Raleigh company makes $200M purchase

Construction materials company Martin Marietta Materials has spent nearly $200 million to pick up six quarries from competitor Vulcan Materials, it said Monday.

Raleigh-based Martin Marietta (NYSE: MLM) said it paid $192 million in cash for the quarries in Georgia and Tennessee. Vulcan (NYSE: VMC) was required to sell the quarries by the U.S. Department of Justice as part of its acquisition of 2007 purchase of Florida Rock Industries.

As part of the deal, Martin Marietta also divested to Vulcan Materials its only California quarry, located in the town of Oroville; an idle facility north of San Antonio, Texas; and some land in Henderson that Vulcan had been leasing.

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Four of the sites Martin Marietta bought are near Atlanta, the company said. The company also purchased a limestone operation in Rome, Ga., about 60 miles northwest of Atlanta, and another in Chattanooga, Tenn.

The six locations shipped nearly 4.5 million tons of construction "aggregates" - rocks, stones and other materials necessary for construction - in 2007. Martin Marietta said it expects its aggregates production to grow by nearly 30 percent annually in Georgia and Tennessee with the deal.

A company representative wasn't immediately available for comment.