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Lafarge's Volos cement plant in Greece has set up a novel partnership with a local drinks company, allowing it to reuse the company's wastewater in the cement producer’s industrial process.

The Volos plant has connected its water network to that of the drinks company, using a nearby pipe previously used to pump water from a now disused bore hole to the plant.

Now, waste water from the drinks company is piped directly to the Lafarge works, where it is used in the conditioning tower, before de-dusting

The US Portland Cement Association (PCA) has named Mark J. Anderson as group vice president of public affairs where he will be the key PCA government affairs representative, responsible for the overall direction and execution of legislative and regulatory initiatives in support of the association’s advocacy and promotion.

“Mark will take the lead in shepherding the association’s legislative and regulatory efforts and in developing key policies and strategies,” says Gregory M. Scott, PCA president and C

The US Portland Cement Association (PCA) has named Mark J. Anderson as group vice president of public affairs where he will be the key PCA government affairs representative, responsible for the overall direction and execution of legislative and regulatory initiatives in support of the association’s advocacy and promotion.

“Mark will take the lead in shepherding the association’s legislative and regulatory efforts and in developing key policies and strategies,” says Gregory M. Scott, PCA president and C

Cemex in Germany, along with a supply partner, has provided more than 350,000m³ of specialty ready-mix concretes along with its vast logistical know-how, for a large-scale City-Tunnel underground railway project beneath the heart of the city of Leipzig.

The long-awaited City-Tunnel Leipzig project involved the construction of a two-ramp entry section, two parallel shield-driven tunnels, each approximately 1.5km long, four underground stations, and an open cut exit to the existing track system.

The pr

Powerscreen has appointed SIF İş Makinalari as an official distributor of Powerscreen crushing and screening equipment to service the needs of aggregate customers within Turkey.
Conor Hegarty, regional sales manager for Powerscreen, said: “Powerscreen is delighted to work with SIF İş Makinalari to support our customers in Turkey. The country is a fast growing market for construction equipment and SIF İş Makinalari is a long established, successful construction equipment distributor with a strong focus on

Austrian construction materials holding company Asamer has sold its stone, gravel and concrete plants in Slovakia, Ukraine and Croatia. The plants have been purchased by the building materials holding company ALAS Baustoff-Holding, of which Andreas Asamer is the majority owner. The takeover must still be approved by the Austrian competition authority BWB.

Polish Competition and Consumer Protection Office (UOKiK) has approved the acquisition of four concrete production facilities which belonged to Gorazdze Kruszywa i Beton by Lafarge. Two of the facilities are located in Koszalin and Slupsk and the other two in TriCity. The value of the transaction has not been revealed.

The State Statistics Service of Russia (Rosstat) reports 28.418 millon m³ of ready-mix concrete produced in the country in 2013, which is 5.8% more than in 2012 and 14.8% more than in 2011.

The growth was spurred by the growing number of construction projects and the boost in cement production. The biggest growth of RMC production was reported in the Urals Federal District of Russia (27.9% up).

The State Statistics Service of Russia (Rosstat) reports 66.3 million tonnes of cement produced in 2013, which is 7.7% more than in 2012 and 17.9% more than in 2011.

The growth was spurred by the launch of new production plants with an overall production capacity of 7.3 million tonnes. For instance, BaselCement launched Serebryanskiy Cement Plant (1.8 million tonnes/year) in the Ryazan region (Central); Eurocement Group launched a cement plant (3 million tronnes/year) in the Voronezh region (Central), an

Italian cement producer Italcementi saw a €4.2 billion turnover in 2013, a 5.4% drop on 2012. In the fourth quarter of 2013 turnover fell 6% to EUR 1.02bn.

The Minera Esperanza mine in Chile is to start a project with Metso which targets to increase the mine's annual production of copper and gold by 15-20%.

This will be done by installing a 20,000 tonne/day crushing and screening system which bypasses part of the mine's existing grinding circuit. The new plant is scheduled to start operations in 2015. There will be a site team of over 500 people during the peak phase of the project. The order, worth of around €80 million, was booked in Mining and Constructi

In a recent interview, the executive vice-president of finances and administration at Mexican cement company Cemex, Fernando Gonzalez, revealed that the company will invest US$645 million (€474.57 million) in fixed assets in 2014, $25 million above the investments made in 2013, including $505 million in maintenance and $140 million in strategic assets. Cemex put the cost for aggregates and cement up by 8% in January 2014, and it predicts sales of concrete, aggregates and cement will grow between 4%-6% in 20

Mordovcement hopes to produce 5.64 million tonnes of cement (including 1.16 million tonnes of packaged cement); 5.18 million tonnes of clinker and 7.99 million tonnes of nepheline slime and raw mix.

To boost the company's production, the efficiency of the clinker production line of the dry process cement production plant is to be increased to 80%, a new grinding mill is to be introduced at Staro-Alexeevsky Cement Plant, and the storage and dosing system of the semi-dry process clinker production line is

Organisers of StonExpo/Marmomacc Americas, the most important exhibition in North America dedicated to the natural stone sector, says there are encouraging signals from the US market after the recent ninth edition of the event.

The US residential market is expanding (+25% in new projects for 2014 according to National Association of House Builders/NAHB estimates) and is keen to purchase natural stone made in Italy. In the first ten months of 2013, processed and finished marble and natural stone goods wer

Contractors Roth & Söhne based in Ellwangen, Germany, has expanded its excavator fleet with a New Holland E385C crawler excavator.

Designed primarily for heavy digging duties and handling bulk materials, New Holland says the E385C also provides powerful performance combined with low fuel consumption.

Before delivery by New Holland dealer Böhrer Baumaschinen, the excavator was equipped with a Trimble positioning system by SITECH West, Bensheim, the distribution partners of Trimble Systems in Germany.

German construction industry supplier Sto cooperated with Swiss research institute Eidgenössische Materialprüfungs- und Forschungsanstalt (Empa) and has developed a new interior plaster that is said to absorb more moisture than conventional lime and clay plasters. The new interior plaster range called StoCalce Functio absorbs 90grammes of water vapour per m² and this is said to be twice as much as conventional lime products.

Cementir Holding, the company behind Cementir, the Italian cement and construction materials group, saw its gross operating margins increase by 22.9% year-on-year in 2013 to €169.70 million.

Revenues increased by 1.3% to €988.6 million and the company's net debt fell €48.1 million to €324.9 million.

Sales of cement and clinker fell by 1% in 2013 from 9.8 million tonnes to 9.7 million tonnes due to a decline in the Italian market and a drop in exports to Egypt. Exports to Turkey and China increased and

Finnish construction and infrastructure company Lemminkäinen's net sales totalled €2,218.2 million in January-December 2013, down slightly from €2,267.6 million in 2012.

The company's operating loss, excluding non-recurring items, amounted to €5.2 million compared to a profit of €50.4 million in the previous year.

In October-December 2013, Lemminkäinen posted net sales of €639.5 million down from €668.6 million in the corresponding period of 2012. The company's operating loss, excluding non-recurring

German natural stone specialist Dinger Stone will relocate from Bahlingen to Endingen. The company will set up a large production building as well as a large office and exhibition area for €3.4 million. Dinger Stone employs 40 people.

Breedon Aggregates, which says it is the largest independent aggregates business in the UK, employing around 1,000 people in England and Scotland, may have to sell asphalt and ready-mixed concrete (RMX) operations in north-east Scotland.

This comes after the Competition Commission (CC) provisionally found that some customers could face higher prices following Breedon’s acquisition of certain assets from Aggregate Industries UK.

The company may have to dispose of aRMX plant in the Peterhead area; an as