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Atmo, the association for the monitoring of air quality, carried out research at La Couronne in spring 2011. The site’s quarry is located just next to its factory, separated by the Paris-Bordeaux railway line. The crushing of some plaster moulds in the factory was also highlighted by Atmo, and this activity was moved towards the quarry.

A Europe-wide centre to be used to test innovative supporting structures of offshore wind turbines will be built with investments of €25million at Germany's Leibniz University in Hanover-Marienwerder. The new centre, a hall with a height of 20m and with a 14m long and 10m deep cavity filled with sand and water, is to be set up from the late 2012 to the end of 2013.

CDE has announced an expansion of its UK team with the appointment of Jon Collins as UK regional manager. He joins CDE after accumulating extensive operating experience in the recycling, environmental and utilities contracting sectors latterly with FM Conway in Dartford, Kent, experience CDE says will allow it to further develop the construction and demolition waste recycling infrastructure in the UK through the introduction of the modular washing equipment that the company offers.

Volvo is reorganising its business to focus on customer segments rather than product lines. Claire Symes spoke to David Nus, the man charged with leading the quarrying business. Quarrying has always been a key industry for Volvo Construction Equipment but now the company has restructured to provide customers with a better service. Previously the company centred around factories and product lines but now it has teams to look at the applications those machines are used in.

Heading up the global customer so

Caterpillar has restructured to focus on customer segments. Claire Symes spoke to industry region manager John Calder to find out what this means for quarry operators. The financial crisis has given many companies the breathing space to take stock of their operations and review what customers really need from them. One of the largest construction equipment businesses to do this has been Caterpillar, which has realigned its business to fit with the sectors that its customers operate in.

Spanish natural stone firm Levantina has a new chief executive. Former Service Point chief executive Rafael Lopez-Aparicio is tasked with guaranteeing the firm's feasibility. Levantina controls 93 quarries, nine plants and 35 distribution warehouses in Spain, Brazil and the US.

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. Expanding its operations to new markets throughout the world, launching new products and investing in building new installations, are three other priorities for Lafarge Cementos over the next 12 months.

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.

René Couanau, the mayor of French town Saint-Malo, has refused planning permission for a project to build eight cement silos at Saint-Malo port which would have led to additional traffic of 20,000 tonnes per year, 10% of the freight activity at the port. He was said to be concerned over the aesthetic impact the project would have, as well as having concerns relating to the circulation of heavy goods vehicles in the town centre.

A drop in public tender and a lack of private constructions are reported to be key contributors to the legal move. The company had reached a debt renegotiation agreement earlier on this year, but has not managed to avoid going into administration.

The Kominvest AKMT company, the official distributor of Finland-based Amomatic, and the State Committee for Transport and Road Construction of the Bashkir Republic in Russia, have signed a contract over supplies for five modular asphalt and concrete plants in Kumertau. The equipment is to be installed by May 2012.The agreement also includes the possibility of metal structures output for Amomatic in the republic.

The money, which will pay for the installation of two new production lines at KPD-2, means DSK will be able to build 17-storey houses instead of nine-storey ones.

Oficemen said the fall to 19million tonnes was likely to be followed by a December 2011 demand of 20.2million tonnes, down 17% on December 2010. Demand will continue to drop in 2012, claims Oficemen, as a result of the low levels of public work projects and lack of new residential property projects. Over the last four years, cement demand has dropped by 64% and it is expected to go down by 8%-12% in 2012.

HeidelbergCement has officially inaugurates a new cement mill at its plant in the seaport Chittagong, Bangladesh. The ball mill has a grinding capacity of about 0.8million tonnes. The investment costs amount to approximately €12.65 million, and test runs of the new mill were conducted successfully at the end of 2011.

A consortium presided over by ABM Solid has signed a contract to carry out works at the cement plant based in Chelm, eastern Poland, which belongs to Cemex Polska. Net value of the contract, which among other things will involve the production and provision of steel constructions, reaches €2.58 million.

The concrete industry has hit back at the inaccurate and misleading reporting of the closure of the A4 Hammersmith Flyover, London. The flyover was closed on 23 December following concerns over structural defects and partially reopened to light traffic on 13 January. Site investigations have ascertained corrosion of the internal steel cables which help support the flyover, due to salt water ingress from grit laid during winter. The flyover, built in 1962, was originally designed to have under-road heating a

SPC predict producers will have made 18.2-18.3million tonnes of cement in 2011, up from the record-breaking 16.95million tonnes in 2008. SPC also believe 2012 levels will be similar to those of 2011. Initially, the cement output for 2011 was expected to reach only 16.5-17million tonnes, but thanks to the large number of road investments, the forecast has risen.

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.

The funds from the Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation (DNATF) will pay for the development of CleanTechBlock bricks over the next three years. Consisting of tile on the outside and a glass foam core, the brick will eventually compete with the most widely-used brick solutions on the market. The new CleanTechBlock aims to to allow properties to be built with thinner walls, while retaining the same insulation as thicker wall structures.

In 2011, the programme to replace asphalt in the centre of Moscow, the Russian capital, with paving flagstones will be reduced from 1.13 million m² to 400,000m², and financing for the work will also be reduced. Other works have been rescheduled for 2012 due to a short delivery of tiles by manufacturers. According to the Moscow Public Utilities Department, 4 million m² of asphalt is to be replaced, and some €95.27 million will be allocated from the Moscow's budget for the project.