Prephor in Spain to make 27 redundancies at Palencia plant

The Spanish marble producer Marmoles Bempe, which is made up of several marble producing companies, has filed for administration at the Mercantile Court of Alicante (Spain). It is reported that the court has given the go-ahead to the creditors' note plan put in place by not only this company but also Grupo Industrial Bempe, Canteras Alicantinas and Sociedad de Bienes Hermanos Torregrosa.

The Board of Directors at French cement giant Lafarge has decided to fix the company’s proposed 2015 ordinary dividend at €1.27 per share. The raised adjustment aims at equalising dividends to be paid by Lafarge and Holcim based on the dividend announced today by Holcim in accordance with the Combination Agreement between Lafarge and Holcim signed on July 7 2014. In the context of the two companies’ planned merger, the Board of Directors also decided to propose an acceleration of the payment date of the Laf

French group Imerys, which extracts and transforms minerals for industry and the construction sector, decided to close its tiling factory in Blajan (Haute-Garonne) in Midi-Pyrénées. Representatives of the 36 staff at the site have received the support of Arnaud Montebourg, the French minister for productive recovery, in their efforts to prevent the closure of the site.

Sika, the international construction chemicals and products giant, saw its H1 2017 net profit rise by 16% to CHF 285.7 million (€254.6mn). Global sales were also up 8.1% over the same period to CHF 2.994.9 billion (€2.669bn). In the first half of the year, Sika’s sales in the EMEA region (Europe, Middle East, Africa) increased by 7%. A new factory for concrete admixtures was opened in Tanzania and a further national subsidiary was founded in Senegal. In Kazakhstan, concrete admixture and mortar production i