News

Great strides were made in 2015 by Cemex UK to ensure more subcontractors used by the company met the standards of the Fleet Operators Recognition Scheme (FORS).

By the end of the year, 169 subcontractors in Cemex Logistics, covering aggregates, asphalt, bulk cement and building products, were FORS registered or accredited. While in ready-mixed concrete, where all the operators are independent haulier contractors (IHC), the Greater London fleet of 66 operators are all accredited.

West China Cement and Cheetah Cement are linking up to jointly create a US$300 million 1.5million tonnes/year cement plant in Otjiwarongo, Namibia.

Saudi Cement, Saudi Arabia’s largest cement firm by market value, has a new chairman. Khalid Abdulrahman Saleh al-Rajhi began his three-year contract on 1 January 2016.

US-based KPI-JCI and Astec Mobile Screens has hired Nate Hicks as a new parts sales development engineer as part of its ongoing strategy to grow its PDQ and OEM parts lines.

Hicks recently relocated from Colorado, where he mostly recent served as a project engineer for Springs Fabrication. He graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering from South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. Hicks, who is originally from Yankton, South Dakota, previously worked for KPI-JCI and Astec Mobile Screens’ South

Turkish cement firm Limak Cimento is reportedly eyeing up a €1.01 billion (US$1.1 billion) African acquisition.

National media reports the firm possibly buying an unnamed African firm's operations in three countries.

Limak Cimento currently has sites in Mozambique and the Ivory Coast due to start production in 2016 and 2017 respectively.

The company has previously disclosed its intention of running an integrated cement facility in Africa in three years.

Metso is axing 44 jobs in its Minerals business in Finland, mostly in Tampere, in response to reduced customer equipment orders. The job losses follow employee negotiations and are down from the 75 jobs originally earmarked to go. The Finnish crushing and screening manufacturing giant says the job cuts are part of a strategy to make the company a leaner and more agile operation, focused on growth and profitability.

"Our order volumes are affected by the market downturn in the minerals industry. The decis

Thailand’s Siam Cement Group (SCG) is looking to increase investment in its Cambodian operations from US$277 million to $477 million by the end of 2020. Under the new investment plan, the bulk of the new funds will go on SCG’s Cambodian building material and cement units, disclosed the company’s CEO and president Kan Trakulhoon.

The ‘adjustment’ in European construction investment is expected to come to an end in 2015, which should allow it to gather pace in 2016 and 2017, according to the latest CECE (Committee for European Construction Equipment) Quarterly Economic Bulletin.

The CECE bulletin, which will provide encouragement to European building materials suppliers, says support for construction investment should mainly come from the relatively strong growth in household real disposable income, low mortgage rates, and a retur

Caterpillar, the world’s biggest construction equipment manufacturer, has been ordered to pay US$73.6 million (€67.6 million) in damages in a lawsuit by a former supplier that accused the US giant of misappropriating its trade secrets.

Semem’s new Rembang, Indonesia cement plant is due to begin production within the next 12 months. Work on the IDR 4.60 trillion (US$ 329.46 million) facility is said to be 80% complete. The revised 2016 production start date comes after Semem had initially envisaged the first cement to come out of the site in early 2017. Once completed, the Rembang plant will be able to raise Semem’s cement production capacity by a further 3 million tonnes/year.

Sri Lankan concrete manufacturing company Sierra Readymix was commended for best operational practices, processes, systems and initiatives and adjudged as one of the Top 23 Best Practices in the world at the 4th International Best Practice Competition in the Philippines. The company was recognised for its environmentally-friendly efforts, which include Sierra's water conservation initiative and implementation of Sri Lanka’s first green batching plant for cements.