News

Cement company Holcim Nicaragua is said to rank third among other companies owned by the Swiss-based group in terms of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance.

This relates to an assessment carried out by Holcim in 2013, in which its local subsidiary scored 90.3% in this category.

The business's Ecuadorian and Costa Rican divisions came in first and second place.

The Polish unit of the cement producer Lafarge has appointed Federico Tonetti as the new managing director. He will take over from Bruno Roux, who is to become the managing director in Eastern Canada. Tonetti has worked for Lafarge since 2008.

The Swiss company Holcim will construct a new production line for semi-dry process at the Holcim (Rus) cement factory in Volsk (Saratov region, Volga), Russia.

The capacity will total 4,500tonnes/ day, and four wet process kilns will be stopped, excluding one with the capacity of 1,600tonnes/day.

Some 750 jobs will be created during the construction period.

A CNY 540 million (€67.91million/US$88.03 million) cement production project has been signed in Zhangjiajie City, Cili County, Hunan province, China.

Besides a new dry-type cement clinker production line with an annual output of 1 million tonnes, the project will also include a ready-mixed concrete production line and a cement grinding production line of 1 million tonnes/year.

A new type of road surfacing, called Poroelastic road surface (PERS), has been laid on a 15km stretch of the former E4 motorway near Linköping, Sweden.

The material combines small rubber particles and stones and is porous as 25% of its volume is air.

Tests by the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI) are said to have found that studded tyres do not wear down the surface faster than normal surfacing, and it produces almost no particles, while road noise is significantly reduced.

On 17-19 February 2015, Moscow, Russia, will host the Nerudex international exhibition, which aims to create a communicative space for consolidation of enterprises of the non-metallic sector and promotion of non-metallic materials.

The main themes of the exhibition include Minerals and Aggregates; Mining of Mon-Metallic Materials, Equipment; Drilling and Blasting Operations, and Waste Disposal.

The event will be held simultaneously with the international asphalt industry exhibition Asphaltex.

In Morocco, quarry operators are hoping for a change in the law that would increase the maximum operating duration for a quarry from 15 to 20 years in order to give them more time to render their operations profitable.

It is reported that this comes as the Moroccan Minister for Equipment and Transport, Aziz Rabbah, presents his bill on quarry exploitation to the chamber of representative's commission for infrastructure, energy, mining and the environment. It will now be up to MPs to decide whether they a

Terex Washing Systems (TWS) is celebrating the first birthday of the Terex AggreSand 165 washplant following the official launch in Ireland in September 2013.

The company says the last year has seen the successful installation of the plant on five continents and in over ten countries, processing up to 10 million tonnes.

“The market has really embraced the AggreSand washplant concept with exceptional demand at the moment. To date, TWS has installed multiple AggreSand 165 washplants around the globe. W

As part of its previously disclosed plan to divest a significant portion of its building products business in North America and the United Kingdom, HeidelbergCement has announced

that its subsidiary, Hanson Building Products, has filed a registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for a potential initial public offering (IPO) of its ordinary shares.

Hanson Building Products was formed by HeidelbergCement to own and operate a diversified portfolio of concrete and clay building

The Cement Company of Northern Nigeria (CCNN) is reported to have unveiled an expansion project that will raise the capacity of its existing cement plant in Nigeria by 200% to 1.5 million tonnes.

CCNN’s ambitious project is estimated to cost around US$296 million (NGN 48 billion), with BUA International providing the start-up fund. BUA International through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Damnaz Cement Company, owns a 50.72% interest in CCNN.

A Vietnam cement firm will conduct a three-month feasibility study for its plan to build a US$27 million cement production plant in Huaphan Province, Laos. Output from the factory, to be operated by the company under a 30-year extendable concession agreement, will be sold to the local market and exported to Vietnam.

Iran’s cement output rose 18% year-on-year to 29.5 million tonnes in the five months to 23 August 2014. Target production for the full 2014/2015 year is 75 million tonnes against the previous year’s 70 million tonnes, with exports to reach 12 million tonnes.