Hanson, one of the world's largest building materials companies, has put aside £200m (€323m) for acquisitions in the US aggregates and concrete pipes markets during 2002.

Hanson has just completed a C$94.5m (€66.3m) acquisition of Centennial Concrete Pipe and Products from Lafarge Canada, a subsidiary of the French buildings manufacturer and its partner Blue Circle International Investments, a subsidiary of Blue Circle, the UK cement producer now owned by Lafarge.