Search

Spanish cement company Cementos Portland has acquired state-of-the-art mobile equipment for unloading bulk cement at the Ipswich port in the UK. The Road Mobile Shipunloader was supplied by Dutch company Van Aalst and has the capacity to unload boats of up to 5,000tones at a nominal speed of 225tonnes/hour.

CRH has revealed its 18 acquisition and investment initiatives undertaken during the second half of 2012. The transactions completed since the end of June bring full- year 2012 development activity for the group to almost €630 million: with net deferred consideration of approximately €130 million, cash spend for the year amounted to approximately €500 million. The development initiatives included in the group update comprise 12 acquisitions totalling €256 million in the Americas and six transactions total

Emerging markets are again the focus of attention for major companies as construction activity remains high.Holcim’s third quarter figures show consolidated net sales increased by 4.8% to CHF16.2 billion (€13.4 billion) and operating EBITDA by 5.9% to CHF3.1 billion (€2.57 billion) despite the difficult market situation in Europe. It says its geographic diversification in the industry helped support sales in the first nine months of 2012, and in its outlook for 2013, it says it expects demand for building m

Emerging markets are again the focus of attention for major companies as construction activity remains high. Holcim’s third quarter figures show consolidated net sales increased by 4.8% to CHF16.2 billion (€13.4 billion) and operating EBITDA by 5.9% to CHF3.1 billion (€2.57 billion) despite the difficult market situation in Europe. It says its geographic diversification in the industry helped support sales in the first nine months of 2012, and in its outlook for 2013, it says it expects demand for building

Emerging markets are again the focus of attention for major companies as construction activity remains high. Holcim’s third quarter figures show consolidated net sales increased by 4.8% to CHF16.2 billion (€13.4 billion) and operating EBITDA by 5.9% to CHF3.1 billion (€2.57 billion) despite the difficult market situation in Europe. It says its geographic diversification in the industry helped support sales in the first nine months of 2012, and in its outlook for 2013, it says it expects demand for building

Titan Cement has raised €200 million via a bond issue, becoming the first Greek corporate to successfully tap the markets since the country’s debt crisis began in 2010. The arranger is Eurobank, which aims at opening the market for other Greek companies seeking medium-term financing from sources other than banks. Greek banks have lost access to wholesale funding markets due to the recession, which is reported to have left them facing serious difficulties in their capacity to lend to businesses. Eurobank has

Claudio Soare has been appointed Holcim Serbia’s new director, replacing Gustav Navaro. Holcim Serbia is part of Holcim, the leading Swiss-based global cement, stone and aggregates producer.

Concretus Materials has applied for regulatory approval to acquire up to 51% of shares in Lithuanian cement plant, Akmenes Cementas. Saulius Pileckis, chief executive of Lithuania-based Concretus Materials, refused to comment on the details of the planned deal. At present, Mexico cement industry heavyweights CEMEX owns 33.95%, Simonas Vytis Anuzis 13.67%, Olius Danyla 13.55%, Arnoldas Mituzas 12.76%, and Edmundas Montvila 9.8% of shares in Akmenes Cementas. Concretus Materials was established in Vilnius in

CRH, the Irish producer of building materials, and Switzerland-based cement maker Holcim are in talks with the Shriram Group in a bid to buy a majority stake in Sree Jayajothi Cements (SJJCL). SJJCL has a cement plant in Andhra Pradesh with annual output of 3.2 million tonnes. CRH and Holcim have plants in India with combined capacity of over 61 million tonnes. CRH is partnering with My Home Industries, which has a factory with output of 4.2 million tonnes a year, and Holcim owns ACC, a local cement produce

Leading mobile crushing and screening equipment firm Powerscreen has appointed Hugh Brennan as its new technical support manager. Speaking on the appointment, Damian Power, Powerscreen’s global product line director, said: “This is an important new appointment for Powerscreen. Hugh’s experience and respect in the industry will be an asset to the Powerscreen strategy of continuing to develop a global dealer network with class leading customer support.” Having previously worked in a wide variety of roles in t

Spanish cement producer Cementos Cosmos is to make 60 redundancies at its plant in Sarria, northern Spain. This decision is said to effectively mean the closure of the factory which will remain with a workforce made up of 14 employees, including the board of directors. Cementos Cosmos was recently sold by the Portuguese firm Cimpor to the Brazilian company Votorantim. According to Votorantim, the plant cannot sustain its outputs level for the next few years, and expects cement industry revenues to drop by a

Lafarge secured the second best performance in the French benchmark CAC 40 stock market index in 2012, behind Gemalto. The building materials group's share stood at €47.82 on 28 December, 2012 – up 76% since January 1, 2012. Turnover rose 5% in the first nine months of the year, with a stronger contribution from emergent markets, now worth 60% of turnover. The group also managed a 14% reduction in its debt through divesting assets and reducing its costs.

Austrian construction materials firm Asamer is predicting 2013 turnover to rise to €510 million – contrasting a €21 million 2012 fall to €452 million. The company says the 2012 dip in turnover is partly due to cement production losses in Libya. However, Asamer says it has now regained full control over its Libyan activities. During 2013, Asamer will move its focus to mineral building supplies.

Portuguese cement company Cimpor, owned by Brazilian group Camargo Correa, has appointed Luiz Nascimento and Andre Dias as new directors. They replace Walter Schalka and Erik Madsen, who represented fellow Portuguese firm Votorantim on the board of directors. The director changes are being made following an exchange of assets between Camargo Correa and Votorantim.

Russian cement consumption will increase by 13% to 65 million tonnes in 2012, according to CMPro. Further annual growth of 5-7% is also being predicted by CMPro for 2013-2014. Cement imports may go up due to increasing internal prices and a distance between regional markets and producers. CMPro says new companies are expected to enter the cement market in 2013, increasing competition.

Atlas Copco is to acquire the MEYCO Equipment business from BASF Construction Chemicals Europe AG. The acquisition extends the Swedish firm’s offering with mobile equipment for applying sprayed concrete (shotcreting) in underground operations. With offices and an assembly facility in Winterthur, Switzerland, MEYCO has about 40 employees and had revenues in 2011 of around €20 million. Carrier-mounted concrete spraying equipment, concrete spraying arms, pump and dosing units are among its products range. Curr

CNH Global says that as a result of an ongoing strategic review of its construction equipment business, it is moving into the next phase of agreements with Kobelco Construction Machinery. Under the new, non-exclusive licensing and supply agreements, which took effect on 1 January, CNH and Kobelco Construction Machinery are unwinding their joint ownership and equity participations in all the companies formed in connection with their previous alliance and eliminating any geographical exclusivity rights assoc

Tata Steel has rounded out an award-winning year by receiving a Gold and Silver certification in Caterpillar's Supplier Quality Excellence Programme (SQEP) for its processing and distribution operation in India and Skinningrove in the UK. Designed to recognise the companies who deliver benchmark levels of service, the Caterpillar SQEPs are said to have become a watchword for efficiency and effectiveness. This is the third consecutive year that the Skinningrove facility has received a Silver award for its pr

Hitachi Construction Machinery (Europe)/(HCME) celebrated its 40th anniversary with a special event in Oosterhout, The Netherlands. HCME president Moriaki Kadoya led the celebrations and was joined by former HCME president Mitsuhiro Tabei (currently vice president and executive officer of Hitachi Construction Machinery (HCM) and Shinichi Mihara, HCM director. The European subsidiary of HCM was established with four people, led by Mr Okajima, in 1972. Mr Kadoya summarised the company’s achievements over the

Danish Environment Minister Ida Auken wants to stop composting of gypsum waste and recommends recycling of gypsum waste to make new gypsum board or cement. She believes that gypsum waste should not be used for anything else but for recycling purposes in future even when exported abroad. The Minister claims this is the only sensible thing to do from the resource point of view.