/3 of the total consumption), this share continues to grow in the coming years

2007

• implementation of the investment task “Cylindrical cement mill CM 2”'

2008

• record production of clinker and cements, exceeding the historical record milestone of 1,000,000 tonnes in the production and sale of cement per year
• further development of the concrete programme in the subsidiary Ladce Betón, s. r. o. Bratislava – new concrete plants in Nitra, Galanta and Tvrdošín (in 2009 also in Žiar nad Hronom)