The world's largest cement producer and a leader in the production of aggregates. Operates quarries and manufacturing facilities in the occupied West Bank. Its products have been used to build and expand illegal settlements.
Heidelberg Materials, previously known as HeidelbergCement, is the world's largest cement producer and a major manufacturer of aggregates and ready-mix concrete.
In 2007 the company bought Hanson (UK) and thus became the owner of three plants and one aggregates quarry in the occupied West Bank through Hanson Israel.
Hanson Israel owns 26 concrete plants, three aggregate quarries and two asphalt plants. Four of these are located in Israeli settlements in the West Bank: concrete plants in Modi'in Illit and in Atarot Industrial zone, an asphalt plant and an aggregates quarry south of Elkana. The quarry exploits occupied Palestinian natural resources for the needs of the Israeli construction industry.
Additionally, through Hanson Israel, the company supplied construction materials to construction projects in the settlements. Hanson Israel concrete truck was documented delivering concrete to the expansion of the Barkan settlement industrial zone.
- In October 2017, the third largest pension fund in Denmark, Sampension, moved to exclude four companies from their portfolio due to their investments in the illegal Israeli settlment activities. The four companies were Israeli banks, Hapoalim and Leumi, and HeidelbergCement and Bezeq.
- On June 12, 2017, Swedish Bank SEB added Heidelberg Cement in its no-buy-list. The bank declared that it is removing from all its funds forty companies "that violate international standards for the environment, corruption, human rights and labor law." The bank had previously stopped investing in companies involved in nuclear programs and in coal production.
- In December 2015, Denmark's largest pension fund PFA Pension blacklisted Heidelburg due to its " illegal activities in relation to the occupation of the West Bank."
- In June 2015 KLP, the largest life insurance company in Norway, decided to divest from HeidelbergCement Group because the company's "operations are associated with violations of fundamental ethical norms."