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Andre Tissen, 43, has been named manager of the cement business unit at BEUMER Group in Beckum, Germany, the international manufacturer in intralogistics in the fields of conveying, loading, palletising, packaging, sortation and distribution technology.

BEUMER says Tissene controls and coordinates the global competence centre for this industry, and is also responsible for the marketing of the product portfolio; the strategic development and strengthening of the international sales team; the optimisation

Estonian Tallinn city municipal utilities department has applied for €900,000 from the city budget 2014 to build test concrete surfaces on three bus stops and one intersection and 500m of connecting roads in Tallinn, the capital.

The Swiss subsidiary of French construction materials group Vicat, Creabeton, is currently testing a new vegetation wall baptised Skyflor, in partnership with the Geneva-based landscaping, engineering and architectural school Hepia. The high-performance fibre-reinforced concrete acts as a natural support for vegetation due to a porous ceramic surface, allowing roots to pass through.

Skyflor is set to be commercialised by Creabeton.

Italian insulating solutions specialist Laterlite has presented two new products from the Latermix Concrete range at the Batimat trade show: the Latermix Béton 1400 and Latermix Béton 1600, which are premixed with expanded clay aggregate, cement and inert materials of natural origin.

The products are said to be 4.5 times more insulating than conventional concrete and up to 40% lighter, and are designed for the same usages as conventional concrete.

Laterlite also unveiled its Più hydrophobe expanded cl

The Spanish cement company Cementum Veritas is to build a new clinker mill at the town of Abanilla (Murcia), in which it should invest some €10.40million.

The unit should report an annual production capacity of 95,760tonnes of cement, butthe company is still awaiting the necessary licences and planning permit as part of the land where the plant should be built requires a licence for industrial use.

Some €5.74 million will be allocated for the production and installation of three silos with capacity fo

For 2013, Kingspan's projected earnings is expected to be higher than previously projected at €118 million to €119 million against €117.8 million.

The Irish building materials company expects a rise of around 10% in trading profit for the year. For the nine months ended September 2013, Kingspan registered a yearly growth of 13% in sales to €1.32 bllion. Despite a 3% drop in sales for insulation boards, there was an approximate 33% sales growth for insulation panels.

Correct Beton of Slovakia has received an EIA approval for its mobile concrete plant project, which is to be built in Bratislava's borough of Devinska Nova Ves.

The project has evoked protests from local residents and activists, as the plant is to be built only around 250m from residential buildings.

In order to eliminate negative effects on the quality of life of local residents, the EIA has recommended to limit the annual concrete production to 71,460tonnes and to build a noise barrier or a wall of

The Spanish construction companies FCC and Sando have managed to obtain certification from the Spanish agencies Entidad Nacional de Acreditación (ENAC) and Agencia de Certificación en Innovación Española (ACIE), who tested a new type of high resistance concrete deployed on the construcyion of tunnels.

The certification confirms its technological innovations. Given the current projects of these companies, notably the construction of a new railway tunnel in Andaluzia (Sorbas-Barranco de los Gafarillos), w

Holcim Romania, the local division of the Swiss group Holcim, plans to return to profit in 2013. The company recorded a loss of around €8.50 million in 2012 due to a rise in costs, compared to a profit of around €18 million in 2011.

Italian building materials producer Buzzi Unicem has posted a 62.1% year-on-year decrease in its net profit to €21.8 million for the first nine months of 2013, while its net revenues fell 3.2% to approximately €2.08 billion.

Its net debt fell to slightly over €1.107 billion from €1.125 billion, and the company registered a 1.2% drop in sales of clinker and cement to 20.6 million tonnes, registering the more dramatic sales decrease in Ukraine, Mexico and Czech Republic.

Sales of pre-packaged concrete a

In the first nine months of 2013, Titan Cement of Greece posted a loss of €15 million in comparison with €2 million profits in the corresponding period last year.

Meanwhile, its revenues reached €883 million from €847million with its revenues up by 6% to €316 million in the July-September 2013 period.

Abdelhakim Berrah, the president of Algerian stock market watchdog (Cosob)p, , has explained that the Tebessa, Chlef and Ain Kebira (Sétif) cement plants were chosen to be floated on the stock exchange due to their strong performance.

The Oued Sly (Chlef) plant has the largest production capacity of all plants in the country. In addition to this, all the plants are all entirely state-owned.

Between 2005 and 2008, the state opted to open up the capital of certain public cement plants to foreign investo