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The Volgograd region's Arbitration Court is hearing claims from plaintiffs including Sberbank Head Office in the Volgograd region (South), which filed a petition for settling a RUB 2.20billion (€53.73million) debt.

According to experts, the bankruptcy is initiated so that different players of the regional construction market may get ZhBI-1 assets. ZhBI-1 management has announced plans to keep the company.

Maximising productivity and performance in a quarry operation has never been easy but there are products that help as ABE reports. Keeping a diverse range of equipment working efficiently, managing downtime and achieving output targets in quarries can be something of a juggling act for plant fleet managers. Setting up an effective preventative maintenance schedule should be an essential part of that fleet management process, whether you are handling the work yourself or handing over responsibility for re

The company's workforce adjustment plan, the result of reduced funding levels, will affect 193 out of its 211 workers and has already led to delays and cancellations of some projects.

Senior figures at Pretersa Prenavisa expect many workers will only lose 60 to 70 working days during the year, mainly in winter, when projects are suspended due to unfavourable weather conditions.

Further negotiations with the Ministry has left the Spanish subsidiary of the French construction materials manufacturer confident of opening the Romeu quarry, in the Sagunto region, at some stage in 2012.

The labels, introduced on January 1 2012, will allow customers to base their purchase choices on a product's calculated impact on the air inside their homes, in line with a decree signed by the French Sustainable Development Ministry, Health Ministry, and Finance Ministry in May 2011.

The debt due to undergo refinance, which is 60% of the company's gross debt, is associated with repayments linked to the purchase of WRG, Uniland and Alpine. FCC has already sold its car parking and MOT businesses, and is looking to raise €450million from the sale of its US cement firms.

Hanson UK has invested £1.3million (€1.56million) in its Acton, London, concrete plant to help meet the increasing demand in the London construction market. This is being driven by large high-profile contracts such as Crossrail, said to be Europe’s largest construction project. Eventually eight 140m-long Herrenknecht tunnel boring machines (TBMs) will be used to construct the 21km of twin-bore tunnel section of the 118km rail line running under central London from west to east.
Paul Lacey, Hanson’s UK’s

The predicted rise is below the rise of 26.1% in production in 2011, but will push output notably beyond the 5.5million m3 achieved in 2011. According to RBC and other economic experts, the demand among building companies for cellular concrete wall blocks, especially in the housing construction sector, will fuel the continued rise in production levels.

Command Alkon recently delivered its 5,000th COMMANDbatch system, the plant automation solution that is said to enhance plant performance, simplify concrete production, and deliver cost savings to the average ready-mixed producer. Mark Merino, vice president of Product Development says: “When we started the effort 11 years ago to replace three esteemed batch products with a next generation offering, I don’t think any of us thought it would become as successful as it turned out. I attribute this success to

Lafarge's modernisation of the production facilities at its plant in the town of Wössingen, Germany, also included an existing belt bucket elevator that feeds limestone to the mill bunker. Thanks to a new technology, the existing bucket elevator could be easily altered and his service life considerably be increased.

The plant, approved five months ago, will replace the firm's current factory in neighbouring Mont-Saint-Martin. Due for commissioning this spring, the site is expected to have an annual production rate of over 70,000tonnes.

In partnership with waste specialists Ikos and Etares, French cement producer Lafarge started up a production unit for secondary recovered fuel in Le Havre in July, 2011. The unit is capable of producing 15tonnes of secondary recovered fuel per hour and produces 20% of the energy needs of the cement works in Le Havre, France.

Innovative plants capable of producing a huge variety of mixes are coming to the market. Patrick Smith reports. Concrete, a highly energy and CO2-efficient building material is, after water, globally the second most consumed commodity by volume. It is used in all infrastructure projects and it has been estimated that each year over 1m³ is produced for every person on earth.
Concrete plant manufacturers have been introducing new equipment but the use of such equipment depends on the amount of constructio

In Kostanay, Kazakhstan, MBI has launched a paving stone plant having a design capacity of 33,500m³ or 400,000m² of products a year. Automated German equipment as well as Iranian and local raw materials will allow the plant to manufacture high-quality damage-proof slabs.

Kostanay MBI intends to reach the full capacity this month.

CRH has announced 23 acquisition and investment initiatives totalling approximately €0.4 billion undertaken during the second-half of 2011 as part of its continuing programme of development activity. This brings the total 2011 development spend to €0.6 billion.

In Europe Materials, three acquisitions and one investment totalling €195 million have been made.

Poland produced some 220million-230million tonnes of aggregates in 2011, which is a record-breaking result boosted by construction investments, mostly commercial construction projects which have a 60% share in total aggregate consumption.

The state of our planet's marine ecosystems and their importance for human survival is analysed in a new book published by Cemex. Oceans: Heart of Our Blue Planet, published in partnership with the International League of Conservation Photographers and Conservation International, includes a foreword written by Prince Albert of Monaco, a special tribute to legendary oceanographer Dr Sylvia Earle, a comprehensive introduction by a distinguished group of scientists, and creative ways of combating threats to

Global demand for hydraulic cement is forecast to rise 5.3% a year to 4.3billion tonnes, valued at US$335 (€250billion), by 2015, according to industry research firm The Freedonia Group. Gains will be fuelled by rising investments in infrastructure among the developing countries of the world, driven by economic growth and increasing per capita income levels. Additionally, US-based Freedonia claim that a rebound in cement demand in industrialized markets such as the US and Western Europe will further spur

The loading of materials at a quarry has to be quick and fuel efficient. Today's equipmentis meeting these criteria as Patrick Smith reports. After excavation at a quarry, the loading of material for processing into aggregates is achieved using a variety of equipment. Wheel loaders, excavators, dump trucks and, increasingly, special conveyors are all part of the process. With the need to keep emissions down and improve productivity and fuel efficiency, constant improvements from manufacturers such as Cat

KPI-JCI and Astec Mobile Screens has released its latest pocket-size reference guide for the aggregates industry.

KPI-JCI's latest pocket-size guide for aggregates industry