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The European Commission is conducting a feasibility study into the creation of a fund to cover environmental liabilities for industrial accidents. If introduced, this could have a major impact on aggregates, mining and minerals companies. Ian Lamond of Stephens Scown LLP discusses the issues involved. An issue of increasing importance to the aggregates and minerals sector across Europe is the potential creation of a fund to cover environmental liabilities from industrial accidents. This is currently the sub

Obtaining the proper price for products is important to Barry Hudson and HeidelbergCement as Patrick Smith reports. Industry conferences often tend to debate policies and equipment, but pricing is a subject not often on the agenda. And Barry Hudson thinks the matter should be given more prominence, particularly at a time when all the major players in the aggregates industry are busy reducing debt and making savings. “As an industry we need to focus on pricing as much as operations because it is such a big i

Exports of U.S.-made construction equipment rose 13% to US$26.7 billion in 2012 compared to 2011, according to the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) citing of U.S. Commerce Dept. data in global market reports for members. AEM notes that the 13% 2012 gain follows a 43% year-on-year growth in 2011, and 28% growth in 2010, after a deep recession decline of 38% in 2009. "Exports have been called a bright spot for the U.S. economy, and this has been especially true for construction equipment manufactu

The first issue of 2013, as you will read, contains on balance a lot of positive news about the industry. Although it is early days yet, and while it is not all good news, major companies are already flagging up better-than-expected results for the past year, and in bauma year this augers well. Indeed, a few days ago the VDMA (the German construction equipment and building machinery organisation) issued its economic report which pointed out that the nation’s construction equipment and building material mach

Sandvik Construction Mobile Crushers and Screens is launching two new additions to its product offering, a new heavy-duty scalper and a new Impactor model. The latest incarnation of the original E7 mobile scalper is said to demonstrate the value of customer feedback and experience, as the new model contains a “wish list of features and benefits that far exceed traditional expectations of durability and technical excellence.” Customer requirements, said to have been met with the new model, include enormous i

In response to growing demand from the South African quarry and mining market, Measurement Devices Ltd (MDL) and Optron have teamed up to establish a product service and repair capability. This, they say, will enhance the service support offering to customers for MDL’s Quarryman 3D rock face profiler. The facility is based at the Centurion head office of Optron which has been supplying and servicing products in sub-Saharan Africa for over 25 years, and has been an essential partner in providing MDL laser me

The new Stage IIIB compliant DX420LC-3 large crawler excavator has been launched by Doosan Construction Equipment. Powered by the Isuzu AL-6UZ1X common rail six-cylinder turbo-charged diesel engine meeting Stage IIIB engine emission regulations through the use of Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) and Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) after-treatment technologies, the new engine delivers 19% more power (270kW) at 2,000rpm with a 6% increase in engine torque. A new travel device in the DX420LC-3 excavator contrib

Sennebogen’s 655 HD duty cycle crawler crane is a new heavy duty machine for use on construction sites and in the extractive industry. The 55tonne machine can be used with a dragline bucket or in foundation construction, and fits into Sennebogen’s existing rope excavator range. Both of its 16tonne winches are driven by high-pressure, variable hydraulic motors, and deliver power transmission.” “The driver is assisted in his everyday work by a special, continuously-variable free fall brake that also helps to

Johnsons Services has bought a Terex Finlay 883 to handle material arising from a new tram project. The Nottingham, England-based recycling company trialled a range of different machines until Steve Johnson, director and founder of Johnsons Services, decided the Terex Finlay 883 would be the best suited screen to cope with the heavy workload. Having hired machines from Finlay Hire as required, Johnson felt the forward facing screen was the ideal solution to cope with the increased recycling demand created b

Stelex Construction Equipment has completed two successful projects in Africa. Stelex, which says it is the sole supplier of the original Hercules trommel range, says the projects are aimed at recovering clean stone from clay-contaminated as-dug material. In Tanzania, tipping contaminated limestone was the only option for the site since it was built around 30 years ago. The waste stockpiles amassed some 3 million tonnes. The feed material is 60% limestone, 40% red clay/soil with a high moisture content duri

Holcim increased consolidated net sales, operating EBITDA and net income in 2012 despite the difficult economic environment in Europe and restructuring costs. The Holcim Leadership Journey, which is well under way across the whole group, also supported operating performance. Despite the fact that volume growth was limited, Holcim succeeded in increasing net sales by 3.9% to CHF 21.5 billion (about €17.7 billion) and operating EBITDA by 0.7% to almost CHF 4 billion. Operating profit decreased by 6% to CHF 1.

Global cement production increased 4.1% to 3.39 billion tonnes in 2012 according to consulting and analysis company CW Group. According to the company's forecasts, global demand for cement is expected to increase 4.9% per year to 2017. Cement consumption per person is expected to rise to 645kg in 2017. This compares to 448kg in 2009 and 539kg in 2012. Cement demand is forecast to grow 7.1%/year in the Middle East. North America is set to witness stronger growth than this, according to CW Group.

Unicem, the French cement industries' union, has seen a poor start to 2013. Deliveries of aggregates were down 5% in January 2013 compared to December 2012 and were down 12% year-on-year. Ready-mix concrete dropped 6.1% over one month, and declined 15.7% compared to January 2012. This performance is linked to an overall sluggish environment and weather vagaries.

The European Aggregates Association (UEPG) highlights the main policies of sector interest during three EU Presidencies. The next Council work programme as established by the future Irish, Lithuanian and Greek Presidencies of the European Union covers the period January 2013 to June 2014. The main policies of sector interest are: Environment - Within the wider umbrella of sustainable development, environment will continue to be on the forefront of the EU agenda with a continuing emphasis on green growth and

As the EU calls for recycling of CD&E waste across Europe to reach 70% by 2020 has Brussels got the criteria right, or should we be looking at quality and not quantity? Peter Craven, head of marketing and sales support at CDE Global comments on the current position. In the UK, over 90 million tonnes of CD&E (construction, demolition and excavation waste) is generated each year. In Europe the figure from construction, demolition and civil engineering projects is in excess of 1,000 million tonnes representing

The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) predicts that the country's cement output will rise by 6.4% in 2012/2013 fiscal year as the country's construction sector expands and demand for the building material goes up. The country's cement production is expected to rise by 4.8% from December 2012 to March 2013. The price of a 50kg bag cement in India was about INR 305 (€4.26) in December 2012 and cement output in October 2012 rose by 7.3% year-on-year to 19.91 million tonnes.

The Zaporozhnerudprom enterprise, part of Smart Holding, produced 976,000tonnes of broken and quarry stone for construction works in 2012, up 34% compared with 2011. The plant capacity is 1 million tonnes of products/year. Sales as of 2012 totalled 1.01 million tonnes, with 517,000tonnes exported, mainly, to Russia. Zaporozhnerudprom reached long-term agreements for exporting broken stone to Russia, and this has meant that two productions lines of the corresponding workshop have started full-shift working.

Croatian cement producer Holcim has reported that it managed to increase its market stake in 2012 by 0.5% compared to 2011, in spite of overall drop in demand by 14%. The concrete segment registered an increase of 6%, while its aggregate segment registered a positive financial result. Holcim's president, Mario Grassl, said that its operative loss reached HRK 19 million (about €2.5 million). Overall activity on the Croatian market dropped by 13%,although the company is expecting growth in 2013. He said that

CRH says its earnings for 2012 were better than expected, with earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA ) of €1.6 billion being 2% ahead of forecasts. As the group announced that its chief executive, Myles Lee, will retire from CRH at the end of 2013 following completion of a five-year term, it also reported revenues at the group advanced by 3% to €18.7 billion, while EBITDA increased by 1% cent on 2011. This was helped by “strong recovery in residential construction and improvin

HeidelbergCement is constructing a new cement mill with an annual capacity of 700,000tonnes at its Wazo Hill plant, Tanzania, some 25km north-west of the coastal metropolis of Dar es Salaam. The investment of US$40 million (€30 million) also includes the construction of a new clinker and a new cement silo as well as the installation of new cement bag packing and dispatch facilities. “The construction of the new cement mill is part of our strategy of expanding our clinker and cement capacities in growth mark