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Power, Rail, Marine, Air

Ocean Cement

1 picture · 1965

Founded
Ocean Cement name in use by 1957; predecessor British Columbia Cement Company 1919 (Vancouver Portland Cement 1904 and Associated Cement / Bamberton)
Head office then
North Foot of Columbia Street, Vancouver

Ocean Cement made cement, ready-mix and masonry products in British Columbia, from the North Foot of Columbia Street in Vancouver. The lineage runs through British Columbia Cement’s Bamberton plant on Saanich Inlet and Vancouver waterfront concrete.

B.C. cement from Tod Inlet and Bamberton supplied West Coast construction. The Vancouver plants sat on the working waterfront.

Why it mattered

B.C. cement from Tod Inlet and Bamberton supplied West Coast construction. Ocean Cement's Vancouver plants and docks sat on the working waterfront (Columbia Street / Granville Island).

Now

Genstar took Ocean Cement and built a kiln at Tilbury, Delta. CBR of Belgium bought the West Coast cement business in 1986. Those operations later sat under Lehigh and, from 2022-23, Heidelberg Materials. The Delta plant and the Granville Island ready-mix works still run. Lafarge was a competitor, not the buyer.

Sold (1986) · Now: Heidelberg Materials (via Genstar, CBR, Lehigh Hanson)

Still open

  • Exact year Genstar bought Ocean Cement is not in the sources used; it was already owner by 1975 and a director of 'Ocean' served until 1972.
  • Ocean Cement Limited appears in federal records as continued 1 January 1983; whether that shell still exists separately from Heidelberg operations is not verified.
  • Lafarge/Canada Cement Lafarge operated a rival Richmond, B.C. plant; it is not in Ocean Cement's ownership chain.
Simon Fraser University quadrangle in raw concrete.

Ocean Cement · 1965

Simon Fraser University quadrangle in raw concrete.

the picture

Sources

The pictures

References

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