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Cemex has produced its one millionth tonne of cement at its new plant in Broceni, west-central Latvia, the largest amount of cement produced and sold per year in the history of Latvia.

The plant's capacity completely satisfies the demand on the local market and also ensures supplies to the company's export markets of the Baltic States, Finland, Russia and Belarus.

Metso and the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, have finalised a three-year agreement encompassing joint research and performance evaluations of the VERTIMILL grinding mill developed by Metso.

Danish cement machinery and mining equipment supplier FLSmidth posted a turnover of DKK 14.71billion (?1.98billion) in the first three quarters of 2011, which was an increase of 0.3% on Q1-3 2010. EBIT decreased by 11% to DKK 1.301billion (?174.8million), and EBIT margin went down from 9.9% to 8.8%.

At a time of global economic uncertainty, Netherlands-based Dunlop Conveyor Belting is bucking the trend by making the biggest single investment in its history.

Chinese company Golden Way Development will build a brick factory in Romania with an investment of between €12-15 million.
The factory will be operate by the company's local subsidiary Long Wall Brick and it will be located in Constanta county.

Somaco, a Romanian producer of construction materials, estimates that its sales will rise by 10%-15% in 2012 from a year earlier.
The company registered sales of €21 million in 2011.

Spanish construction materials company, Uralita, has been given the go-ahead from the boards of all its creditor banks to postpone the payment of its financial debt of almost €275 million to March 2014.
The company managed to reach an agreement with all its financial creditors in March 2012, but it has now been approved by all the boards.
This gives Uralita financial stability which will allow it to strengthen its current business and develop its future business plan.
This agreement also shows the credit

BASF has launched its new Masterflow Exagrout line, a fatigue-resistant grout for onshore and offshore wind turbines.
A mixture of cement and metallic aggregates, the product has rapid strength build-up even underwater, has high compression resistance, can be submitted to extreme temperatures and can fill spaces of up to 200mm

Russian company Eurocement Holding has increased its stake in Swiss cement company Holcim to 10.8%, up from 10.1% in autumn 2011.
This represents a further CHF 100 million (€83.1 million) investment.
Eurocement Holding said that it had used the company's low share price as an opportunity to buy more shares. It also emphasised that its investment in Holcim was a financial investment, and that it does not want any representatives on Holcim's board.

Spanish cement company Cementos Portland is to re-elect and ratify its 14 board members at the next general shareholders meeting, which is scheduled for 18 May, 2012.
Members include Juan Bejar as chairman; Jose Manuel Burgos Perez and Jose Maria Iturrioz as directors and Esther Koplowitz (vice-Chairman).
Cementos Portland will also use the meeting to approve its results as well as request authorisation for the board to issue debt securities.

French construction materials group Lafarge has extended the repayment terms on a syndicated €1.20 billion credit line by two years to July 2015.
The line drawn on 24 banks joins €2.2 billion in existing credit lines, bringing the total to €3.4 billion. It brings the average repayment term to 2.8 years.

Bosnian stone manufacturer Granit has reported that it is restarting production after two years of no activities. As a result, 100 jobs will be created.
Granit's director, Salih Klepo, said that the restart of production resulted after talks and agreements with the Union Organtisation, and the new liquidation manager, Velija Sabljic.
President of the Union Organisation, Memsud Cosic, said that a court will decide on the alleged €500,000-plus theft in the company. Its issues started in 2004 when the Privat

Global water technology company Xylem has launched a new digital version of its award-winning Impeller magazine, which has been providing commentaries on the world of water for more than 50 years.
Impeller was first published in Stockholm, Sweden in 1962 as a print magazine and is now available in a new multi-media format in 11 languages. The online magazine offers insights into the global water sector through multi-media content delivering reports on industry news and trends, solutions to water and wastew

Cemex has secured ISO 14001 environmental certification for its French sites in Salles-sur-Garonne and Cintegabelle, Haute-Garonne.
The company's sites in Cintegabelle and Clermont-Lefort have also won a safety award to mark three years passing without an industrial accident.

The prefecture in Albi, France, has given the green light to the Borie Blanche quarry project.
Some 250,000 tonnes of sand and gravel will be extracted from the site each year for seven years and processed at the Cemex plant.
There will be two permanent workers at the Borie Blanche quarry and six others at Cemex's processing unit.

Anglers across England are being urged to work together to buy dozens of lakes that have been put up for sale following the decision by Cemex to sell its angling business which includes more than 70 lakes, a majority in former gravel pits in the Counties of Berkshire, Bedfordshire, Essex, Hampshire, Kent, Surrey and West Sussex.
The Angling Trust is urging its member clubs to work together on a bid to the agents handling the sale.

Lafarge triumphed at the ‘Oscars’ of the fleet industry after impressing judges with its proactive safety and sustainability schemes, says the company.
It was named Fleet of the Year in the 501-1,000 vehicle category in the contest organised by trade publication, Fleet News.
Rebecca Chivers, UK car fleet advisor for Lafarge (UK) Services, picked up the honour during a ceremony at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel. She is responsible for the fleet for both Lafarge Aggregates & Concrete UK and Lafarge Cement.

Deutz has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with AB Volvo with the intention to explore the potential to extend their long-term cooperation with a joint development of the next generation of medium-duty engines for non-road applications.
The MoU also aims at analysing the conditions for establishing a Deutz majority-owned joint-venture company in China for the production of medium-duty engines for non-road applications.
The production company is intended to provide support for the Volvo Gro

Case Construction Equipment will celebrate 170 years of innovation and engineering excellence at this year’s Hillhead quarry equipment exhibition in County Derbyshire, England (19-21 June).
The company says that with a host of new machine introductions this year, it has continued to invest in a range of Tier 4 Interim emissions standards solutions, and this has resulted in the adoption of Tier 4 Interim engines across 90% of Case models.
The company will also be holding one of the UK rounds of its 2012 Ro

Italian construction materials group Buzzi Unicem has announced that it intends to issue a €350 million bond by the end of December 2012.
The seven-year, fixed-rate bond will be targeted at institutional investors, and the capital raised from the operation will be used to extend the average length of the company's debts, as well as to finance its day-to-day running costs.