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Spanish steel company Alfonso Gallardo is selling various assets in Spain to Brazilian steel company CSN for €382 million. The measure is designed to strengthen its financial position and generate cash. A 98% stake in the metal subsidiaries Corrugados Azpeitia and Corrugados Lasao as well as in cement company Balboa will be taken over by CSN. The aim is to have the deal done in the first quarter of 2011.

Building materials company Cemex uses river freight for 48% of its shipments on a tonnes-per-kilometre basis in France. According to the company, river freight is more economical as a truck carries an average of 27tonnes over 40km, while a cargo convoy can carry up to 5,000tonnes over 130km. Transportation accounts for 20-30% of the cost of delivered construction materials, rising to 50% or more for 100% road haulage.

The inclusion of water recycling equipment on washing plant installations has risen dramatically in recent times as operators realise that in addition to the altruistic benefit of protecting the world’s most precious natural resource there are significant efficiency gains to be enjoyed. The specification of equipment such as thickeners and filter presses has seemingly progressed from being seen as something that was done only at the behest of planning authorities, says CDE.

Holcim has announced the buyout of eight quarries and four ready mixed concrete plants in Alsace, France and four ready mixed concrete plants in the Basle area of Switzerland from Lafarge. Holcim has said that the acquisitions will strengthen its position in these markets.

The Lafarge quarry in Château-Gontier, France, has received the highest environmental classification, Level 4, from the French National Union for the Quarry and Construction Material Industry (Unicem). Lafarge worked to reduce the site's impact on the environment and on biodiversity, and of all its French quarries, the company already has 51 that have received Level 4 classification. During the meeting of the local committee for cooperation and monitoring, the director and personnel of the quarry received a

The government of the Republic of Karelia in north-west Russia has developed a draft concept of region's social and economic development until 2015. There are plans in the document to increase the capacity of the mining complexes including the construction of 16 new plants to produce crushed stone in nine districts of the republic. It is envisaged that three or four new plants will be launched each year; the existing enterprises, Granitnaya Gora (Granite Mountain) and Trans Karel Nerud will be upgraded and

The French National Union for Ready Mix Concrete, SNBPE, has predicted that 2010 production levels will be similar to 2009 levels when ready mix concrete production in France dropped 16%. However, the SNPBE said that production levels of ready mix concrete in France are higher than those of its European neighbours. In 2011, the SNPBE is anticipating light growth of around 1-2% due to the good health of the housing sector owing to a short supply of housing in France, and low interest rates.

French cement producer Ciments Calcia has leased a new boat, Baptised Sandre, to make cement deliveries from its factory in Gargenville in the Paris region. Constructed by Compagnie Fluviale de Transport (CFT), the boat has a capacity of 980tonnes compared to the capacity of 300-500tonnes that traditional barges have. Since 2002, Ciments Calcia has implemented an eco-freight policy and has made major deliveries by river and rail as well as using roads.

Titan Cement of Greece has reached an agreement with Kosovo's privatisation authority for the acquisition of the Sharr Beteilingung Group, which owns and operates a cement plant in Sharr. The new acquisition is not expected to have a significant effect in Titan's results this year since the Sharr plant, with an annual production capacity of 600,000tonnes, was already managed by the Greek group's management, under a leasing agreement.

Inclusion of the extractive industries in the recently rejected Soils Directive had threatened the aggregates sector with double legislation. Claire Symes reports

Mexican concern Cemex has signed an agreement with Econ Trade, the alternative fuel specialist, under which a joint venture called EkoPaliwa Chelm is to be set up in Poland. It will be in charge of building a facility, which will produce alternative fuel from communal waste at Cemex's cement factory in Chelm. It will produce 100,000tonnes of fuel annually. The facility, whose launch will cost €3 million, is to cover 30% of the factory's demand for fuel and will help Cemex to reduce the C02 emission.

China's Tianjin Cement Industry Design & Research had completed all engineering design works for the cement production line of HeidelbergCement's plant in Tula, Russia, which will be put into trial operations in May 2011. Costing €275 million, the plant will have a daily clinker capacity of 5,000tonnes. Meanwhile, the German group's Cesla cement plant in the Leningrad region of north-west Russia, is planning to expand its cement production capacities from 400,000tonnes to 1.2 million tonnes a year following

Danish supplier of cement machinery and mining equipment FLSmidth's top executive Jørgen Huno Rasmussen said that he expects the company's Minerals Division to outgrow the Cement Division in 2011. According to Rasmussen, the company has resources to cope with the order inflow expected as a result of an upturn in the industry.

Contributions from cement producer Cementos Lafarge towards the development of the Spanish region of Castilla-La Mancha, including salaries, appointments, taxes and collaboration agreements, amounted to €18 million during 2010. According to the managing director of the company’s plant in Villaluenga de la Sagra, Toledo, there are no set plans for 2011, as the uncertainty of the markets prevents the company from making any concrete plans.

Russian company Glavstroy Ust-Labinsk, a part of the Glavstroy holding company, has resumed construction of a plant to produce aerated concrete products in Ust-Labinsk, Krasnodar region in the south-west of the country. Investment in the project is estimated at about €39.55 million, and the planned annual capacity of the plant is 420,000m³ of products, mainly building blocks.

From January 2009 ground water in Europe will be protected by new legislation. ABE takes a look at the new Water Framework Directive and the options for quarry operators. Management of water demand in Europe is an important issue. In the past increased demand has been met by developing new abstraction sources because of the availability and low cost of taking this route. However, with environmental issues coming to the fore, the relationship of water abstraction and availability has become increasingly fo

Spanish building materials company Cupa Group has been awarded the Nan Prize for best construction materials in the climate control category for its Thermoslate system, which uses slate as solar panels. The award comes just two months after the product was first presented. The awards recognise innovation and aesthetics as well as technological efficiency in sustainable materials.

According to Martin Knops of REpower Systems, the German cement industry has the capacity to recycle all disused wind power rotor blades in Germany. Repower Systems, a leading producer of turbines in the German wind energy sector, claims that from 2020 about 15,000tonnes of rotor blades will have to be disposed of in the country each year. Cement producer Holcim has developed what it claims to be the only legally-secured technology for the sustainable recycling of rotor blades, and this has been in regular

In the first quarter of 2011, the production of cement in the Czech Republic increased by 38% year-on-year to 540,000tonnes. Sales rose by about one third, and the Union of Cement Producers says that the growth was mostly thanks to a low comparison base from 2010 and favourable climatic conditions. However, it expects the consumption of the cement to drop in 2011 with stabilisation possible in 2012. The cement production in the Czech Republic peaked at 4.8 million tonnes in 2007 and has been gradually falli

Spain-based Cementos Blancos de Aragon (CBA) has announced the opening of a new cement plant in Azuara. The company has said the initially the plant will use clinker imported from Turkey to produce 250,000tonnes of cement per year but when the plant is fully operational in 2013, the facility will be capable of producing 925,000tonnes of cement per year.