News

Africa’s leading cement producer, Dangote cement has revealed that it will complete five cement plants spread across five African countries this year, adding about 13.5 million tonnes of cement/year to the existing capacity when completed.

The plants are at various stages of construction, and Africa’s wealthiest man and chief executive of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, says the projects, highlighting company’s pan-African expansion drive, include the 1.5million tonnes/year Zambian plant; Tanzania’s 1.5 mi

The size of the construction materials market in Romania in 2013 stood at around €3.20 billion, about the same as 2012. This sector accounts for one-third of the whole construction industry

Market players report that two concrete manufacturers, Lujabeton and Betomix LO, will merge in the nearest future.

Lujabeton is a subsidiary of Finland's Luja, whose annual turnover totals approximately €500 million and Betomix LO is a division of Finland's Rudus, which has over €300 million turnover and belongs to Ireland's CRH Group.

The rumoured merger will allow the companies to occupy 5% of the St Petersburg and the Leningrad region market. Some experts think that both businesses will remain, but

Turkish construction company AKG Gazbeton has been awarded by the Ministry of Energy in the 2014 Industrial Energy Efficiency Project contest.

The company's project saves 50% water, energy and heat in construction material Gazbeton production, which amounts to 162,000kcal/hour.

AKG Gazbeton's project can be adapted to other sectors' operations which use water heating.

Herbert Pexider Gesellschaft, the Austrian manufacturer of concrete, cement and calcareous sandstone for construction and wholesaler of building materials and sanitary ceramics, is insolvent.

It has liabilities amounting to €9.8 million and assets of some €2.5 million. Pexider has a debt of approximately €7.3 million and its insolvency affects 88 creditors. Its circumstances are attributed to the difficult climate in the construction and construction materials industry. Pexider has been unable to find a

In Russia, the National Association for Pricing and Value Engineering reports the average wholesale prices for ready-mix concretes and mortars to have grown 2.9% in 2013. Prices for sand grew 7.5%, while prices for crushed rock grew 7.2%. Cement prices grew 1.5%. Walling material prices grew 10.1%. Prices for ferrous rolled building materials reduced 2.5%.

Spanish natural stone company, Levantina, is progressing with its commitment to corporate social responsibility (CSR) with the creation of the Levantina Foundation which will focus on developing social economy and entrepreneurial and corporate spirit. It will also work on disseminating knowledge on the natural stone industry, protecting the environment and generating environmental and social value.

The foundation will mainly be funded by private contributions from Grupo Levantina. Initial work to concent

Two new Leaders in Development (LIDs) have started their one-year training at Cemex UK. The programme, started in 2013, is aimed at using young talent from within the business to create the next generation of business leaders.

Cecil Roberts and Callum McPhillips have been selected to take part in the programme, in which they will gain extensive and fundamental knowledge of the business and develop a multi-functional perspective. With this grounding it is hoped to create a mobile talent pool feeding into

Lafarge has sold five aggregates quarries and related assets in Maryland, USA, to Bluegrass Materials for a total enterprise value of $320 million (equivalent to €235 million).

With these divestments, the group has now largely completed its strategy of refocusing on its core markets in the United States. Lafarge today operates a strong network of integrated positions mainly located in the Great Lakes and Mississippi River regions.

Its US operations consist of nine cement or grinding plants and associ

International construction equipment manufacturer Chicago Pneumatic has appointed PML as an authorised distributor of its entire range of construction and portable energy equipment in the south-east of England.
“When the chance arose to partner with Chicago Pneumatic, we jumped at the opportunity. We consider Chicago Pneumatic to be a well-respected brand in the UK, and firmly believe that our customers will benefit from their cost-effective, reliable and quality construction equipment,” says Commenting on

The CDEnviro Recycling plant installed at Eastern Waste Disposal, Brightlingsea, is a UK first as it can recycle road sweepings, gully waste and trommel fines.
The plant has been installed at Eastern Waste Disposal’s Brightlingsea recycling centre in County Essex, suth-east England, and is capable of processing 50,000tonnes/year.
The effects of the landfill directive along with the annual increase in landfill tax have significantly increased the cost of disposal of road sweepings and gully waste for compa

Environmental permitting support provided by SLR Consulting for Wolf Mineral’s Hemerdon Tungsten Mine has led to the first environmental permit for a new Category ‘A’ mining waste facility in England under new EU regulations.
Over the past 12 months SLR has worked closely with Wolf, the Environment Agency and a team of other consultants throughout the application process. The multidisciplinary team from SLR has been responsible for advising on a range of technical issues including air quality, nature cons

The UK Competition Commission (CC) is opening the way for a fifth cement producer in Great Britain in order to increase competition in the market.
In its final report into the market for aggregates, cement and ready-mix concrete (RMX), the CC has said that it will require Lafarge Tarmac to sell a cement plant (and some accompanying RMX plants if necessary) to facilitate entry of this new producer. The CC is also introducing measures to limit the flow of information and data concerning cement production and

Eric Thomas Poupier has been appointed to a newly-created position in Group Executive Management as Group Executive Vice President, Business Development at FLSmidth.

A French citizen, Poupier has since 2011 been a manager at Bain & Company in Stockholm, Sweden, managing projects for Nordic clients. From 2007 to 2011 he was a consultant for the company in Stockholm specialising in reorganisation, growth strategy, sales force effectiveness and performance improvements.

Poupier holds a Master of Mechani