"Internationalisation is an irreversible process for FCC." This statement by Baldomero Falcones, Chairman and CEO of FCC, is taking shape in the US, where the company is currently expanding. FCC is preparing bids for a number of government projects, primarily infrastructure-related, that are worth 9 billion dollars (around 6.8 billion euro).

The company has already bid for the Gerald Desmond Bridge project, in Los Angeles (California), which has a budget of 725 million dollars (around 560 million euro). The group has been short-listed for the Grand Parkway project in Houston (Texas), for which the budget is 1.4 billion dollars (approximately 1.1 billion euro).
FCC is also drafting bids for the Chinatown station of the San Francisco Central Subway and the Crenshaw station of the Los Angeles Metro, as well as the SH-183 and Horseshoe road projects in Dallas (Texas). The proposal for the latter includes a bridge designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. FCC is working to establish consortia to bids for these projects.

Infrastructure and concessions are not FCC's only activities in the US; it is also heavily involved in the services sector. The company is involved in industrial waste management through FCC Environmental, and has participated in major projects such as restoration of the Gulf of Mexico after the BP oil spill. The environmental subsidiary is the second-largest company of its kind in the US, with 37 facilities in 21 states and plans for further expansion.

The largest plant on the east coast

FCC Environmental recently commenced construction of a base oil recycling plant in Baltimore (Maryland). The facility, which will cost almost 50 million dollars (37 million euro), will be the largest of its kind on the east coast.
It will also be the first of several base oil recycling plants that FCC will build in the US. The plant, which will have a staff of around 30, will be able to recover 150 million litres of base oil each year.
Also in the services sector, FCC subsidiary Cemusa is specialised in the design, manufacture, installation and maintenance of street furniture. In September 2010, the company installed the world's first digital newsstands, in New York's Times Square, as part of the contract awarded by the city government in 2006. This is the largest contract of its kind in the world, and bidders included the leading companies in the field of outdoor advertising and communication, such as Viacom, Clear Channel, Van Wagner/Verizon, and JC Decaux/NBC-Universal. Cemusa expects revenues amounting to 1.6 billion euro over the 20-year concession.
Cemusa also has street furniture contracts in Boston and Atlanta, among other major cities, and operates in 12 countries in Europe and Latin America. Its most recent innovations include the addition of interactivity to the Times Square newsstands, with touchscreen capabilities allowing for the exchange of information as well as photography.

In the area of infrastructure, Cementos Portland has three cement plants through its US subsidiary, Giant, in Bath (Pennsylvania), Harleyville (South Carolina) and Thomaston (Maine).