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French prefabricated concrete manufacturer SPL is to double production at its Laundal site, which was opened in 2010 and currently employs some 40 people.

The factory has improved capacity by 15% in the summer of 2014, but it is still not enough to satisfy growing demand.

The company produces concrete double walls with integrated insulation that are suited to low energy passive houses. These are already popular in Germany and the Benelux countries and are making inroads into the French market.

The

Germany’s ready-mixed concrete (RMC) association Bundesverband der Deutschen Transportbetonindustrie (BTB) forecasts the production of RMC in the country will grow by just under 4% to 47.4million m² in 2014. The construction market is recovering, especially in western Germany.

In 2013, the approximately 600 German producers with 1,900 stationary and mobile production units saw output fall 0.9% to 45.6million m², whereas sales revenues increased 1.1% to just over €3 billion.

Cement company Holcim Nicaragua is said to rank third among other companies owned by the Swiss-based group in terms of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance.

This relates to an assessment carried out by Holcim in 2013, in which its local subsidiary scored 90.3% in this category.

The business's Ecuadorian and Costa Rican divisions came in first and second place.

The Polish unit of the cement producer Lafarge has appointed Federico Tonetti as the new managing director. He will take over from Bruno Roux, who is to become the managing director in Eastern Canada. Tonetti has worked for Lafarge since 2008.

The Swiss company Holcim will construct a new production line for semi-dry process at the Holcim (Rus) cement factory in Volsk (Saratov region, Volga), Russia.

The capacity will total 4,500tonnes/ day, and four wet process kilns will be stopped, excluding one with the capacity of 1,600tonnes/day.

Some 750 jobs will be created during the construction period.

A CNY 540 million (€67.91million/US$88.03 million) cement production project has been signed in Zhangjiajie City, Cili County, Hunan province, China.

Besides a new dry-type cement clinker production line with an annual output of 1 million tonnes, the project will also include a ready-mixed concrete production line and a cement grinding production line of 1 million tonnes/year.

A new type of road surfacing, called Poroelastic road surface (PERS), has been laid on a 15km stretch of the former E4 motorway near Linköping, Sweden.

The material combines small rubber particles and stones and is porous as 25% of its volume is air.

Tests by the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI) are said to have found that studded tyres do not wear down the surface faster than normal surfacing, and it produces almost no particles, while road noise is significantly reduced.

Two facilities for building material production have been launched in the Kaluga region (Central Federal District).

Omia Ural, the Swiss manufacturer of marble dust, has opened its branch at the premises of Vorsino Industrial Park in the Borovsk district of the region.

The planned capacity exceeds 100,000tonne/year, and the factory intends to produce fine marble dust, which is used as an extender and a pigment in paint and coatings industry and in paper industry, as well as in plastic and building mat

On 17-19 February 2015, Moscow, Russia, will host the Nerudex international exhibition, which aims to create a communicative space for consolidation of enterprises of the non-metallic sector and promotion of non-metallic materials.

The main themes of the exhibition include Minerals and Aggregates; Mining of Mon-Metallic Materials, Equipment; Drilling and Blasting Operations, and Waste Disposal.

The event will be held simultaneously with the international asphalt industry exhibition Asphaltex.

In Morocco, quarry operators are hoping for a change in the law that would increase the maximum operating duration for a quarry from 15 to 20 years in order to give them more time to render their operations profitable.

It is reported that this comes as the Moroccan Minister for Equipment and Transport, Aziz Rabbah, presents his bill on quarry exploitation to the chamber of representative's commission for infrastructure, energy, mining and the environment. It will now be up to MPs to decide whether they a

Terex Washing Systems (TWS) is celebrating the first birthday of the Terex AggreSand 165 washplant following the official launch in Ireland in September 2013.

The company says the last year has seen the successful installation of the plant on five continents and in over ten countries, processing up to 10 million tonnes.

“The market has really embraced the AggreSand washplant concept with exceptional demand at the moment. To date, TWS has installed multiple AggreSand 165 washplants around the globe. W

As part of its previously disclosed plan to divest a significant portion of its building products business in North America and the United Kingdom, HeidelbergCement has announced

that its subsidiary, Hanson Building Products, has filed a registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for a potential initial public offering (IPO) of its ordinary shares.

Hanson Building Products was formed by HeidelbergCement to own and operate a diversified portfolio of concrete and clay building

With a MOBIREX MR 122 Z impact crusher from Kleemann, the Scottish quarry operator Grange Quarry has recently strengthened its fleet of machines.

Founded in 2000, Grange Quarry is now one of the largest manufacturers of high-quality aggregates and ready-mixed concrete in the south of Scotland and the north of England.

For Grange Quarry, the MOBIREX MR 122 Z impact crusher is not the first plant that it has acquired from Kleemann, a member of the Wirtgen Group.

A German sand-gravel quarrying operation says it has doubled, and in some cases tripled, output using innovative cutting technology.

For some time, Saarland-based Kies-Hector has been mining ‘natural concrete’ with a Rockwheel D30 cutting unit on a 36tonne Volvo EC360CL excavator.

The gravel-sand conglomerate in the middle bunter sandstone is being mined in the open-cast mine belonging to August Hector near Saarlouis-Lisdorf.

Making its debut in the marble quarry sector is a New Holland Construction B100C backhoe loader that has been specially equipped to cut marble.

A support arm and chain cutter, mounted in place of the traditional backhoe, are said to offer “a new ingenious and simple method for cutting blocks of marble that is both fast and efficient.”

The BI00C was fitted with a chain cutter (model CST 965) developed by Italian company Benetti Macchine, based in Carrara, Italy, who specialise in supplying marble-cutti

Volvo Construction Equipment is hosting a new initiative that will promote sustainability throughout the entire construction industry and provide much-needed funding for environmental research.
Launched in June, the new initiative works with partners to drive sustainability across the construction industry.
Volvo CE says this is not restricted to the manufacture and operation of construction equipment, but rather stretches the length of the construction industry’s value chain, from extraction and producti

Volvo Construction Equipment is hosting a new initiative that will promote sustainability throughout the entire construction industry and provide much-needed funding for environmental research.
Launched in June, the new initiative works with partners to drive sustainability across the construction industry.
Volvo CE says this is not restricted to the manufacture and operation of construction equipment, but rather stretches the length of the construction industry’s value chain, from extraction and producti

On 22-25 May, all 28 EU Member States held elections for the European Parliament. Similar to 2009, the turnout was just above 43%. The new or re-elected MEPs have a mandate for the next five years. The Parliament is now composed of 751 MEPs, representing 503.7 million habitants, with no country allowed more than 96 MEPs.

For the European Elections, UEPG had developed a manifesto summarising what the European aggregates industry needed from EU decision-makers. UEPG has also joined the Basta Campaign calli

Simon Trahair-Davies of Stephens Scown LLP outlines the European Commission’s proposals for regulating the operations of drones in civilian applications, an emerging technology with significant possibilities in the aggregates and quarrying world. Last year at an aggregates producer conference in the UK proceedings were enlivened by the demonstration of a drone (also known as an unmanned aerial vehicle or UAV) used for aerial mapping of quarries. There was a touch of James Bond about the whole thing, and a s

A popular tourist destination for nature lovers keen to capture a glimpse of the Giant Panda in its natural habitat, Chengdu in Sichuan Province, south-west China is also the location of a construction boom, writes Guy Woodford.

It may be more famous for a certain animal species, but the Chinese city of Chengdu is now as much as a haven for senior citizens who are investing in retirement property and driving regional housing demand.

The increase in demand for housing in second-tier cities such as Chen