News

Finnish company Robit, which develops, manufactures, supplies and services drilling consumables for applications in tunnelling, geothermal heating and cooling, construction, and mining industries, has a new CEO.

Mikko Mattila, 38, who has been with Robit for 15 years, takes over from Jussi Rautiainen, who saw successful growth during his 11 years as a CEO. He is now focusing on planning and execution of Robit’s future structural growth as part of a job rotation initiative.

During his time with Robit,

For the fourth-quarter ended 31 December, 2015, Saudi Cement recorded a 32.8% decline in net profit to SAR 180 million (€43.99 million US$48.02 million) from SAR 268 million in the year-ago quarter.
The decline was attributed by an impairment charge of SAR 66.2 million for two kilns at its Hofuf plant, which affected sales.
Looking forward, the company forecasts its production costs to increase by SAR 68 million in 2016 due to price hikes in fuel and electricity announced by the government for Budget 201

Swedish recycling company IL Recycling will acquire Swedish recycling company Big Bag's activities concerning the managing of containers and front loaders in the Stockholm region as of 1 March 2016.

The deal will enable Big Bag to focus on providing recycling solutions to the construction industry.

The Grace company has partnered with concrete producer Vicat to provide a new environmentally responsible method of placing deactivated concrete, which may be used for the Stylperf Vicat deactivated concrete and the défi.Aquapass pervious concrete range.

The method, which is water autonomous and captures all project waste, thus dealing efficiently with usual problems generated by placing deactivated concrete.

The method has already been displayed in Villeurbanne, France.

According to Widodo Santoso, the chairman of the Indonesia Cement Association (ASI), cement sales in 2016 are expected to increase by between 4% and 6% on the back of infrastructure projects executed by the government across Indonesia.

In 2015, cement sales in the archipelago reached 61 million tonnes, up by 1.8%.

Santoso disclosed that construction projects such as hotels, housing and offices account for about 75% of cement demand, while 25% comes from infrastructure projects.

Separately, Joko Wi

The Greek cement company Titan has confirmed that Mihalis Kolakidis was named as its new executive director to replace Mihalis Sigalas, who has resigned from his post.

Cement group Lafarge is seeking to extend the quarry it operates in the French municipality of Fercé-sur-Sarthe.

A public consultation is set to be held on 17 April 2016 regarding the project, following a debate within the municipal council.

Prior to any vote, there will be public meetings and a presentation of the project.

France-based Fayat Group has commissioned its first asphalt mixing plant at Sanand near Ahmedabad in India. The €16 million (US$17.48 million) plant will have the capacity of 25 to 30 plants/ year in the first phase. In the coming four to five years, the company hopes to expand its installed capacity to 70-75 plants/year.

HeidelbergCement has successfully issued debt certificates in the amount of €625 million, thereby further strengthening its financing structure. Due to high demand, it was possible to significantly increase the issue volume from initially €400 million to €625 million.

The newly-issued debt certificates, with a maturity date of 20 January 2022, consist of two tranches: one tranche with a floating rate and the other with a fixed rate. The fixed rate tranche yields at 1.85% p.a. and the floating tranche at

Concrete is by far the most frequent material used for shell structures of multi-apartment blocks in Sweden.

In 2014, its market share was 88.6%, up by 0.6 percentage units compared with 2013, according to data from the Swedish statistical office (SCB), referred to by Cementa in a press release.

The increase is mainly attributed to the cities of Gothenburg and Malmö.

Wood accounted for 8.9% of shell structures in 2014, and steel for 2.6%.

From January to November 2015, Vietnamese exports of cement and clinker fell short of the 20 million tonnes targeted for full year 2015 at 15 million tonnes, a 27% decline year-on-year.

This comes following increased competition from China and weaker international demand for Vietnamese cement, as well as the increasing cost of supplies.

Vietnam exported 21 million tonnes of 70.6 million tonnes of total cement output in 2014.

According to the Indonesian Forum for Environment, the increasing demand for cement driven by large-scale infrastructure projects is affecting limestone sites across Indonesia.

The group noted that limestone sites provide raw materials for products other than cement such as cosmetics and fertilisers, while they also provide habitats and ecosystem support for several flora and fauna species.

On 15 March 2016, Republic Cement & Building Materials, previously known as Lafarge Republic, intends to delist the company's shares from the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE).

Trading of its shares was suspended on 15 September 2015.