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Marine aggregate production in the UK in 2013 remained depressed, with a 4.7% reduction compared to 2012, but there were signs of recovery in England and Wales where marine landings increased by just over 5%.

The British Marine Aggregate Producers Association (BMAPA) eighth annual Sustainable Development (SD) report says its headline figures are consistent with the performance of the wider British aggregates market.

In the marine sector’s key markets of London and South East England the performance w

Mexican cement giant Cemex has launched Crecimientos (Growth), a platform for the innovation, development, and promotion of social and inclusive businesses. The main goal of this initiative is to support more than one million low income people during the next two years.

Crecimientos will create new business models with high social and environmental impact in Latin American and Asian countries where Cemex is present. As part of its creation, Cemex allied with The Grameen Creative Lab, a social enterprise

To celebrate the start of the festive season, Hope Construction Materials, the UK’s largest independent supplier of construction materials, have rebranded six of their cement tankers with a Christmas present theme.

Their ‘Noël trucks’ will be running up and down Britain throughout December delivering Hope cement and the company are inviting people to send in pictures of the trucks to be in with a chance to receive a surprise Christmas gift.

Pictures should be sent to either amy.salisbury@hopeconstruct

The Indonesian government plans to spend US$19.49 billion (IDR 236.6 trillion) on infrastructure development in 2015 – creating huge commercial opportunities for the country’s aggregates suppliers.

Only IDR 150.9 trillion of the total planned spend may be allocated through the state budget. However, additional money will come from fuel-subsidy savings. The government is looking at ways to fill the funding gap of IDR 85.7 trillion.

The extra IDR 85.7 trillion will be used for building 258.9km of roads,

A biodiversity research project carried out by a team from Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, eastern England, has won the UK section of the Quarry Life Awards.

The project, which looked at insect biodiversity in grasslands at Needingworth sand and gravel quarry in County Cambridgeshire, claimed the €5,000 (£4,000) first prize at an awards ceremony held at The Forest Centre in Marston Moretaine, County Bedfordshire.

The Quarry Life Awards is an international competition organised by Hanson’s parent

The Moroccan cement industry should end 2014 in the red.

In the year to end October 2014, sales were down 5.1% year-on-year, and the trend is not expected to change before the end of the year, says the Association professionnelle des cimentiers (APC), the Moroccan association of cement groups.

The organisation says the end of the year should see sales down 4% to 5%.

Dominique Drouet, CEO of Holcim, says there is no crisis in the cement market, rather a return to normal after the boom of 2011-2012.

Schwenk Zement has replaced its old drag chain conveyor line at its cement plant in Bernburg, Germany, with a modern pipe conveyor from Beumer Group.

Requiring a solution that would transport alternative fuels such as crushed plastic material, textiles and paper from the warehouse to the feeding system of the oven, the fully closed conveying system makes transporting bulk material more environmentally friendly and energy efficient.

Maintenance costs are also considerably lower and the system can be

According to Tambwe Mukas, executive administrator of the Kwanza Sul Cement Plant (FCKS) in Angola, the plant aims to introduce a second production line in the coming years in order to increase its production to 6,000tonnes/day, up from the current capacity of 4,500tonnes/day.

The factory currently has just one production line for its YETU cement brand, which started operations in February 2014.

The company also has plans to open a new distribution centre in the Huambo province in the future.

A cement plant with a capacity of 2 million tonnes/year will be launched in the Akmola region of Kazakhstan.

It is planned to produce 20 types of cement, and investments will total KZT 30 billion (€133.91 million/US$165.67 million).

Some 700 new jobs will be created.

Construction of the planned cement works in Benzireg, Algeria, is set to begin in the first quarter of 2015, with the plant to be completed by 2017 according to public cement group GIGA.

Before construction begins, a contract is to be signed with a Chinese partner company, expected to take place in December 2014.

The project will help GIGA meet its production increase objective of 29 million tonnes/year by 2018.

The cement works will be located on a 60 hectare site and it will employ 500-600 people

Abid A Vazir, the executive director of Pakistan-based Cherat Cement, is reported as saying that the company is to establish a factory that will increase its yearly output capacity to more than 2.4 million tonnes.

The yearly output capacity of the new facility is to exceed 1.3 million tonnes.

Interprom has put a crushing and screening plant into operation to produce inert materials at its Zhireken plant.

Its capacity is up to 500,000m³ of crushed stone/year, and the project was supported by the Government of the Zabaykalsky region (Siberia), and the investment in the project reached more than RUB 100 million (€1.79 million/US$2.22 million).

The enterprise created 70 jobs.

To secure raw material supply of its Teutonia plant, HeidelbergCement intends to the extend marl pit area in the Hanover-Misburg/Anderten region, northern Germany, by about 120 hectares.

It is reported that the municipality of Hanover and environmental protection associations oppose the project.

Nigeria is set to become one of the six countries to have international cement research centres from Lafarge.

The country is said to be on the verge of joining France, China, Brazil, India and Algeria as host to Lafarge’s development laboratory, which is targeted at developing new solutions and business opportunities to consumers through guaranteeing strong orientation towards products applications and construction systems, while deepening understanding of local constructive modes specificities.

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The Swiss-owned construction materials company Holcim is said to have decided to sell its Hungarian unit, Holcim Hungary, which has 16 branch offices.

The step is needed as the company has recently gained a dominant position in several European markets following the merger plans with its French competitor Lafarge.

The sale transaction may be completed in the second half of 2015. The potential buyer is a multi-national group.

Nigeria Cement Holding (NCH), the Nigerian subsidiary of newly-merged Holcim and Lafarge, is to pay NGN 55 billion (€250.88 million/US$310.38 million) to buy the remaining 30% of United Cement Company of Nigeria (UNICEM).

The price may vary depending on the exchange rate between the Nigerian Naira and the US dollar at the time of payment.

A first tranche of 15% will be bought in the first quarter of 2015 and the remaining 15% in February 2016 at the latest.

The Lafarge-Holcim merger will likely affect competition in India, according to the Competition Commission of India (CCI), which has asked both cement companies to publish details of the consolidation in four major local newspapers and on their respective websites.

Within 15 days of publishing the details, the CCI is to seek objections or comments from the public.

Approval from authorities across the world is necessary for the all-share merger of Lafarge of France and Holcim of Switzerland.

FLSmidth has signed an EPC (Engineering, Procurement, and Construction) contract with one of the world's largest cement producers Cemex for the supply of a new cement production line to be installed at Cemex’s Odessa cement plant in western Texas, USA. Once the installation is finished, the cement production line is expected to have a capacity of approximately 2,540tonnes/day.
The expansion will utilise state-of-the-art production technology resulting in higher fuel efficiency and improved productivity. Th

Breedon Aggregates, the largest independent aggregates business in the UK after the four global majors, says in a current trading performance update that it continues to trade strongly, with both the recently acquired and underlying businesses making good progress.
For the ten months to October, sales volumes of aggregates increased by 26%; asphalt by 12% and ready-mixed concrete by 18% compared to last year.
Group sales revenue for the ten months to October increased by 20% to £226 million (€285 million

In January-September 2014, the net profit of Mordovcement amounted to RUB 174 million (€3.01 million/US$3.77 million, -35%) while its revenue reached RUB 13.70 billion (+8.4%).

At the end of September, 2014, its net debt totalled RUB 25.90 billion.