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Lafarge is axing 460 jobs as part of a reorganisation of its worldwide corporate division. The French building material group says 90 of the job losses will be in France where it has set up a voluntary redundancy scheme to minimise compulsory redundancies.

The MPQC (Mineral Products Qualification Council), the recognised training provider for the extractives, mineral processing and related manufacturing industries, has launched the MPQC Contractor Safety Passport Scheme.

Anchor Bay Construction Products has sold its entire issued share capital to CRH (UK), a division of international building group, CRH. Anchor Bay, a provider of reinforcement, formwork and waterproofing products, is based in County Kent, south-east England.

Concrete producer Thébault is looking for a buyer for three of its factories, while bidding for turnover of €24.5million in 2012.

Readymix, the Irish building materials and cement producer, has estimated a pre-tax loss of €54million in 2011.

Aggregate Processing Solutions is now offering CDE washing equipment to its contract washing customers following the signing of a new agreement. APS will take delivery of the M2500 mobile washing plant and Aggmax portable logwasher as the company strengthens the contract washing side of the business in response to a rise in demand throughout the UK market.

Russia-based Basel plans to start the €319.18million upgrade of its BasilCement plant in Pikalevo, near St Petersburg, in 2012.

Sandvik celebrated its 150th birthday on 31 January, 2012 with celebrations in Sandviken, Sweden. When founded, Göran Fredrik Göransson’s company in Sandviken was the first in the world to use the Bessemer process, which would revolutionise steel manufacturing. A book presenting the company’s successful development will be released in March, and various events will be arranged during the year by Sandvik’s companies worldwide.

Overall Sandvik's business was stable in the fourth quarter with good performance especially in Sandvik Tooling but also in Sandvik Mining and Construction.

Mexican cement firm, Cemex, suffered a 40% sales drop in Spain in the last three months of 2011, compared to the same period of the previous year.

Ceramic, natural stone and sanitary ware exhibitors from 40 countries were due at Feria, in Valencia, Spain, today for the start of the four-day Cevisama international trade fair.

Cemex, in partnership with contractor Copisa Group, has completed the first stretch of a bridge that will connect the Port of Barcelona with Barcelona airport in Spain.
The bridge, which crosses Llobregat River, is expected to be completed later this year, and Cemex provided over 30,000m³ of different types of specialty ready-mix concrete. The three pillars needed high-strength concrete to support a road 300m long and 30m wide, and the material also had to flow through the intricate framework, be auto-comp

GSM has had permission to operate an open-air quarry in south-west France withdrawn due to an impact study's perceived failure to sufficiently consider animals of protected status.

The global market for construction aggregates is expected to increase 5.2% per year through to 2015 to 48.3 billion tonnes.
The represents a slower rate of growth than during 2005-2010 and reflects a moderation in aggregates-intensive non-building construction activity.
Nevertheless, demand for construction aggregates will still post solid gains from 2010-2015. The Asia/Pacific region will register the largest increases in product sales, as construction activity will rise rapidly, particularly in China an

A Finnish concrete element company has developed a new concrete slab for intermediate floors.

World demand for cement and concrete additives is projected to increase 8.35% annually to US$15.8 billion in 2015, a significant improvement over the performance of the 2005-2010 period.

An H&S issue at a UK quarry has been overcome using a Finnish-made system to move an excavator around the site. A special piece of equipment has been used by Lafarge Cement UK to overcome a tricky health and safety issue at one of its quarries. The 328 hectare Lafarge cement manufacturing site at Hope, County Derbyshire in England’s Peak District, was presented with the H&S challenge, for which a solution was supplied using an innovative, Finnish-built transportation system.

Cement demand in Germany will not grow in 2012, according to national cement industry association Verein Deutscher Zementwerke (VDZ).

According to reports the cement contract for the new £1.5billion (€1.79billion) Forth bridge in Scotland could be awarded to Hochtief from Germany.Lafarge in Dunbar, Scotland, has bid for the contract, and the speculation follows the recent announcement that steel for the bridge will come from Spain, Poland and China.

An innovative automated system with production control and maintenance management for an aggregates processing plant has been completed by Italian company Ma-estro. Carried out for the Calcestruzzi plant, which is part of the Italcementi Group, the production unit is near Cagliari, capital of the island of Sardinia.
It is mainly used in several ready-mix concrete plants, both for use within the group and for other customers.
All study, design and management phases have been followed by Raffaele Piludu,