News

The US Portland Cement Association (PCA) has named Mark J. Anderson as group vice president of public affairs where he will be the key PCA government affairs representative, responsible for the overall direction and execution of legislative and regulatory initiatives in support of the association’s advocacy and promotion.

“Mark will take the lead in shepherding the association’s legislative and regulatory efforts and in developing key policies and strategies,” says Gregory M. Scott, PCA president and C

The US Portland Cement Association (PCA) has named Mark J. Anderson as group vice president of public affairs where he will be the key PCA government affairs representative, responsible for the overall direction and execution of legislative and regulatory initiatives in support of the association’s advocacy and promotion.

“Mark will take the lead in shepherding the association’s legislative and regulatory efforts and in developing key policies and strategies,” says Gregory M. Scott, PCA president and C

Cemex in Germany, along with a supply partner, has provided more than 350,000m³ of specialty ready-mix concretes along with its vast logistical know-how, for a large-scale City-Tunnel underground railway project beneath the heart of the city of Leipzig.

The long-awaited City-Tunnel Leipzig project involved the construction of a two-ramp entry section, two parallel shield-driven tunnels, each approximately 1.5km long, four underground stations, and an open cut exit to the existing track system.

The pr

Powerscreen has appointed SIF İş Makinalari as an official distributor of Powerscreen crushing and screening equipment to service the needs of aggregate customers within Turkey.
Conor Hegarty, regional sales manager for Powerscreen, said: “Powerscreen is delighted to work with SIF İş Makinalari to support our customers in Turkey. The country is a fast growing market for construction equipment and SIF İş Makinalari is a long established, successful construction equipment distributor with a strong focus on

Austrian construction materials holding company Asamer has sold its stone, gravel and concrete plants in Slovakia, Ukraine and Croatia. The plants have been purchased by the building materials holding company ALAS Baustoff-Holding, of which Andreas Asamer is the majority owner. The takeover must still be approved by the Austrian competition authority BWB.

Polish Competition and Consumer Protection Office (UOKiK) has approved the acquisition of four concrete production facilities which belonged to Gorazdze Kruszywa i Beton by Lafarge. Two of the facilities are located in Koszalin and Slupsk and the other two in TriCity. The value of the transaction has not been revealed.

The State Statistics Service of Russia (Rosstat) reports 28.418 millon m³ of ready-mix concrete produced in the country in 2013, which is 5.8% more than in 2012 and 14.8% more than in 2011.

The growth was spurred by the growing number of construction projects and the boost in cement production. The biggest growth of RMC production was reported in the Urals Federal District of Russia (27.9% up).

Italian cement producer Italcementi saw a €4.2 billion turnover in 2013, a 5.4% drop on 2012. In the fourth quarter of 2013 turnover fell 6% to EUR 1.02bn.

The Minera Esperanza mine in Chile is to start a project with Metso which targets to increase the mine's annual production of copper and gold by 15-20%.

This will be done by installing a 20,000 tonne/day crushing and screening system which bypasses part of the mine's existing grinding circuit. The new plant is scheduled to start operations in 2015. There will be a site team of over 500 people during the peak phase of the project. The order, worth of around €80 million, was booked in Mining and Constructi

In a recent interview, the executive vice-president of finances and administration at Mexican cement company Cemex, Fernando Gonzalez, revealed that the company will invest US$645 million (€474.57 million) in fixed assets in 2014, $25 million above the investments made in 2013, including $505 million in maintenance and $140 million in strategic assets. Cemex put the cost for aggregates and cement up by 8% in January 2014, and it predicts sales of concrete, aggregates and cement will grow between 4%-6% in 20

Mordovcement hopes to produce 5.64 million tonnes of cement (including 1.16 million tonnes of packaged cement); 5.18 million tonnes of clinker and 7.99 million tonnes of nepheline slime and raw mix.

To boost the company's production, the efficiency of the clinker production line of the dry process cement production plant is to be increased to 80%, a new grinding mill is to be introduced at Staro-Alexeevsky Cement Plant, and the storage and dosing system of the semi-dry process clinker production line is

Organisers of StonExpo/Marmomacc Americas, the most important exhibition in North America dedicated to the natural stone sector, says there are encouraging signals from the US market after the recent ninth edition of the event.

The US residential market is expanding (+25% in new projects for 2014 according to National Association of House Builders/NAHB estimates) and is keen to purchase natural stone made in Italy. In the first ten months of 2013, processed and finished marble and natural stone goods wer

German construction industry supplier Sto cooperated with Swiss research institute Eidgenössische Materialprüfungs- und Forschungsanstalt (Empa) and has developed a new interior plaster that is said to absorb more moisture than conventional lime and clay plasters. The new interior plaster range called StoCalce Functio absorbs 90grammes of water vapour per m² and this is said to be twice as much as conventional lime products.