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Pioneering carbon negative aggregate specialist Carbon8 Aggregates is set to more than double production after gaining planning permission to build a second manufacturing facility at Avonmouth, near Bristol, southwest England.

Work on the €5.1 million (£4 million) project will begin later this year and the plant is expected to be fully operational by early 2016, more than doubling Carbon8’s ability to meet rising construction industry demand for its high quality, lightweight aggregates.

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Germany-based cement sector companies such as Loesche and ThyssenKrupp are offering their eco-friendly technology in Vietnam. Loesche, which operates cement mills in the country, hopes to attract more partners. Meanwhile, second-generation cement grinding solutions will be sold by ThyssenKrupp, which is looking for domestic partners for this purpose. The solutions are currently being used by ThyssenKrupp at its Cong Thanh cement plant in Thanh Hoa. Knauf Vietnam, which will complete its US$40.5 million plan

Financial analyst Darryll Castle is the new CEO of South African cement manufacturer PPC, effective 12 January 2015. Castle was previously COO of mining firm Metorex, and before that CEO of Trafigura Mining Group and Anvil Mining, with significant experience in various parts of Africa. The appointment is tied to a board reshuffling prompted by a conflict with former CEO Ketso Gordhan who left in September 2014.

HeidelbergCement, the German building materials producer, has restarted cement milling operations at its plant near Donetsk in Ukraine. The company also hopes to resume clinker production. According to HeidelbergCement CEO Bernd Scheifele, logistics is the plant's biggest problem as roads and railway lines are destroyed.

bC India 2014 attracted 26,000 visitors and 635 exhibitors from 25 countries, according to figures released by show management.

Many exhibitors are said to have been pleased with the quality of trade visitors during what was the third edition of the international show for construction machinery, building material machines, mining machines and construction vehicles.

Sorab Agarwal, Executive Director of ACE, enthused: “We had visitors from all over India but also international ones. We only had genuine

The first edition of MS Marmomacc Samoter Africa and Middle East has been hailed a success – attracting more than 3,000 attendees.

The debut Veronafiere event for the natural stone, quarry and site machinery sectors held in the Cairo International Convention and Exhibition Centre 11-14 December 2014 attracted 3,000 specialist operators, as well as official delegations from 16 countries from all over the African continent, the Middle East and Europe. Buyers took part in a series of B2B meetings with more

Eurocement Group has had its application to buy the cement factory belonging to LSR in Slantsy, Leningrad Region, approved by the Federal Anti-Monolopy Service (FAS) of Russia. LSR had invested €240.19 million (RUB 18 billion) in the factory, some of which was euro and dollar loans. In the current economic situation, it is reported that the factory's profits do not allow for these loans to be serviced. Experts estimate that the Eurocement Group deal is worth €198.89 million (RUB 17bn): €58.49 million (RUB 5

China-based China Resources Cement has been granted a US$64.49 million (HKD 500 million) loan, with the repayment to the granting bank to be settled within three years. Following the approval, the cement firm will be given one-month withdrawal period. Under the loan agreement, the parent firm of China Resources Cement, China Resources, is required to hold at least 51% issued share capital of its cement subsidiary. A breach to the contract will be taken if China Resources has failed to do.

Lafarge has been ranked first in the Investor of the Year category of the Moscow Times Awards 2014 awards. The French cement manufacturing giant was recognised for the launch of its cement plant in the Kaluga region (Central FD) in May 2014. The two million tonnes/year capacity site is the largest investment project by the company in Russia, and is said to have helped to strengthen Lafarge’s market position in the Kaluga region.

The Angolan government is to begin limiting the import of cement into the local construction sector from 2015, excluding border provinces such as Cabinda, Cuando Cubango and Cunene. Angola's Construction Minister, Waldemar Pires Alexandre, said the provinces each have an annual import quota of 150,000tonnes. The move is being taken as a result of higher production capacity of 8 million tonnes against a demand of 6.6 million tonnes.

Egypt-based Suez Cement will invest US$83.74 million (EGP 600 million) in 2015 to allow two of its cement plants south of Cairo to be powered by coal, negating the country’s natural gas supply shortage.

At least five memoranda of understanding (MoUs) worth a combined US$1.56 billion were sealed between Cambodian and Chinese firms during the recent 9th Cambodia Import-Export & One Province One Product Exhibition 2014. The MoUs include one between King Crushing Stone and Yong Jun Stone Crushing to invest in stone crushing for a five-year period, and the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce signed an MoU with Cambodia International Chamber of Commerce on trade partnership. The exhibition took place at Koh Pic

The winners of the International Quarry Life Award have been honoured at a festive award ceremony held in Prague, Czech Republic.

The Quarry Life Award was established by HeidelbergCement to generate innovative ideas for promoting and protecting biodiversity at its quarry sites. Almost 400 proposals from 22 countries were submitted in 2014, of which 95 were selected for the competition in five different categories: Biodiversity and Education, Innovation and Biodiversity, Biodiversity Enhancement, Raisin

Atlas Copco Construction Technique Business Area is now launching an app for use with Apple and Android devices, tablets and smart phones.
The company says the new Construction App contains a huge store of information about Atlas Copco’s extensive range of products and services for the construction sector.
It also keeps the user up-to-date with the latest news about the construction market and has a host of other useful features, says Atlas Copco.
“Designed to make life easier for Atlas Copco customers a

Following its acquisition of Tarmac Building Products, Lafarge Tarmac is now the largest building blocks company in Great Britain.
It is one of only three companies in the industry that produces both aggregate and aircrete blocks. Taken separately, the company is not the largest blocks supplier in either sector. However, as a whole, Lafarge Tarmac produces half as much again as its nearest competitor.
These are some of the conclusions of the latest BDS annual report on the industry, Estimated market share

Lafarge and Holcim have received clearance from the European Commission for their proposed multi-billion euro merger.
Following constructive discussions with the EC in the pre-notification period and throughout its Phase I investigation, Holcim and Lafarge have now finalised the list of assets for divestment in Europe, which with the exception of a very slight change in France essentially corresponds to the list presented in October.
“We are very pleased with the positive decision of the European Commiss

Hope Construction Materials, the UK’s leading independent supplier of construction materials, is introducing TomTom Telematics technology to their 400-strong fleet to improve sustainability and customer service.

Installation of the integrated telematics system in cement tankers, tipper trucks and concrete mixers is well underway with the entire fleet set to be connected by the start of 2015.

The move will see more efficient route planning and provide a wealth of data on vehicle movements, to ensure m

Cement output in China during November 2014 fell year-on-year by 4% to 219million tonnes. The country's cement production during the first 11 months of 2014 grew 1.9% year-on-year to 2.272 billion tonnes, but the growth rate was 7.35 percentage points slower than the same period of 2013.

According to Russia’s Federal Customs Service, the imports of aggregate to the country reached around 22.509 million tonnes 1 January - 31 October 2014. Some 79.3% of the total were imported from Ukraine. The aggregate import level from this country has not changed for the past few months. Ukraine is followed by the Belarus Republic, Norway, Kazakhstan, Finland, and Sweden. The value of the imports totalled slightly over €280.54 million.

Cement firm Holcim Maroc has named Dominique Drouet, currently president of the board, as the president of its supervisory board as well as area manager following the resignation of Javier de Benito, effective as of 1 January 2015. The cement sector in Morocco is suffering from a lacklustre construction industry, with activity projected to fall by around 5% in 2014 with similar projections for 2015.