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The French cement industry federation SFIC said production of cement in France totalled 19.4million tonnes in 2011, up 8.4% year on year, after a 2.2% drop in 2010.

The Czech Society for Ornithology (CSO), network partner of BirdLife International in the Czech Republic, and Ceskomoravsky sterk, member of the HeidelbergCement Group, have signed an agreement pinning down their long-term commitment to the conservation of nature, and deepening the existing cooperation between the two organisations.

WCL Quarries, based in the Midlands region of England, has achieved OHSAS 18001 registration, its third such safety certification in the last four years, having achieved ISO 9001 and ISO14001. Managing director Simon Winner said: “I am extremely proud of the team for achieving three, very hard to achieve and even harder to keep British Assessment Bureau certifications.”

Titan Cement of Greece has sold a minority 11.5% stake of its activities within the western Balkans region, Macedonia, Serbia and Kosovo, to International Finance Corporation (IFC) for €50million.

Exhibition and Forum Construction-2012 will take place 7-9 August, 2012 in Chelyabinsk, Russia.
The event will be organised with the support of Chelyabinsk region Ministry of Housing, Infrastructure, and Road Construction; the Union of Building Companies of Siberia and Urals; and Chelyabinsk Interregional Union of Constructors. Over 100 construction industry companies are expected to take part in the forum. The exhibition will look at building technologies, building structures, building materials and equip

Against a tough economic background, companies are reporting many improved results for 2011, with the emerging markets again offering solid growth. However, a number of major companies may well be looking to divest some interests to reduce debt while others, such as the UK’s Breedon Aggregates, are on the acquisition trail (see interview this issue). Lafarge CEO Bruno Lafont could sell at least €1 billion of assets this year, and Dr Bernd Scheifele, chairman at HeidelbergCement, said in November 2011 he was

Turkish State Railways (TCDD), Turkish firm Kolsan, Turkish concrete company Eser Beton and Italian firm Margaritelli have built a concrete sleeper factory in Sivas, Turkey. The factory has started production and is located on 20,000m2 of land. The concrete made at the facility will be exported to Iran, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Libya, Algeria, Georgia and Tunisia. In addition, the factory will produce 1.039million concrete sleepers per year.

According to the US-based Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) demand is strong already for stand space at the World of Asphalt and AGG1 2013 exhibition. The co-located expositions are more than 15% ahead of the 2012 show for the same time in the show cycle, with about 11 months to go until opening day. The World of Asphalt Show & Conference and AGG1 Aggregates Forum & Expo will be held March 19-21, 2013 in San Antonio, Texas at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Centre. "Feedback has been overwhelmin

The production of 400,000 concrete railway sleepers a year will take place at a new factory in Doncaster, northern England, Network Rail has revealed. The approved facility, which will open in spring 2013 and create around 30 new jobs, will be owned by Network Rail but operated by the Trackwork Moll consortium.

Holcim Bétons has been selected to build the Le Havre Stadium access roads. The stadium is due to open on 12 July, 2012. Each road will have a different texture to meet the various needs of users.

Agreements on a host of new construction projects in the Russian Republic of Bashkortostan (Volga) were reached at the Investment Interregional Forum Trans-Ural-2012. Overall investment in the 11 projects will exceed € 170million (RUB 7bn). Among the projects are the construction of a dairy plant in the Baimak district; the development of marble processing production in Abzelilovsky district; the setting up production of 4,000tonnes a year of manganese steel cast products; the reconstruction of a mill for s

In researching and writing the aggregates pricing feature for this issue of ABE, I am forced to look back over the past year and how the market has fared in that period. Unfortunately, 2009 has been a very difficult period for the aggregates industry and I seem to have spent my time writing about job losses, divestments and refinancing. However, many of those stories have centred around the larger, global players in the sector and not just because they are larger, but because they seemed to have found the t

Are we still in recession or already in recovery? That seems to be the question most people in Europe want to know right now, particularly a year on from the collapse of US-based Lehman Brothers which triggered much of the financial crisis. But the answer is not an easy one for the aggregates industry - some indicators suggest the situation is easing, others that further declines are coming, while some point to the situation not being as widespread as was first believed. According to national statistics, th

In preparing this issue of ABE, one message has been repeated to me several times over - companies that use this quieter time to look for technology to deliver improved productivity when markets return to growth will be the ones that prosper in the long term. Until last year most construction markets in Europe had experienced continued growth over a longer period than ever before. This meant that the demand for aggregates was ever-growing and many companies were caught in the cycle of working to meet the im

Hitachi Construction Machinery Europe (HCME) is to offer greater support to its authorised European dealers to help them offer an enhanced remanufacturing service to customers. According to Hitachi, the move is aimed at strengthening the high-quality and low pricing message behind its Genuine Hitachi Remanufactured Components Programme. Under the programme, HCME claims to offer customers with a cost-effective and high-quality alternative to buying a new main component for their machines. The company has sai

Caterpillar's new biodegradable, non-toxic hydraulic fluid Cat Bio HYDRO Advanced has been recognised for its green credentials under an independent accreditation scheme. The oil has been certified and the packaging includes the prestigious European Union Flower label to clearly display the environmental advances made by the oil. According to Cat, the new oil represents a significant development in bio-based oil technology equalling or surpassing the best characteristics of premium mineral-based oils. It is

Promove has announced that field testing of its new 6.9tonne XP7000 hydraulic breaker has now been completed. The trials have shown that during an eight hour shift, the breaker, depending on the rock hardness, can process between 400 and 2000m3 of rock. In one of the testing sites, the XP7000 successfully processed 750m3 of 130kg/cm2 of monolithic limestone. According to Promove, these tests show that the new hammer is well suited to the task of primary breaking in quarries. The new breaker features a combi

Powerscreen has officially opened its new tracked and wheeled crushing and screening manufacturing facility in Hosur, India. The company has said that the new factory will help to meet the growing demand for mobile aggregate processing equipment in India that is being driven by infrastructure investment. Powerscreen is also expanding its dealer network in India and three new dealers will join the company's existing dealer Voltas, which Powerscreen accredits with the pioneering of the mobile concept in India

Sandvik Mining and Construction has announced that it is to establish a global product development centre for screens and feeders in Ballygawley, Northen Ireland. The company claims that concentrating the development of stationary and mobile screens and feeders in a single location will give the business the critical mass needed to develop industry leading screens and feeders and develop its market share. Sandvik has chosen Ballygawley for the new centre due to the concentration of highly skilled and experi

Siemens is to offer the cement industry an integrated approach to equipment solutions under the new Sicement product family. The Siemens Industry Solutions Division has brought its range of products and services for equipping cement works together under one brand to simplify its offering. The Sicement product family includes modularly structured, industry-specific solutions for power generation and distribution, drive technology, process control and instrumentation, data management, plant infrastructure and