Lt Gov Jennings Celebrates New Cement Plant Opening in Medley, Florida

-- Pennsuco Plant adds 1.8 million tons of cement to growing Florida market

(Medley, Florida) ? The official opening ceremonies for Titan America’s new Pennsuco Cement Plant were held Wednesday, May 18, 2005. Guests of honor included Lieutenant Governor Toni Jennings and Miami-Dade District 12 County Commissioner Jos? “Pepe” Diaz. The opening celebration featured tours of the new plant for guests in the Florida construction industry as well as local and state officials.

During the ribbon cutting ceremony, both the Lt. Governor and the Commissioner spoke about the significant impact Titan’s newly modernized cement plant will have on the Florida construction market. In addition, Titan America presented a check for $700,000 to the Step Up For Students Program, which provides K-12 scholarships to private and out-of-district public schools for low-income Florida students. An initiative of the Corporate Tax Credit scholarship program, participation in the Step Up For Students program allows sponsors to re-direct a portion of their state tax liability to scholarship funding organizations in exchange for a 100% Florida Income Tax Credit. The program serves more than 2,600 students in Dade County and more than 11,000 statewide.

Titan’s Pennsuco cement plant is designed for high efficiency, automated operation and with the ability to recover and recycle heat energy and materials not consumed in the cement making process. “It is one of the largest and most modern cement plants in the country and the world,” said Hardy Johnson, President, Titan Florida Business. “Environmentally the plant has the lowest emissions, per ton of cement produced, of any cement plant in the state.” The plant cost more than $200 million to build, employs 130 workers with round the clock operation, and will produce 1.8 million tons of cement annually for the Florida construction market.

The Titan America group of companies is one of the premier cement and building materials producers in the Eastern United Sates. Best known by the brand names Titan America ®, Tarmac ®, ProAsh ® and the company names of Essex Cement, Roanoke Cement, Separation Technologies, Titan Florida and Titan Virginia Ready-Mix. Titan America operations include cement plants, ready-mix concrete plants, concrete block plants, quarries, cement terminals, and fly ash production facilities. In 2004 Titan America revenues totaled more than half a billion dollars. Headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, the company employs more than 1,800 people. The Titan America web site is located at www.titanamerica.com.

Titan America presented a check for $700,000 to Florida’s “Step Up for Students” Corporate Tax Credit Scholarship Program as part of the opening ceremonies for the new Pennsuco Cement Plant on May 18, 2005. Under the program, Titan America will redirect a portion of its state tax liability to scholarship funding for more than 11,000 K-12 low-income students to attend a private school or an out-of-district school. Making the presentation left to right: Miami-Dade County District 12 Commissioner Jose “Pepe” Dias, Florida Lieutenant Governor Toni Jennings, students from Trinity Christian Academy school, and Hardy Johnson, President of Florida Business.

State and county dignitaries assisted Titan America officials cutting the ceremonial ribbon to officially open the new Pennsuco Cement Plant in Medley, Florida on May 18, 2005. Producing 1.8 million tons of cement a year, Pennsuco has the lowest emissions of any cement plant in the state per ton of clinker produced. Left to right: Miami-Dade County District 12 Commissioner Jose “Pepe” Dias; Hardy Johnson, President of Florida Business; Titan Group Chairman Andreas Canellopoulos; and Florida Lieutenant Governor Toni Jennings.

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