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The bank Société Générale has reiterated its 'buy' recommendation for Lafarge stock and raised its target share price for the French construction materials group from €41 to €54. Société Générale has raised its expectations for Lafarge performance between 2012-15, anticipating an increase of 2% in the company’s turnover, and an increase of 3-5% in Ebitda.

The speed with which construction costs have risen in Finland in recent years is due to slow down, according to the RAKSU working group that monitors trends in the country’s construction sector. In civil engineering, the increase in costs has been faster than in the construction of buildings but is expected to slow down in the autumn and winter of 2012.

The speed with which construction costs have risen in Finland in recent years is due to slow down, according to the RAKSU working group that monitors trends in the country’s construction sector. In civil engineering, the increase in costs has been faster than in the construction of buildings but is expected to slow down in the autumn and winter of 2012.

Italian exports of stone and marble products rose 7.4% to €835.4 million in the first half of 2012, according to a survey carried out by Italian stone industry trade fair Marmomacc. Exports went up by 23% to the US, from €101 million in 2011 to €124.7 million in 2012. Exports to Russia rose by 3.8%, and those to Germany from €72.3 million to €78.5 million - an 8.6% increase.

Cemex has launched a new high-performance concrete called MicroTech. Coming in four variants, MicroTech is made with microsilica, said by Cemex to make the concrete very dense, resistant and durable, while also giving it low permeability. It is said to resist acid erosion from sulphates, and is ideal for chemical or petrochemical sites or recycling centres.

FB Chain has developed an innovative type of wooden scraper attachment, the Inno, that is said to reduce conveyor downtime at cement plants. “At cement plants where loads conveyed are, by nature, heavy, scraper failure is a common problem and its resultant impact on the conveyor’s chain and sprockets is a familiar cause of costly conveyor downtime,” says FB Chain, the UK subsidiary of Swedish company Addtech. The Inno scrapers are made from multi-laminated beech, which when processed and assembled using the

Asphalt plants capable of producing a wide variety of mixes including the increasingly popular warm mixes have recently been unveiled. Patrick Smith and Guy Woodford report The recent unveiling of a new asphalt plant in Brazil was a source of great pride for those involved with its production. The SB150HM (Smart Batch 150 High Mobility) batch plant from Terex is said to be the first mobile asphalt batch plant designed and manufactured in the country, and having taken two years to develop it is anticipated t

A Thai quarry looked to European technology when it wanted to increase output to feed the country’s demand for high grade limestone The Sila Sanon limestone quarry in Thailand is playing a key role in providing high quality aggregates for the growing Thai construction industry. Recently the family-owned operation has invested in a full range of crushing and screening plant supplied by Sandvik Construction’s dealer in Thailand, the William Wong Group, and the quarry is now able to supply over 200,000tonnes o

Asphalt made partly from recycled waste tyres has been successfully used on a road in Scotland As supplies of raw materials are not finite, breathing new life into old materials through recycling is becoming big business. Most materials can be recycled, and the first major UK trial of new asphalt made partly from recycled waste tyres has been successfully completed on behalf of Transport Scotland by Breedon Aggregates.
A short stretch of the A90 dual carriageway between Perth and Dundee was resurfaced with

Wirtgen Group joint president Stefan Wirtgen said the German quarrying equipment manufacturer will be looking to develop new mobile screening and crushing machines as it looks to “dramatically” increase its presence in the surface mining sector. Speaking alongside his brother and fellow Wirtgen Group president, Jürgen Wirtgen, at the Group’s recent Mineral Technology Days event, Stefan Wirtgen said: “We see the future in mobile crushing and screening products. We think there are advantages in them, such as

In the UK, Encos is said to have started making a carbon neutral brick range, Encobricks, under a link up with S Morris, a construction materials producer. The bricks are made from vegetable oil and recovered aggregates, with the actual manufacturing undertaken by Encos.

It is claimed that Estonian authorities are setting restrictions on mining sand, gravel and other mineral resources as well as hiking excavation tariffs among other products, forcing up construction material costs. The Statistics of Estonia published construction price index rose 4.7% y/y in the second quarter 2012 and is forecast to continue on a growth trend.

In a charity and solidarity operation between 12-16 November 2012, Holcim France is offering its 1,800 employees the chance to spend a day working for the charity of their choice from a list of 67. The cement producer expects that 70% of staff will participate, which it says represents 10,000 working hours donated to good causes.

Since 2007, demand for cement in the Spanish region of Catalonia is said now to have decreased to a third of what it was then. Since then, production in the region has dropped from record levels at 9.5 million tonnes to the 3.9 million tonnes at the end of 2011. A further 20% drop was recorded during the first half of 2012. The drop was so severe that producers now believe that the only way is upwards, and the industry will see volumes increase again in 2014 or 2015 at the latest.

Hitachi Europe has appointed Kiyoshi Yamamoto as managing director. He is currently serving as executive vice president in Hitachi America and succeeds Akira Shimizu, who has been appointed general manager of International Strategy Division, Hitachi. The appointment will be effective from 1 October, 2012. Mr Yamamoto graduated from the Faculty of Engineering, Tokyo University and joined Hitachi in 1983. Since then, he has served in various supervisory and senior management positions where he gained extensiv

Ready mixed concrete markets in Great Britain increased by an estimated 8% during 2011, an improvement on the fall that exceeded 30% which occurred over the three previous years. However, the concrete industry has not been able to sustain these higher volumes in 2012. Industry marketing consultancy, BDS Marketing Research, expects that ready mixed concrete volumes will fall back to their 2010 level in the current year.

Following the highly successful 2012 event, the organisers of the Hillhead quarry exhibition, the biennial international showcase for the quarrying, recycling and heavy construction industries, have announced that Hillhead 2014 will take place at Tarmac’s Hillhead Quarry, Buxton, England, from 24–26 June, 2014.

The first UK sale of the Komatsu HB215LC-1 hybrid excavator has been completed, with the machine’s first deployment being the prestigious Crossrail transport project in central London. Marubeni-Komatsu, the sole UK distributor of Komatsu heavy machinery, supplied five HB215LC-1machines to Ridgway Rentals, a company based in County Shropshire in the West Midlands region of England.

The use of recycled and secondary materials as aggregates in residential construction is increasing across the UK, with current estimates at 21% and 3% respectively. While the use of recycled materials is currently seven times higher, availability of secondary materials is expected to increase and the imbalance looks set to change. As a follow-up to the two-part BRE DG522 guide Hardcore for Supporting Ground floors of Buildings sponsored by NHBC (ONational House Building Council) and published in 2011, the

Cemex has successfully completed its previously announced refinancing of its Financing Agreement, dated 14 August, 2009, as amended. Fernando Gonzalez, executive vice president of finance and administration of Cemex, said: “Cemex is pleased to have accomplished this significant milestone, with support from over 55 banks and institutions. We intend to continue to proactively address our maturities and work towards reducing our leverage and strengthening our capital structure.”