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The Gujarat and Delhi High Courts in India have approved the merger of Ambuja Cements with Holcim India, along with a proposed reduction of capital.

Ambuja will buy 24% of the stake held by its Swiss parent Holcim in group company ACC for INR 35 billion (€422 million/US$582 million) and issue shares for another 26%, giving Holcim a 61.39% stake in Ambuja (previously just over 50%).

The restructuring, intended to consolidate Holcim's Indian holdings, will be completed in or before June 2014.

Kenya-based East African Portland Cement (EAPCC) posted a pretax profit of KES 171 million (€1.43 million/US$1.97million) in the second half of 2013, down 54.6% from the year-ago period.

Revenue grew 0.4% to KES 5.47 billion while administrative and sales expenses were up 26% to KES 1.26 billion.

Spanish construction company, FCC, is increasing its controlling stake in Spanish cement company Cementos Portland, from its current 69.8% to 78%, thanks to the conversion into shares of a €100 million.

loan FCC granted to the cement company in October 2012.

The operation, which is due to be approved by shareholders on 29 April, 2014, will be carried out via a capital increase, and will strengthen FCC's position in the cement company.

In 2013, Indonesian state-owned cement producer Semen Baturaja has recorded a revenue of IDR 1.16 trillion (€73.7 million/US4101.84 million), up by 6.5% on-year.

Meanwhile, the company’snet profit rose by 4.6% to IDR 312.1 billion.

In terms of sales, Semen Baturaja has sold 1.26 million tonnes of cement in 2013, a hike by 2% on a year earlier.

Turkish packaging firm, Isiklar Ambalaj has invested in a production facility worth €7.24 million in Iraq.

The company has started to produce packaging for cement and is aiming to increase its turnover from €2.9 million to €5.8 million in 2014. This factory has a production capacity of 80 million units of cement packaging and in the next three years the company plans to increase this number to 240 million units.

Nigeria-based Dangote Cement has registered a jump in its revenue in 2013 to NGN 386.20bn (€1.7 billion/US$2.34 billion), up by 29%.

The company has recorded an increase in its net income in 2013 from NGN 145.1 billion in 2012, to NGN 201.9 billion. Its sales stood higher to 13.3 million tonnes, up by 28%.

In 2014, the cement company aims to expand its plant under an investment of around US$1 billion (€725.59 million).

Construction companies and asphalt distributors in Mexico have warned that the country is suffering a 20% shortage of the product which started in November 2013.

The failure from state-run oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) to provide enough asphalt could delay road maintenance projects by up to 30%.

Asphalt represents up to 60% of the value of such projects, according to national asphalt association AMAAC and construction sector chamber CMIC, so the shortage is a significant issue. Both organisa

The Pudozh division of Lafarge Aggregates and Concrete (part of Lafarge group, France), which runs the Bolshoi Massiv quarry, Russia, shipped some 1.5 million tonnes of crushed stone in 2013.

According to the company's CEO Roman Shlyakov, it intends to boost shippings in 2014.

The quarried crushed stone is shipped by water to the Moscow region; Cherepovets (Urals); Yaroslavl (Central FD); Nizhny Novgorod (Volga), and Kazan (Volga).

According to results of 2013, the mining industry was a leader of the total industrial production in the Republic of Karelia (north-west), Russia, with 43% in value terms as against 39.5% in 2012.

The industry has 87 mining companies, which employ 9,700 people. The production index in the mining sector amounted to 100.7%. In particular, production of iron ore pellets increased by 2.3% year-on-year with broken stone production rising by 16%. The region produces up to 18 million tonnes of broken stone and

Accelerating the adoption of Building Information Modelling (BIM) to improve efficient construction and the whole-life performance of structures has stepped up a gear, following the launch of four BIM Objects for Lafarge Tarmac’s readymix concrete solutions.

The company says that u BIM users can download objects for its Agilia, Artevia and Extensia concretes via BIMStore and its corporate website.

Lafarge Tarmac says it is the first in the readymix concrete sector to offer this solution. The data-ri

Cemex has quickly responded to changing market conditions in the United Kingdom with the release of its innovative new concrete product Readybrick.

The company says it is helping homebuilders by providing an alternative to traditional kiln-fired clay bricks, which are currently in low supply.

The past five years saw a marked downturn in the UK’s housing market, which led to the shutdown of many clay brick facilities as the industry adapted to low demand. In recent months, however, the housing sector

Sandvik Construction’s new distributor for Sandvik Construction Mobile Crushers and Screens in Portugal is Ascendum Group, which not only be supplying a comprehensive range of Sandvik Mobiles but also providing full aftermarket care, spare parts and dedicated customer service.

ASC is an international group and Iberian leader with an established name throughout Portugal, with offices, workshops, service engineers throughout the country. It deals in the distribution, rental, sales and service of constructi

A new heavy rig-mounted breaker from is helping a company carry out a major rock excavation project.
The RX46 breaker from Chicago Pneumatic is being used by Ballut Blocks, one of Malta’s largest civil engineering contractors, to meet challenging productivity targets on the project, which involves the excavation of 1 million m3 of rock over a period of four years without the use of explosives.
With a service weight of 3,000kg, the RX46 breaker is one of the largest ever used on the Mediterranean island of

Swerock supplies a diverse product range from its quarry in Klippan, southern Sweden, for use as construction aggregate as well as in the manufacture of asphalt and concrete.
In order to ensure that customer requirements are met, the quarrying company, part of the PEAB construction group, has expanded vertically in the value chain through the development of its own transport company. More recently it provided itself with what it says is extra peace of mind through taking advantage of the newly-developed ex

Mobility is a benefit that has been added to W.S. Tyler’s Hydro-Clean washing system, says the company.

A member of the wholly-owned German-based Haver & Tyler Processing Technology Alliance, W. S. Tyler now offers the ability to mount the machine on a chassis for easy movement within a quarry or from jobsite to jobsite. As with the original Hydro-Clean, the portable unit cleans deleterious material from aggregate, recycled and other minerals, resulting in cleaner products with higher selling value and p

Dutch company Orlaco says that since introducing its RadarEye system it has helped improve the safety and efficiency of industrial vehicles for many companies.

The advanced camera and monitor system feeds constant, real-time vision and detection information of the working area to the vehicle operator. One example is at Sibelco Benelux, which extracts and refines various types of sand and minerals, mostly high quality silica sand for industrial use. One wheeled loader at its new plant in Maasmechelen, Bel

Tackling the volume of waste going to landfill has been an issue for waste companies for many years.

As the landfill tax has increased, the effort to recycle has intensified, and Anaconda says it has seen a significant increase in its TD516 tracked trommel screen.

The screen “can provide a solution to separate the qualifying materials from the non-qualifying materials pre-landfill, thus avoiding the higher rate of tax.”

Mobility is a benefit that has been added to W.S. Tyler’s Hydro-Clean washing system, says the company.

A member of the wholly-owned German-based Haver & Tyler Processing Technology Alliance, W. S. Tyler now offers the ability to mount the machine on a chassis for easy movement within a quarry or from jobsite to jobsite. As with the original Hydro-Clean, the portable unit cleans deleterious material from aggregate, recycled and other minerals, resulting in cleaner products with higher selling value and p

A new Volvo EC220D crawler excavator has taken over primary extraction and bulk muck shifting duties at SRC Aggregates Crown Quarry facility.
The new EC220D, in use at the facility near the town of Colchester, England, takes over from a Volvo EC210LC that was supplied back in 2007. It is now at the company’s other sand and gravel extraction quarry at nearby Dunmow.

As we go to press, preparing for another ConExpo-Con/Agg show in Las Vegas, some of the glitter of that city seems to be rubbing off on major sector companies.
It is the time of year when the companies unveil their fourth-quarter/full-year results, and reviewing the financial figures for 2013 it seems to have been another successful year for most quarry operators with many recording growth in both turnover and profits.