Quarry Products

Cemex says it has been named the primary cement supplier for the Baha Mar tourist complex in Cable Beach, Nassau, being built by CCA Bahamas. It is expected that the complex will house the largest entertainment centre in the Caribbean and will be completed in December 2014. As primary supplier, Cemex will provide 110,000tonnes of cement for the first phase of the project, which is currently being built on an area of 1,000 acres and it is intended to be key in maintaining the Bahamas as one of the world’s pr

Breedon Aggregates, the UK’s largest independent aggregates business, is entering the Nottingham ready-mixed concrete market with the acquisition today of Nottingham Readymix. The company says the acquisition fills an important gap in Breedon Aggregates’ coverage of the East Midlands [region of England], located midway between its plants at Cloud Hill, County Derbyshire, to the south-west and Grantham, County Lincolnshire to the east.

The UK’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has referred the aggregates, cement and ready-mix concrete markets in Great Britain to the Competition Commission. The decision to make a market investigation reference follows the publication of the OFT's market study and its announcement of a provisional decision to refer these markets in the UK in August 2011. Having carried out a public consultation on its provisional decision and considered all the responses received, the OFT continues to be of the view “that compe

Growth in marine conservation areas across Europe means it is more important than ever that the marine aggregates sector makes its voice heard, according to Robert Camp. Marine conservation is quickly becoming the new battleground when it comes to striking a balance between the environment and the aggregates industry.

To understand what's driving this debate, we have to go back to 1992 when EU governments adopted legislation designed to protect the most seriously threatened habitats and species across

The building materials sector in France did fairly well at the end of 2011 and Unicem forecasts growth for between 7-8% for the full year 2011. Ready-mixed concrete saw a 10.3% increase year-on-year in the fourth quarter, and was up 10.7% over the whole year. In the last quarter, aggregate production rose 7.1% year-on-year. In December 2011, aggregate deliveries and ready-mixed concrete both rose 18% year-on-year, according to Unicem.

Cemex is launching its second global ready-mix concrete brand, Hidratium. The special ready-mix concrete with self-curing properties is already being sold in France, Ireland, Mexico, Poland and Guatemala, and is ready to be produced in the Czech Republic, Germany, UAE, Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, Spain and China.

In the first half of 2011, Russian company Pavlovskgranit shipped 4, 915, 000tonnes of aggregates. In August, the flow of truck traffic from its facilities reached 50% for the first time in ten years and equalled railway traffic. Earlier aggregates shipments by truck made up between 37-40% of shipments. Earlier this year the company completed installation of a new crushing and screening plant to produce 5 to 2mm aggregate products to meet the higher demand for this grade of material. It also unveiled plans

Holcim has been allowed to completely replace conventional fuels with waste when making cement at its production plant in Sehnde-Höver near Hanover, in Germany. The permission granted by the local inspectorate replaces an agreement in 2006 to allow the plant to use 70% substitute fuels. Holcim mainly burns plastic waste at its Sehnde-Höver plant, which produces about 1million tonnes of cement per year.

A decrease in aggregates markets during the recession has resulted in more than 100 pits and quarries closing over the last two years. This is one of the conclusions of marketing consultant BDS Marketing’s latest annual report on the sector. The company has identified 35 sites that have closed over the last year, in addition to more than 65 sites closed in the year before. Volumes improved by just 1% in 2010. This appears to have stemmed some of the closures, says the report. “Some will have closed through