News

The CEA is holding its annual conference on Wednesday 18th November 2015 at the home of the Institute of Civil Engineers at One Great George Street, London, England.

This year’s conference will concentrate on the factors that will make the UK construction equipment sector even more successful – investment in infrastructure, commitment to skills and the adoption of innovative technology – with insights into market prospects and top level networking.

Nick Higham renowned broadcaster and journalist retur

Despite volatility in equity markets and concerns about global growth conditions, Portland Cement Association (PCA) expects US cement consumption to increase by 5% by the end of 2015.

PCA Chief Economist and Group Vice President Edward Sullivan said “the fundamentals in the United States are sound and should support sustained growth in construction activity.”

The US economy is characterised by steady and strong gains in net job creation, low inflation, low interest rates, improving business and consum

Building materials specialist Herige (previously VM Matériaux) has appointed Stéphane Jan as administrative and financial director of the company.

Data from the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association showed cement dispatches in Pakistan rose by an annual 10.24% from 2.78 million tonnes to 3.06 million tonnes in August 2015.

According to the association, the increase was driven by growing domestic sales.

In the month under review, domestic sales were up 27.99% from 1.94 million tonnes to 2.49 million tonnes, but exports were down 31.54% from 827,707tonnes to 566,689tonnes on a year-on-year basis.

Meanwhile, domestic cement sales rose

The cement sector in Senegal, represented by three companies, Ciments du Sahel, Dangote and French company Sococim-industries, has increased production by 16.5% in the second quarter of 2015 compared to the same 2014 period, and relies on exports to sell this overload. Indeed, exports have risen by 29.6% to neighbouring countries, such as Mali (+40.4%), while domestic demand, pulled by state projects as well as private works, has grown by 3.3%.

French building materials supplier Vicat has launched a new range of high-performance cements dubbed UP.

The range includes its Ultimat cement which is sulphate-resistant; its Smart cement for high-performance fibre-reinforced concrete (UHPC); its Prompt cement which is a natural eco-friendly cement, and Alpenat which is a sulfoaluminate cement.

With a total of CNY 842 million (€118.80 million/US$132.46 million), 100% equity interest in Henan Yongan Cement (Yongan Cement) will be sold to China Tianrui Group Cement (Tianrui Cement) by China-based Tianrui Group.

The acquisition will be settled via the issuance of 520 million shares in Tianrui Cement to Tianrui Group.

Once the deal is completed, Tianrui Group's shareholdings in Tianrui Cement will rise to 73.93% from current 68.28%.

The price of a share to be issued is set at CNY 1.95.

According to Unicem (The National Union of Quarries and Construction Materials Industries), 30.8 million tonnes of sand and aggregates came out of quarries in France in June 2015, up 2.9% compared to June 2014.

Concrete mixing plants produced 3.5 million m³ of concrete, up 1.2% compared to June 2014.

Production of aggregates in France was down 11% for the first half of 2015 compared to the same period 2014 while production of concrete was down 7.3%.

The Spanish stone producer and distributor Grupo Cosentino has joined forces with ceramics company Lladro to open a new establishment in Milan (Italy).

The new shop, which will be the first that both companies will open in association with another company, is expected to launch on 8 October, 2015.

On 16 September, 2015, Cosentino will open another shop in New York.

It is reported that in India, the Birla and Lodha families' ownership dispute has flared up again, and the dispute now involves one of the biggest cement deals in recent times.

A petition has been filed by the Birla faction in the Calcutta High Court that seeks an injunction over the Birla Corporation’s plans to purchase the cement plants of Lafarge India at Sonadih in Chhattisgarh and Jojobera in Jharkhand.

Hartl Engineering and Marketing has formed Hartl Crusher North America, which is based in Henderson, Nevada.

Martin Hartl was appointed as vice president.

The new US company is a 100% subsidiary of the Austrian-based innovator of mobile crushing and screening equipment, Hartl Crusher, which has 40 years of experience in the crushing and screening sector, and which has a product portfolio of bucket crushers and screeners.

RealMachinery, based at Lempäälä in Finland, has expanded with the purchase of Dae-Tek, the authorised dealer for the Doosan Heavy and Bobcat product ranges in Finland.

RealMachinery, the largest earthmoving machinery rental company in Finland, is retaining the Dae-Tek brand, a long-established and successful dealership for both the Doosan and Bobcat ranges with offices in Kerava, Turku and Kuopio.

The Doosan Heavy range comprises crawler and wheeled excavators, wheeled loaders, articulated dump truck

NCC Recycling the recycling division of the Swedish construction company, has a new facility for the processing of construction and demolition waste in Utby outside of Gothenburg.

Waste from the new facility, which is NCC's first full-service one in Sweden, will be recycled or reprocessed into new materials.

The first waste to be processed in Utby comes from the construction of the Queen Silvia Children's Hospital (Drottning Silvias barn- och ungdomssjukhus).

The Danish Technological Institute (Teknologisk Institut) says it has developed a concrete material with air cleaning properties.

The concrete employs a modified form of titanium dioxide which allows for the removal of harmful mono-nitrogen oxides (NOx) from the air with the aid of light in the visible spectrum.

Previous similar technology is said to have required light in the UV spectrum.

The new material is currently being tested in the pavement on the Fælledvej Street in Copenhagen. Two other de