Although the invention of hydraulic cement dates back to the days of the Roman Empire, the breakthrough for cement and concrete as we know it today came just about hundred years back from now. Concrete structures back in these days were typically very clumsy and over-dimensioned as the full dynamics of the building material was far from known. Further, problems with maintaining a consistent quality and delivering in large volumes held back the real surge in demand and most likely, conservatism in the construction sector contributed as well.

During the 1930s, the apparent benefits of concrete together with a deeper understanding of the static- and dynamic strength led to a boom for the industry, both for military and civil projects. With a Europe in ruins, concrete quickly became a favorite for the construction sector and almost all countries built up large domestic concrete industries. As the economy grew during the 1950s and construction of highways became a high-priority, the cement industry skyrocketed. Where the world cement production was some 70 million metric tons in 1930, that figure jumped to around 600 MT in 1970. During the 1950s alone, the production tripled.

The production cycle of cement requires large amounts of energy, both for quarrying, crushing, clinkering, grinding and transports. When the market was flooded with low-cost bunker oil in the early 1950s, the cement industry found its ultimate fuel and the energy costs and environmental concerns could both be ignored in the big picture. Reading environmental reports targeting the cement industry in the 1960s, dust and noise from quarries and factories were the problems, not pollution per se.

As for so many other industries, the oil crisis in the early 1970s coincided with several other factors that brought twenty-five years of sustained growth to an abrupt end. With oil prices that tripled, steeply increasing labor costs and falling demand, the situation quickly became very troublesome. Large domestic players, often operating on strictly regulated markets, who had invested heavily for a sustained growth in demand suddenly had to face a collapsing market and a massive overcapacity with following collapsing market prices.

It seems like the last thirty years here in Europe have created a high degree of consolidation and the cement industry is now controlled by a small number of giant multinational players. This process has of course taken its tolls and there are quite a few spectacular cement factory ruins around. This particular Austrian ruin seems like a typical post-WWII investment, maybe fuelled by some Marshal-plan money. Another guess is that it was built around the post-WWII "independence" in 1955. Without having any details about what happened, it is probably fair to guess that it went into severe problems around 1975. With the socialist Austrian government being particularly keen to keep domestic jobs, a fair guess is that an inflow of public money kept production up until the end in 1991.

Or as my pal Erik mentioned - the famous citation by the Austrian chancellor Bruno Kreisky from 1979 - "Ein paar Milliarden Schulden mehr bereiten mir weniger schlaflose Nächte als ein paar hundert Arbeitslose". Freely translated this means – "A few billion more in debts gives me less sleepless nights than a few hundred unemployed". Although one don't need to agree fully with Mr Kreisky from an purely economic point of view, one has to acknowledge his perspective of unemployment and recession as the breeding ground for the Austrian Nazis back in the 1930s. Further comments are somewhat superfluous.

As cement production apart from requiring vast amounts of energy also releases a substantial amount of carbon dioxide when the limestone is converted in the furnaces, the industry probably faces another challenge in the future. Faced with sustained high energy costs and the cap-and-trade market for CO2 emissions in Europe, presumably cement production will shrink within the union in the years to come.

Whatever - Cement factories are like paper mills - they form spectacular ruins indeed. This particular one is a real world-class ruin with a genuine "Escape from New York" - like feeling, just like if Snake Plissken would appear out of nowhere...
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