News

Boosting your company’s top and bottom lines is the focus of complementary keynote presentations at two European aggregates conferences being launched later this year.

The first will take place on June 27 the Radisson Blu Hotel at Manchester Airport, with the second scheduled for Brussels on November 17.

The headline themes are future productivity and profitability; manufactured sand; equipment technology; land management best practice; and big data and the aggregates industry.

Speakers are current

LafargeHolcim has received a revised order from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for the divestment of its interest in Lafarge India, including three cement plants and two grinding stations with a total capacity of around 11 million tonnes/year.

Beat Hess is being backed to become the new Chairman of LafargeHolcim’s Board of Directors after current Chairman Wolfgang Reitzle informed the Board that he will not stand for re-election at the Company’s May 2016 Annual General Meeting.

A company statement issued today said the Board regrets this decision while acknowledging Reitzle’s wish to pursue other business activities that will require his fullest attention, in particular the Chairmanship of the Linde Supervisory Board.

Reitzle was instrumen

Cement sales in the Philippines in the fourth-quarter of 2015 stood at 6.08 million tonnes, a climb by 16.6% from 5.21 million tonnes a year ago.

Cement sales reached 24.36 million tonnes in 2015, a rise of 14.3%.

This is on the back of new housing demand, better weather conditions and higher infrastructure spending by the government.

Philippine cement companies anticipate that in 2016, sales will record double-digit growth.

In India, Birla Corp will buy the cement business of Reliance Infrastructure (R-Infra) for INR 48 billion (€652.78 million/US$707.03 million).

R-Infra will use proceeds from the sale to pare its debt, and it aims to be a debt-free company on completion of the deal by March 2017.

Under the deal, Birla Corp will acquire the units of Reliance Cement at Kundangting, MP and Maihar. The deal values Reliance Cement at US$140 (€129.26) per tonne, as it has an installed capacity of almost 5.1 million tonnes/ye

LafargeHolcim's entire 11 million tonne per annum annual capacity in India is being sold, it is reported.

The latest development comes after the Switzerland-based cement company's deal with Birla Corporation (BCL) to sell 5.1 million tonne/year capacity in the country hit a roadblock.

As announced on 4 February 2016, LafargeHolcim and BCL were no longer in talks for the sale of the Sonadih and Jojobera cement plants in eastern India.

Lafarge India’s decision to cancel the deal, however, has not be

LafargeHolcim is reported as announcing that cement production at the Lafarge plants in the French town of La Couronne in Charente and in Le Havre is to close.

In La Couronne, 90 job cuts are to take place in the short term, and only 27 members of staff out of 117 will be kept on.

French group Vicat has posted a turnover of €575 million in the fourth-quarter of 2015, stable compared to the previous year, but down by 1.6% on a constant change and currency basis. Operating turnover was up by 1.1% on a nominal basis and down by 0.4% on an organic basis, with cement activity seeing a 4.6% decline on an organic basis.

The concrete and aggregates activities saw organic revenue grow by 5.3% (+9.2% nominally), while revenue from other activity was up by 3.1% (5.1% nominally).

Its Frenc

CDEnviro has announced has increased its product assembly space by 32% to allow for the production of 60 additional machines/year.
The company designs and manufactures a range of waste reduction and recycling equipment for application in the sewage, waste water, waste management and utility industries.
The expansion has been funded by CDEnviro following an upturn in the global waste and recycling industry.
It says it is responding to an increase in demand around the world for the range of classifying eq

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