Quarry Products

Cemex will provide roller-compacted concrete (RCC) for the construction of a new road in southern Poland, its first major RCC contract ever in this market.

The company has also provided tailor-made building solutions for many of Poland's most important recent and ongoing infrastructure projects, from national roadways to the Warsaw subway and a stadium for the EURO 2012.

The UK is reported to be experiencing a surge in concrete brick sales.
The sales surge is being driven by an industry-wide shortage of clay bricks and by a growing demand from house builders. Manufacturers are struggling to meet this demand, with many quoting lead times of at least three months. Plant closures have reduced production capacity in the UK, meaning that some large producers are being forced to import bricks from sites in continental Europe. Although some producers, like Hanson Building Product

Energy efficiency and recycling are understandably becoming increasingly important to asphalt plants manufacturers and their customers as Patrick Smith reports.

New mixes, such as warm-mix asphalt; special additives and innovative plant designs are all contributing to reducing costs while producing high quality asphalt.

As if to illustrate the point, Turkish asphalt and machinery producer E-Mak, part of Turkish construction conglomerate Simge Group, has sold a Super GT asphalt plant to German comp

Swiss cement manufacturer Holcim plans to use lignite instead of hard coal to produce energy at its Siggenthal plant in Switzerland from later in 2013.

The move has been criticised by environmental associations, as lignite produces more CO2 and less energy than hard coal.

The plant will be supplied with 1,500tonnes of lignite per week, and Holcim is to construct a new steel silo for storage and two additional platforms for the supply trains.

Holcim has made the change for economic and ecological re

Austrian company SBM Mineral Processing (SBM) is to take over the concrete segment of the insolvent Austrian industrial plant engineering company Doubrava in Attnang-Puchheim, Upper Austria.

Insolvent Doubrava is disposing of decades of know-how in the field of manufacturing high-quality concrete plants.

“Acquiring this know-how ideally supplements the product portfolio of SBM Mineral Processing,” according to the owners of SBM, KR Erwin Haider, KR Mag. Heinrich Obernhuber and the company Krünes Cons

A new range of ready-mixed concretes has been launched by British independent concrete supplier, Hope Construction Materials. HOPEFlow is a suite of high-performance, self-compacting concretes and flowing screeds that can be placed in a fraction of the time of conventional concrete, says the company. The product also provides a high-quality surface finish that requires little or no further remedial work. The range, which is available nationwide, is said to be ideal for any situation where conventional concr

According to Peterburgskaya Nedvizhimost, cellular concrete houses account for 22% of all houses in the Leningrad region's country settlements. Panel structures account for 10%; brick houses for 7%, and houses built under cast-in-place technology for 3%. Some 45% of settlements use several types of materials. Houses made from expanded concrete cost RUB 20,000 (€455.21) per m²; houses made from foam concrete cost about RUB 50,000 per m² and brick houses cost RUB 100,000 per m².

Researchers at the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) in Spain and the University of São Paulo in Brazil have developed a new construction material which incorporates green coconut fibres, ash from the rice husk and cellulose pulp into conventional Portland cement. The material has been developed with usage in low cost housing construction in mind, although it could be used for any type of construction. It is said to be an alternative to traditional cement but is more sustainable and is cheaper. It al

Cemex’s recent strengthening of capital has led to it its ratings being increased by leading ratings agency Fitch. The agency raised the Mexican cement giant’s local and foreign currency IDR rating from B to B+, and unsecured share emissions were increased from B+/RR3 to BB-/RR3. The company's long term rating was also increased from BB-(MEX) to BBB-(MEX), and the outlook for the ratings is stable. In the second quarter of 2013, Cemex saw its operational cash flow increase 4% due to an increase in sales in

HeidelbergCement’s operating profit (EBITDA) rose by 5% to €953 million and EBIT improved by 18% to €548 million in the first half of 2013, compared to the same period of last year. The German firm’s sales revenue of €6.56 billion in H1 2013 was similar to that achieved in H1 2012. The construction material group made a net profit of €175 million in the first half of 2013, compared to a net loss of €27 million in the first half of 2012. HeidelbergCement says it benefited from price increases, efficiency p