St Marys Cement, part of the North American operations of global building materials supplier Votorantim Cimentos, knew that to efficiently move and sell product, they needed to make the nearby water work for them.
The company’s plant in Charlevoix, Michigan, included a DomeSiloTM by Dome Technology designed to store 70,000 metric tons. It’s part of a network of domes; a transload facility with a 50,000-metric-ton DomeSilo is located in Chicago, allowing the company to bulk up their storage and provide enough product further south during the winter when waterways are frozen.
“We were looking for additional storage capacity and an economical solution; domes provide both,” said Randy Pryor, plant manager for St Marys’ Charlevoix plant. “The weather up here doesn’t always cooperate for producing cement and installing concrete. We need inventory to be able to sustain our shipments during peak shipping seasons. It is often challenging to keep up with shipping during the peak season with the milling capacity we have.”
That means when things are busy in Charlevoix, they’re busy, so product loading, unloading and storage have to be on point when demand is high. The robust nature of the dome allows St. Marys to frequently load and unload the dome without worrying about stress on the structure.
Editor’s note: The preceding is an excerpt from an article published in the October 2017 issue of International Cement Review. To read the full text, which includes details about the dome’s customization, please visit ICR online.