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Soon to be just a click away is your relaunched ari AggregateResearch.com website, packed with all the big building materials industry news from North America and other key global markets. After a successful 15 years, the site receives more than 800,000 pageviews a year from the United States and Canada alone. The current site has a Google 4 ranking, making it a must visit. The revamped ari AggregateResearch.com - a great tool for professionals keen to keep up with the fast-paced building materials sector.

Lafarge Cementos has completed the takeover of the Greek cement company AGET Iraklis, with Lafarge Cementos now controlling 100% of the Greek company, which translates to 71,082,707 shares.

For 2016, Indonesia’s Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa (Indocement) reported revenue of IDR 17.79 trillion (€1.2 billion/US$1.35 billion), down 10.9% from IDR 19.99 trillion generated in 2014.

Net profit for the country's second-biggest cement producer was at IDR 4.35 trillion compared to IDR 5.29 trillion in 2014.

Operating profit dropped by 15.7% from 2014 to IDR 5.05 trillion.

The cement company’s liabilities were at IDR 3.77 trillion, down 12.4% from IDR 4.3 trillion a year earlier.

Assets also

The Moroccan national investment company SNI and cement group LarfageHolcim are strengthening their partnership.

They are reported to be setting up LafargeHolcim Maroc via the merging of Lafarge Ciments and Holcim Maroc, and by creating a subsidiary dubbed LH Maroc Afrique, which will operate in French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa.

This project should come about in the third-quarter of 2016. It will turn the SNI into a pan-African long-term investment fund and hasten the development of LafargeHolcim on

The managing director of Semen Indonesia, is reported as saying that the state cement producer has set up a new joint venture company with mineral and mining company, Samana Citra Agung.

The joint venture, to be known as Semen Indonesia Aceh, plans to set up a cement plant in Aceh with an annual capacity of 3 million tonnes.

SI will take a 87.5% stake in the new entity while the remaining 12% will be owned by Samana Citra.

Investment for the plant is projected at up to IDR 5 trillion (€337.74 mill

Belarus intends to expand its geography of crushed stone and cement exports in 2016.

Negotiations are underway with Poland and the Baltic countries.

Contracts are to be concluded in the near future.

According to a report by Persistence Market Research, the global construction aggregates market is expected to grow at 6% CAGR (compound annual growth rate) from 2015-2021 to value US$468.2 billion (€417.47 billion) by 2021.

The market will see a CAGR of 4.6% in terms of volume during the same period.

The global construction aggregates market is driven by rising investment in infrastructure globally, new trends such as recycled aggregates and manufactured sand.

Rising energy costs, seasonal facto

French cement giant Lafarge has started the process to sell off its operations in India, with the value estimated at approximately INR 100 billion (€1.34 billion/US$1.51 billion).

This came after the Competition Commission of India (CCI) approved the sale of Lafarge India.

According to investment bank sources, global private equity companies, including Blackstone and KKR, as well as local companies CRH, JSW Cement and Piramal Enterprises have shown interest in the sale.

Arpwood Capital and Citi w

Having worked in the UK Aggregates, Cement, Ready-Mixed Concrete and Cement Replacements Industry for nearly 55 years, Philip Jones has decided to hang up his PPE and retire a few weeks before his 70th Birthday in August 2016. A much acclaimed and accomplished after dinner speaker, Jones has entertained at industry conferences and functions in many parts of the World for more than 40 years, he has also decided that the time is right to put away his now famous, and well worn, portable lectern and take a well

The Institute of Quarrying (IoQ) is hosting a must-attend event in the United Arab Emirates on 11 April 2016. The 2016 event themed ‘Quarrying and the Environment’ follows on from the success of the IoQ’s 2015 Middle East event. Environmental considerations of quarrying operations are becoming increasingly important to operators. Driven by government pressures to address multiple agendas involving climate change, carbon emissions, biodiversity, recycling and waste, it’s easy to see how quarry operators can

Stephens Scown LLP, a leading South-West England law company has advised Canadian company Strongbow Exploration on the acquisition of the South Crofty tin mine in County Cornwall.

The deal gives Strongbow Exploration the right to acquire, from administration, a 100% interest in the South Crofty Tin Project and associated mineral rights.

The project, in the towns of Pool, Camborne and Redruth, has an active mine permit valid until 2071, subject to certain planning conditions being addressed. The mine p

Indian tyre manufacturer BKT is celebrating the first anniversary of its multi-lingual website with over two million pages viewed.

The company launched the 2.0 version of its own corporate website and the interactive Around BKT Community a year ago, and the multi-lingual portal www.bkt-tires.com has been visited by more than 20,000 users from all over the world. About 60,000 users follow the BKT profiles on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.

“To be a benchmark for professional users of off-high

The level of aggregates recycling continues to increase in Great Britain.

Around 45 million tonnes of aggregates were recycled at processing plants in 2015, according to marketing specialist, BDS Marketing Research Ltd.

Recycled aggregates now represent an estimated 20% of the total aggregates market in Great Britain.

These conclusions form part of the BDS Directory of Aggregates Recycling Plants which lists all known operations in the country. The consultancy has identified around 650 plants, oper

Guangdong Tapai Group announced on 16 March 2016 that it aims to generate a net profit of CNY 560 billion (US$ 86.21 billion) in 2016. The ambitious Chinese cement producer intends to produce 16 million tonnes of the building material this year.

The Serbian Chamber of Commerce (PKS) says it will provide necessary support to the cement sector in order to aid efforts to make it more competitiveness nationally, regionally and across all EU markets. As part of the PKS’ support, the preparation of necessary regulations and procedures will be carried out. PKS president Marko Cadez announced the support package after a visit to the Lafarge Serbia cement factory, which is part of the LafargeHolcim Group. He said that Holcim is planning to open a total of t

Eurocement Group will invest €204.99 million (RUB 16 billion) in the renovation of Mikhailovcement plant in Russia’s Ryazan region (the Central FD). The three-year project involves the modernisation of existing production facilities, the construction of a new line with a capacity of 10,000tonnes/day of clinker, and the introduction of the plant's own power generation. As part of the first phase, the construction of a freight yard will be completed. The construction of an automated cement loading system, the

The first step towards the development of a new cross-industry approach on the control of mineral dust in quarries and other workplaces has been taken this week, says the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH).

Experts from across UK industry have agreed to work collaboratively with IOSH to develop a new way of sharing good practice around tackling respirable crystalline silica (RCS) exposure across industry.

It follows a roundtable discussion at The Shard, in London, on Monday 14 March

Caterpillar Work Tools, a leading global manufacturer of excavator and wheeled loader attachments, has opened its new Work Tools distribution centre in Den Bosch, The Netherlands.

The distribution centre will provide shorter shipping times as well as increased product availability to Work Tools customers and Cat® dealers in EAME and CIS.

The 9,000m² facility, which houses both hydraulic (grapples, hammers, pulverisers, shears), and fabricated work tools (buckets, brackets), consolidates distribution

HeidelbergCement is expecting growth in sales of cement, aggregates and ready-mixed concrete in 2016 after increasing its revenues last year, while also significantly reducing company net debt.

Revenues rose by 7% to €13.5 billion, while operating income was up by 16% to €1.8 billion. Net debt was greatly reduced in 2015 to €5.3 billion.

The German building materials giant said its sales growth forecast for 2016 is a reflection of its positive outlook for the global economy; despite increasing geopoli

LafargeHolcim, the world’s biggest cement maker, expects growth of 2-4% in its building materials markets in 2016, after reporting a Q4 2015 dip in sales.

The sector giant expects China and Brazil to remain tough places to do business in an overall improving environment for emerging markets, where LafargeHolcim is counting on cost cuts and efficiency gains to shore up profit.