News

Spanish building materials firm Uralita’s losses rose by 18.1% to €18.9 million in Q1 2015, compared to the same period of 2014, due to its financing costs rising to €14.6 million. At the same time, the company’s ebitda decreased by 1.9% to €9.1 million and sales totalled €130.3 million after rising by 1.8%. Sales abroad accounted for 76% of all sales, while sales in Spain decreased by 13%. Sales of Uralita’s Interiors division rose by 2% to €117.2 million, and revenues of its pipes division rose by 1% to €

PPC, South Africa's largest cement manufacturer, recorded 9.2% sales growth to US$377.91 million (ZAR 4.5 billion) in the six months to March 2015. But it wasn’t all good news for the company, as its net income dropped from $7.73 million (ZAR 494 million) to $4.29 million (ZAR 274 million), followed by another decline in earnings per share before one-time items from ZAR 0.96 to ZAR 0.60 on a year-on-year basis.

Meanwhile, PPC is planning to generate an additional profit of $6.26 million (ZAR 400 millio

Lafarge, the French cement giant, has received seven expressions of interests for the acquisition of two of its assets in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, India ahead of its merger with Switzerland-based Holcim. Lafarge has been directed by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to sell its cement plant in Sonadih and a grinding unit in Jojobera to relatively small companies with an installed capacity of at least 5% of their total capacity.

The bids for Lafarge’s Indian assets were made by six foreign and

Finning, the exclusive UK Caterpillar dealer, has now supplied its second remote control machine to metals and minerals specialists Harsco. The Cat 316E Excavator can be fully operated from up to 80 metres away. The remote control functionality is one of a number of bespoke features Finning has delivered for Harsco, due to the intense conditions of the application.

Harsco first came to Finning with the proposition of a remote control machine at the end of 2013. The task: providing an operator with the ab

Cement giant Lafarge plan to axe 380 jobs and fellow sector giant Holcim is cutting around 120 jobs in a “key phase” of preparations for the merger of the two companies in July 2015. France’s Lafarge and Switzerland-based Holcim say the new merged firm will be the world’s most advanced Group in the building materials industry, boasting annual revenues of around €40 billion and employing approximately 115,000 people. The organisation of the new LafargeHolcim Group will be balanced, says Lafarge, between a “d

Plans for an eight-hectare expansion of Lafarge Tarmac’s Mountsorrel granite quarry in county Leicestershire, central England, have been approved.

Although Lafarge and Holcim have agreed revised terms to allow their €42 billion merger to go ahead, it is not yet a done deal. The companies have agreed a new share-swap ratio (nine Holcim shares for ten Lafarge shares), and it was decided that Lafarge boss Bruno Lafont would no longer become CEO of what would be the world’s largest cement group.

IronPlanet, the world’s leading online auction platform for buying and selling used construction equipment, has been demonstrating its flexible service approach through a partnership with DTP Terrassement in Gabon, Africa.

DTP Terrassement – a division of Bouygues Construction that specialises in infrastructure projects – was commissioned by the Gabon Ministry of Public Works, Highways, Construction and the City to renovate and upgrade Gabon’s main national highway – the 47km Ndjole-Medoumane highway loc

Eagle Materials, the US-based cement and other building materials company, reported revenues up 19% to US$1.1billion in its financial results for 2015.

The firm also saw its Q4 2014 revenues rise 18% to $223.8 million.

Fiscal 2015 earnings for Eagle Materials before interest and income taxes increased 32% year-on-year in 2014 to $264.7 million, reflecting improved sales volumes across nearly all business lines, with cement sales volumes setting an annual record of 4.35million tonnes (4.8 million ton

The Moroccan subsidiary of Swiss cement giant Holcim increased its turnover by 6.5% in 2014 to €303.93 million (MAD 3.3 billion), compared to 2013. Consolidated operating income grew by 14.6% to €86.27 million (MAD 946.3 million), while consolidated net income was up 60% to €55.07 million (MAD 604.1 million). The increase in sales is being attributed by the Moroccan subsidiary to a 3% increase in cement prices in the second half of 2014, as well as an increase in clinker exports, with sales up to €28.8 mill

Finland-based Graphic Concrete and its UAE partner Versatile are targeting the Middle East market with a patented technology product that supplies a range of prefabricated concrete surfaces. With technology from Graphic Concrete, designers and architects can create new environments by designing surfaces that can be used for walls, facades and pavement slabs. Graphic Concrete’s four main product lines are GCCollection, GCPro, GCArt&Design and GCSmooth, and its solutions do not require cladding, said to make

The Norwegian Public Roads Administration (Statens vegvesen) has announced that asphalt paving of national roads and county roads in the country’s Eastern Region has begun. In all, 850 kilometres of national and county roads in Østfold, Oslo, Akershus, Hedmark and Oppland will be paved with asphalt in the summer of 2015. The cost amounts to €91.73 million (NOK 770 million). Additionally, Statens vegvesen will spend €13.57 million (NOK 114 million) on road markings for national and county roads in the Easter