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Swiss cement group Holcim plans to stop a furnace at its site in Dannes, northern France, due to being overcapacity for clinker production. The Group says it is facing a drop in demand and increased competition that is driving prices down. The site employs 84 people, of which 70 will be affected by the furnace stopping activity. Management says that it is working with social partners to establish a job savings plan, which could include reclassification either to other posts at the site or in other Holcim si

The French branch of cement, aggregate and ready-to-pour concrete company Cemex has posted turnover of €973 million, down 2% from 2011. Sales in volume fell 7% for aggregates and 5% for concrete. Though certain large projects like Grand Paris, Canal Seine-Nord and the Tours-Bordeaux high-speed line will boost demand, Cemex said it is unlikely to see big growth in 2013 as French public works as well as investments by businesses and individuals have slowed due to the economy. In 2013, around €16 million will

Sandvik Mining has selected Volvo Penta engines for its underground vehicles for the global mining industry. Engines meet Tier 4i/Stage IIIB emission standards and reduce fuel and ventilation costs. “We started installing Volvo Penta TAD1251VE engines in our TH430 underground trucks about three years ago,” says Dale Rakochy, product line support manager for Sandvik Mining, based in Ontario, Canada. “Since then, our relationship with Volvo Penta has evolved, and all our large loaders and trucks are now power

Deutsche Doka Schalungstechnik has bought a 11.4-hectare large plot of land in the industrial park of Apolda, Germany, for €1.10 million. According to Apolda's Mayor Rüdiger Eisenbrand, Doka will set up its first German logistics centre in Apolda. Investment is to amount to around €14 million. Construction is due to start in early summer 2013. Doka also plans to relocate its corporate head office from Maisach near Munich to Apolda. Deutsche Doka Schalungstechnik is part of Austrian Doka Group, which special

Vale, one of the world's leading mining companies, has signed a major contract with Metso to deliver 110 heavy duty slurry pumps to its Moatize coal mine in Mozambique. The order is part of Vale's plan to increase the mine's capacity to 11 million tonnes. The value of the order is €3.3 million. The pumps are specially designed for the demanding conditions associated with mining and for easy maintenance. The order also covers initial start-up and commissioning, together with service training and assistance f

The UK Mineral Products Association (MPA) says its MPA sales survey results for 2012 confirm a rapid decline in construction activity in 2012, which indicate a reduction of 9% in aggregates, cement and ready-mixed concrete markets in 2012 and an 18% decline in asphalt sales. The provisional construction output figures for 2012 indicate a 9% fall during the year. The rate of decline of aggregates, cement and concrete sales moderated in the fourth quarter, but in general markets remained very depressed throu

Atlas Copco says it has again been recognised as one of the most sustainable companies in the world in the annual Global 100 list. The list, presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, ranks companies that show they are increasing productivity while using less resources. In the list, Atlas Copco, with a global reach spanning 170 countries, is ranked 18th most sustainable company in the world and it says it has been promoting sustainability among customers.

McLanahan Corporation, which provides custom-engineered processing solutions to a variety of Industries, and which launched its UK and European presence at the Hillhead event in England in June 2012, has acquired the Eagle Iron Works. Based in Des Moines, Iowa, USA, Eagle Iron Works has been serving the construction materials and aggregate industries since 1872, and provides a line of washing and beneficiating equipment including sand classifying tanks, log washers and screw washers. McLanahan purchased the

Metso will supply OAO Severstal with a complete rotary drying system for its iron ore plant upgrade project at the Olkon mine in Olenegorsk, Russia. The high-capacity single-line system will replace multiple existing rotary dryers, while Metso's delivery also includes a modern automation system, which will enable tighter control of the process. The value of the order will not be disclosed. “The new drying system will improve the mine's performance by incorporating the use of the most modern technologies in

Saudi Arabian cement demand is expected to increase 9.4%/year to over 80 million tonnes by 2017 as massive infrastructure projects create surging demand. Virtually all regions of the country will post gains, with large new cement production capacities coming online in the next few years. These and other trends are presented in the 2013 CW Group Saudi Arabia Market Update report, a new study from CW Group, a global cement industry consultancy and research house based in New York, USA. The country’s Ninth Dev

Finnish concrete company Parma is temporarily laying off around 40 staff at its core slab plant in Forssa in Finland for between five and six weeks from the beginning of February 2013. The layoffs are said by the firm to be due to the poor order book of early 2013. The company expects the summer of 2013 to be better. The layoffs do not concern the railway sleeper plant that operates in the same unit.

Russia-based Lipetskcement, a part of EuroCement Group, produced 1.13 million tonnes of cement and 1.02 million tonnes of clinker in 2012. Shipping to customers totalled 1.14 million tonnes. As the result of modernisation, the plant has launched manufacturing cement packed in 25kg bags.

French building materials group Lafarge is reported to have secured permission to build a cement works in Biskra, Algeria, in conjunction with an unnamed Algerian partner. Construction work on the plant is expected to begin in spring 2013. Meanwhile, enhancements to the Lafarge cement works in Oggaz, Algeria are expected to be completed this summer. In 2012, the site’s white cement production was up by some 25%. It is said to have the only white cement production line in Algeria.

Cemex paid off debts of €1.5 billion to its creditors in advance during the last quarter of 2012, including bonds expiring in 2013, 2014 and 2016. The payments were part of the Mexican company’s debt restructuring package totalling €5.35 billion, which expires in February 2014 and of which 92% was renegotiated, corresponding to €4.95 billion. Under this agreement, Cemex also promised to pay off €3.07 billion in 2017 and €375.27 million via a high yield bond in 2018. The debts of €1.5 billion were paid off i

Lafarge Espana says its Cementos Esfera mill in Tarragona, Spain will stop producing cement and become a distribution centre. The move, which will lead to five job losses, is said to have been made due to a 75% fall in cement consumption in Spain since 2007, a rise in energy costs and the negative outlook for 2013 – set to see a 20% decrease in Spanish cement consumption compared to 2012. Lafarge Espana says the Cementos Esfera mill will resume cement production once demand has picked up and costs have drop

Two Exmoor ponies, Patience and Ryburn, are now residents at Cemex’’s Branton Nature Conservation Area, near Powburn County Northumberland, north-east England and have become the site’s ‘natural lawnmowers’. Branton, a former sand and gravel quarry, has been progressively restored and transformed into a stunning 29 hectare nature conservation area and the introduction of Patience and Ryburn will enhance the wildlife on the site through conservation grazing. Conservation grazing is the use of grazing animal

The Court of Appeals of the Belgian city of Mons has approved the purchase of the Belgian quarry company Cimescaut's participation in the Antoing limestone quarry by the Belgian cement group CBR. This invalidates the decision made by the Commercial Court of Tournai in June 2011. The management of Cimescaut has said that it will look into the legal, financial, and operational consequences of this decision.

Aggregates production in Northern Ireland has fallen by 45% since the recession started in 2008, and the situation is particularly acute in sand and gravel, where volumes are less than half of a few years ago. These are some of the conclusions of industry marketing consultancy, BDS Marketing Research’s latest report on the sector. The report estimates the outputs of all sand and gravel pits and crushed rock quarries in Northern Ireland, by company and location. Every one of the known 125 pits and quarries a

Lafarge has successfully completed an industrial trial for Aether, its new generation clinker formulated for lower carbon cements. The trial mobilised a team of around 100 people over a ten-day period at the group's plant in Le Teil, France. It allowed the production of 10,000tonnes of Aether clinker, confirming the feasibility of industrial-scale production using traditional raw materials. The launch of the first Aether products is planned for 2014. The result of several years of research by Lafarge R&D te

Cemex has developed a methodology to standardise water measurement and management across all of the company’s operations, and starting this year it will be rolled out to all of the businesses in the countries in which Cemex operates, in order to minimise the company’s water footprint and increase its water efficiency.
The Water Project is the result of a three-year partnership between Cemex and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on the improvement and efficiency of water management