The European Commission on Tuesday approved the acquisition of British company Hanson by German cement producer HeidelbergCement, a deal to create the world's second largest building materials maker.

"After examination, the commission concluded that the proposed operation would not significantly impede effective competition" in the European Union or in a substantial part of the bloc, the EU's antitrust watchdog said in a statement.

HeidelbergCement is active in the cement, ready-mixed concrete and related building materials markets, while Hanson mainly focuses on aggregates and aggregates-based building products.

Cement and aggregates are the two main constituents of concrete.

The activities of the two companies are essentially of a complementary nature, the commission said, adding the combined firm would continue to face strong competitors with significant market shares.

HeidelbergCement is offering 16.32 billion U.S. dollars in cash to buy Hanson, the biggest ever takeover in the construction materials sector. If completed, the combined company was estimated to have a market value of 34 billion U.S. dollars, lagging only behind the French building materials giant Saint-Gobain.

Separately, Saint-Gobain said on Tuesday it would buy the industrial mortar-making unit Maxit of HeidelbergCement for 2.1 billion euros (2.9 billion U.S. dollars).

HeidelbergCement said the sale would help it finance the acquisition of Hanson.