News

Lafarge Africa has reported a pre-tax profit of NGN 29.72 billion (€136.03 million/US$149.33 million) in the first half of 2015, up 13% from the corresponding period of 2014.

Sales were up 12.0% to NGN 116.7 billion, while finance and investment income more than doubled to NGN 3.5 billion.

Raumix Aggregates (Raumix) of South Africa has been blocked by the Competition Commission from taking over OMV Group, a producer of aggregates used by road contractors as road stone to manufacture asphalt and concrete.

The Commission said that the transaction could substantially reduce competition in the production of aggregates used to surface roads in the Kimberley area.

Raumix is a subsidiary of Raubex that produces value-added bitumen products as well as resurface, restore and maintain roads.

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Metso has received awards in Chile's ranking of suppliers to the mining industry.

It gained first place in the industry's Best Performance Supplier of the Minerals Processing Segment and third place in the Best Overall Performance Supplier of Mining.

Phibrand, a company specialising in industry marketing, conducted the study for the fourth time in collaboration with Chile's Ministry of Mining; Industrial Suppliers Association of Mining (Aprimin); Chile's National Mining Society (SONAMI); Association o

In its largest order with Hitachi Construction Machinery (UK) (HCMUK) to date, Keyway has purchased 96 new machines, bringing the total of Hitachi models in its fleet to more than 400 units.

The new deliveries between April and August 2015 range from two to 35tonne excavators, including several short-tail swing models, and the company’s first wheeled excavator, the ZX140W-5.

RDS Technology says that it has received accreditation for its LOADMASTER a100,a ‘legal for trade’ weigher, enabling products to be sold from the printed ticket.

The company says that typically fitted to a wheeled loading shovel, the unit “effectively transforms the loader into a mobile weighbridge which conforms to class Y(b) levels of accuracy (and OIML only in the UK).

The company’s quality system for production, testing and final product inspection was subject to scrutiny by the National Measureme

Heidelberg Cement says that during the second quarter of 2015 s sales volumes increased in all business lines and group revenue wasup by 10% to €3.6 billion (previous year: €3.3 billion; like-for-like +0.4%).

The company’s Q2 results also show that operating income before depreciation (OIBD) improved by 15% to €752 million (previous year: €655 million; like-for-like* +6%); the OIBD margin improved to 20.7%, and a reduction in net debt compared with the previous year by €1.6 billion to €6.3 billion,

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The Italian marble industry has resumed growth on international markets.

Following the consolidation of results in 2014, the first quarter of 2015 is hallmarked by a resumption in exports.

This upturn is driven by the 18.6% leap in international sales for stone quarrying and processing technologies, improving turnover up to €260 million.

Caterpillar said global sales of machinery by its dealers fell 14% for the three-month period ended in June.
The retail-sales update, which showed an even steeper drop from the 12% decline in its first-quarter report, came a day ahead of Caterpillar’s second-quarter earnings report.
Caterpillar, the world’s largest maker of construction and mining machinery, has, like the rest of the industry, faced a persistent slump in mining equipment, sluggishness in construction machinery in much of the world and a m

Spanish construction materials company, Corporacion Empresarial de Materiales de Construccion (COEMAC), has appointed Gonzalo Serratosa as its new vice-chairman.

Jose Antonio Carracosa has been appointed proprietary director and Javier Gonzalez Ochoa has been ratified as executive chairman.

COEMAC was previously named Uralita.

Cemex Latam Holdings (CLH) posted a 42% reduction in its profit in the second quarter of 2015, down to US$38.60 million (€35.64 million), compared with its profit in the same year-earlier period.

The company gathers cement production activities of Cemex in Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador and Brazil.

It closed the first six months of 2015 with a profit of US$82 million, 32% down year-on-year.

Italian concrete manufacturer Barbetti, part of the Cementerie Aldo Barbetti (CAB) cement group, posted a loss of about €7.8 million in 2014 from a €93.6 million loss posted in the previous year.

Revenues fell to €60.2 million from €63.4 million, while EBITDA dropped to €3.8 million from €7.5 million.

Sales revenues also fell by about €9.5 million to about €48.4 million, while net assets dropped to €17.6 million from €25.5 million.

Following the sale of its Turkish subsidiary, Cimko Cimento, the c

The UK’s Mineral Products Association (MPA) has made renewed representations to government and in particular Roads Minister, Andrew Jones, to introduce regulation for volumetric concrete mixers.

It says that currently, at least 10% of concrete deliveries are made by volumetric concrete mixers which are significantly under-regulated.