After announcing last year that a Thomaston cement plant was ending production, its parent company now says that it will shift its operations and become a distribution center for an imported version of the material, according to local officials.
However, Dragon Cement is continuing to lay off some of the facility’s workers, and it’s unclear how many will continue to have a role there in the future.
Last fall, the company announced that it was stopping production because of rising costs and planned to gradually lay off the 65 people who worked there through the beginning of 2025. In response, the state held career fairs and made plans to help the affected employees.
Now, the news that the plant will stay open using a different business model means that Thomaston will hold onto its biggest taxpayer. It also means that Maine’s construction industry may see the continuation of an important supply chain.
Dragon’s executive vice president told Kara George, Thomaston’s town manager, on Feb. 29 that the company will instead begin importing cement from Spain. Starting around May, the imports will be shipped to Searsport, then be stored and distributed from the Thomaston facility, according to George.
“We’re going to be OK, and it’s not all bad news,” George said. “Having some answers has really calmed the waters and made people feel a lot better about where this is headed.”
The company attributed the shift to the fact that it’s more cost-effective to import cement than to manufacture it locally, because it’s gotten more expensive to use the kiln, George said.
However, the company will continue with another round of layoffs, letting go of about 20 employees in April, George said. George doesn’t know if Dragon will hire any new people or continue with layoffs after that. A similar number of workers lost their jobs during the company’s first layoff in December.
One advantage of the shift is that Dragon’s distribution center will be better for the local environment, because the plant will no longer be firing its kiln, according to George.
