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Mexican building materials giant Cemex has revealed that its sales increased 2% year-on-year during the fourth quarter of 2015 to US$3.4 billion, and by 5% for the full year 2015 to US$14.1 billion versus full year 2014. Both rises were based on a like-for-like basis and adjusting for currency fluctuations.

A key new report shows how critical the UK mineral extraction industry, particularly the non-energy sector, is to the British economy.

Prepared by Mineral Products Association (MPA) on behalf of the CBI Minerals Group, The UK Mineral Extraction Industry found that when including products manufacture and direct markets, mineral extraction contributes €310.2 billion (£235 billion) in value added to the UK economy - 16% of its overall total.

By looking at historical and current production patterns this r

A six-week public consultation has been launched by Nottinghamshire County Council in the UK over plans to explore potential new gravel quarry sites in the county.

Councillors last month approved their Minerals Local Plan, a blueprint for quarrying in the county until 2030.

Sand and gravel sites at Barnby Moor, Botany Bay, Coddington, Flash Farm and Shelford have been put forward.

The Minerals Local Plan – which also recommends extensions to 14 existing quarries - will be submitted to the governme

LafargeHolcim says it is considering a revised divestment of its interest in Lafarge India, which has an annual cement capacity of around 11 million tonnes. The divestment would require the approval of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) as an alternate remedy for the merger of the Group’s legacy companies.

The Group is no longer in discussion with Birla Corporation Limited (BCL) for the sale of the Jojobera and Sonadih cement plants in Eastern India. The BCL proposal involved the divestment of 5.1

The Matanat-A company has opened a new gypsum plant, Yeni Agdag, with a capacity of 400,000tonnes/year in the Qaradag district of Baku, Azerbaijan. The National Entrepreneurship Support Fund has issued a subsidised loan of AZN 1.50 million (€849,612/US$920,215) for construction of the facility. A half of the output will be exported to Russia, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Iran.

The company further plans to build another four plants worth AZN 150 million.

Gilles Bernardeau has been appointed as the new managing director of French concrete research centre Cerib, replacing Marc Lebrun.

Credit risk rating agency Standard & Poors (S&P) has ratified Mexican cement company Cemex’s global credit rating at 'B+' with a positive outlook. S&P stated that Cemex had increased cash flow generation, consolidated a solid financial performance and improved credit indicators. S&P also confirmed the company's national long-term and short-term debt ratings at 'mxBBB' and 'mxA-2'. The agency estimated that Cemex had capacity to continue improving its financial indicators during 2016.

Pakistan-based Kohat Cement (KOHC) has registered a 54% increase in its year-on-year earnings to PKR 2.1 billion (€18.49 million/US$20.02 million) for the first half of fiscal 2016 from PKR 1.4 billion.

On a quarterly basis, earnings growth was driven by an 18% increase in sales revenue.

Overall, the higher margins are attributed to the increase in domestic demand, lower tax rate, and significant decline in power and fuel costs.

India-based Grasim Industries has increased its net profit in the October-December quarter 2015 to INR 6.5 billion compared to from INR 3.34 billion (€45.42 million/US$49.20 million) in the same quarter in 2014.

The company has recorded an increase in its total income in the quarter under review from INR 80.35 billion previously, to INR 90.44 billion.

Grasim Industries has businesses in Viscose Staple Fibre (VSF), cement and chemicals.

In fiscal year 2016-2017, the company says it will spend INR

Birla Corporation (Birla) of India is said to be discussing with legal advisors to sue LafargeHolcim after Birla's plan to buy two cement plants worth INR 50 billion (€679.98 million/US$736.49 million) from Lafarge India (Lafarge) did not materialise.

It is claimed that Lafarge agreed in August 2015 to sell to Birla its integrated cement plant at Sonadih in Chhattisgarh and a cement grinding unit at Jojobera in Jharkhand along with PSC and Concreto cement brands.

The two plants have annual capacity o

Volvo Penta says it has significantly expanded its around-the-clock customer care service to enable the engine and other power systems manufacturer to offer global coverage in 28 languages worldwide.

The company’s extensive network of over 3,500 dealers is the first line of support for customers. Now, the global dealer network is backed up by Volvo Penta Action Service globally.

The expanded Action Service is truly global, meaning that all of Volvo Penta’s customers will have easy

Global demand for cement and concrete additives is forecast to grow 7.2% a year until 2019 to US$24 billion, according to a new report by The Freedonia Group. The US-based industry research firm’s World Cement & Concrete Additives report states that the increases reflect continuing growth in construction activity across the globe that will, in turn, drive global cement usage.

Meanwhile, increasing additive usage rates in developing countries, as well as a broader shift to higher performing specialty add

UK-based Mineral Products Association (MPA) member sales of construction materials were generally positive in 2015, although all materials except ready-mixed concrete (RMC) have seen more modest growth than in 2014.

Sales of aggregates increased by 4.8% compared to 2014, whilst RMC sales accelerated in 2015 (4.2%) compared to 2014 (+3.6%), increasingly influenced by infrastructure projects, with more modest contributions from housing. Reflecting slower housing activity throughout the year, mortar sales