News

SINO Zimbabwe Cement Company is to create an industrial park in its home country. The shareholders of the company, China Building Materials Corporation (CBMC) and Industrial Development Corporation of Zimbabwe (IDCZ), have approved the project, according to Wang Yong, managing director of SINO Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwe-based industrial park will consist of construction sector-related industries.

One of the UK’s leading professional engineering bodies has bestowed its highest honour on JCB chairman Lord Anthony Bamford for his “huge impact” on UK manufacturing.

Lord Bamford has been appointed as an Honorary Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) at a ceremony in London after more than 50 years in the industry.

He was presented with the Honorary Fellowship along with Ratan N Tata, who was the chairman of Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata group, for almost 20 years,

The global earthmoving machinery market can expect to start its sales recovery in 2016 and consolidate in 2017, with total sales of 880,000 units, up 33% compared to estimated results for 2015, according to new forecasts presented by Veronafire at SaMoTer Day, a new SaMoTer-Veronafiere event organised in collaboration with Prometeia.

Veronafiere also see a favourable trend over the next two years for Italy’s own earthmoving machinery sector which, following its collapse in 2007 (-72% compared to 2006), s

Case Construction Equipment has further strengthened its national accounts team in the UK with the appointment of Matt Jennings, who will take up the role of strategic accounts manager for the south.

Jennings, who has 16 years’ experience of working within the construction and plant sector, has worked for Finning for the past 12 years, the last four as strategic accounts manager, where he looked after a wide range of sectors including mining, waste and recycling, plus quarrying and steel mills. His respo

The year 2015 is being hailed as the year that potentially signalled the start of a revival for Morocco’s national cement sales. Sales in November alone rose by 15.56% compared to November 2014, and have increased year-on-year by 1.67% in the first eleven months of 2015. In 2012, cement sales had dipped by 1.6% and tumbled by 6.4% in 2013, before shrinking by 5.4% in 2014. Expensive and scarce properties as well as higher construction costs are said to remain a hindrance to the development of cement sales,

US demand for fibre cement products is forecast to grow 5.8% annually through 2019 to 269.4 million m² (2.9 billion sq ft), valued at US$2.2 billion. Accelerating construction expenditures, specifically in new housing, will spur demand.

Siding is by far the largest application for fibre cement, and demand will benefit from fibre cement siding’s popularity in the South and West, the US regions that will experience the strongest growth in population and housing starts going forward. These and other trends

Cement manufacturers will see a rise in consumption in the US after the passing of a new Highway Bill, according to the Portland Cement Association (PCA).

The Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act will provide more than US$305 billion to maintain and improve the nation’s roads and bridges. Cement consumptions largest impact will focus on authorisations from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).

“FAST represents an average addition of 835 thousand metric tons annually to the cement in

British Precast has launched the first dedicated health and safety website and app for the UK precast concrete industry. The ‘Safeprecast’ website and app have been developed with guidance from a working group drawn from the industry and builds on the already successful ‘Safequarry’ and ‘Safer by’ suite of services developed by the Mineral Products Association (MPA).

The free resources will make key health and safety information easily accessible for everybody who works within the precast concrete sector

There has been a very welcome increase in the number of Twite birds at Cemex’s Dove Holes quarry in county Derbyshire, England.

Numbers are said to have swelled thanks to the flower-rich five hectare meadow planted on the edge of the quarry site, which provides the young Twites with the sorrel seeds they need.

RDS Technology’s new iSOSYNC PC software is said to enable control of the quarry loadout operation, while also offering inventory, productivity and traceability management.

The software can be used with either LOADMASTER a100 or LOADEX 100 and allows the rapid transfer of job information from a central computer to the loader or excavator, with the resultant load information sent back to the PC upon completion.

The system can be one- or two-way and is designed to operate fully automatically and without

Donald M James, non-executive chairman of US aggregates supplier giant Vulcan Materials, will retire at the end of this month. J Thomas Hill, Vulcan’s president and chief executive, will succeed James as chairman.

James T. Prokopanko, Vulcan's lead director, said: "Don has led Vulcan Materials as the largest aggregates supplier in the US for 18 years, significantly expanding its operations throughout the nation. During that time, he has guided Vulcan through periods of strong growth as well as difficult

Joule, the pioneer of liquid fuels from recycled CO2, and HeidelbergCement have formed a partnership to develop Joule’s technology to reduce carbon emissions in cement manufacturing.

The partnership could result in the co-location of Joule’s Helioculture Technology at one or more HeidelbergCement sites around the world.

"We've been focused on lowering carbon emissions for more than two decades, and we are excited to take further steps to lower our CO2 emissions by working with a dedicated organizatio