News

Construction companies and asphalt distributors in Mexico have warned that the country is suffering a 20% shortage of the product which started in November 2013.

The failure from state-run oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) to provide enough asphalt could delay road maintenance projects by up to 30%.

Asphalt represents up to 60% of the value of such projects, according to national asphalt association AMAAC and construction sector chamber CMIC, so the shortage is a significant issue. Both organisa

The Pudozh division of Lafarge Aggregates and Concrete (part of Lafarge group, France), which runs the Bolshoi Massiv quarry, Russia, shipped some 1.5 million tonnes of crushed stone in 2013.

According to the company's CEO Roman Shlyakov, it intends to boost shippings in 2014.

The quarried crushed stone is shipped by water to the Moscow region; Cherepovets (Urals); Yaroslavl (Central FD); Nizhny Novgorod (Volga), and Kazan (Volga).

According to results of 2013, the mining industry was a leader of the total industrial production in the Republic of Karelia (north-west), Russia, with 43% in value terms as against 39.5% in 2012.

The industry has 87 mining companies, which employ 9,700 people. The production index in the mining sector amounted to 100.7%. In particular, production of iron ore pellets increased by 2.3% year-on-year with broken stone production rising by 16%. The region produces up to 18 million tonnes of broken stone and

Accelerating the adoption of Building Information Modelling (BIM) to improve efficient construction and the whole-life performance of structures has stepped up a gear, following the launch of four BIM Objects for Lafarge Tarmac’s readymix concrete solutions.

The company says that u BIM users can download objects for its Agilia, Artevia and Extensia concretes via BIMStore and its corporate website.

Lafarge Tarmac says it is the first in the readymix concrete sector to offer this solution. The data-ri

Cemex has quickly responded to changing market conditions in the United Kingdom with the release of its innovative new concrete product Readybrick.

The company says it is helping homebuilders by providing an alternative to traditional kiln-fired clay bricks, which are currently in low supply.

The past five years saw a marked downturn in the UK’s housing market, which led to the shutdown of many clay brick facilities as the industry adapted to low demand. In recent months, however, the housing sector

Sandvik Construction’s new distributor for Sandvik Construction Mobile Crushers and Screens in Portugal is Ascendum Group, which not only be supplying a comprehensive range of Sandvik Mobiles but also providing full aftermarket care, spare parts and dedicated customer service.

ASC is an international group and Iberian leader with an established name throughout Portugal, with offices, workshops, service engineers throughout the country. It deals in the distribution, rental, sales and service of constructi

Mobility is a benefit that has been added to W.S. Tyler’s Hydro-Clean washing system, says the company.

A member of the wholly-owned German-based Haver & Tyler Processing Technology Alliance, W. S. Tyler now offers the ability to mount the machine on a chassis for easy movement within a quarry or from jobsite to jobsite. As with the original Hydro-Clean, the portable unit cleans deleterious material from aggregate, recycled and other minerals, resulting in cleaner products with higher selling value and p

A concrete laboratory worth US$1 million (€725,000) has been commissioned in Zambia by cement firm Lafarge Zambia.

The new laboratory will provide concrete and aggregates tests to improve the quality of various infrastructure projects in Zambia, and is the first of its kind in the country.

In the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, production in most cement units dropped to just around 50% of capacity, while prices have fallen by between INR 50 (€0.59/US$0.82) and INR 60 per bag to below INR 200 per bag.

According to a statement, cement prices stood at between INR 185 and INR 195 per bag in Hyderabad, followed by between INR 220 and INR 225 per bag in other areas in the state.

In the Telangana region, cement prices stood below INR 200 per bag. The decline in the cement industry was due to

Following the acquisition by Italy's Buzzi Unicem, construction material producer Dyckerhoff will cut 48 administrative staff at its corporate head office in Wiesbaden as certain functions will be taken over by Buzzi Unicem.

Dyckerhoff's remaining 328 administrative staff in Wiesbaden will be granted a job guarantee until June 2015.

Mexican cement company Cemex expects to see its EBITDA in the USA double in 2014 versus 2013, thanks to a predicted 8% increase in demand from the country.

In 2013, Cemex had a U$255 million (€185 million) EBITDA in the US, which is one of its main markets. As the company expects to see better conditions in most of its markets in 2014, it aims to reach a $4.7 billion consolidated EBITDA in 2016. In 2013, its EBITDA was $2.64 billion, although its consolidated sales of cement dropped 1%.

ASEC Cement is seeking to divest its 35% stake in the Zahana cement works. Citadel Capital, the company that manages the Egyptian cement company's portfolio, is seeking to help ASEC Cement focus on its strategic activities and is in preliminary discussions with its Algerian partner GICA (Groupe industriel des ciment d'Algérie). The latter feels that ASEC did not meet its commitments made in 2008. The partnership was to help the site increase from 800,000 tonnes/year to 2 million tonnes/year, but that as of

Siam Cement Group (SCG) of Thailand will be overhauling its business plans to deal with the effect of the economic outlook and the political trouble in the country.

The cement company is now targeting at more exports and trading with the market in the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) region.

Due to the poor market conditions in the country, SCG will have its cement exports maintained at 4 million tonnes in 2014, targeting at markets including Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar. Under the ex

In Indonesia, a new cement factory will be built by state-run cement maker Semen Indonesia's unit Semen Gresik for IDR 3.7 trillion (€235 million). The factory in Rembang, central Java will have an output capacity of 3 million tonnes/year when it begins operation in 2016. Also, the cement company has signed a deal to secure a letter of credit facility worth IDR 1.40 trillion from Bank Mandiri to support the project.