04 February 2015
Aumund Brazil expands after sales service with new service centre 04 February 2015
Brazil: Aumund has established its fourth global service centre with an integrated warehouse in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The centre is intended to improve the availability and operation of customers' equipment through maintenance. The central location is designed to serve customers in South America, where 10% of Aumund's equipment is supplied and installed. The centre follows the engineering firm's other service centres in Germany, the US and China.
The new centre's service team consists of 10 personnel, including supervisors, inspectors and technicians for field service activities. All inspectors are trained in Aumund's PREMAS maintenance framework. In addition to keeping spare parts in stock the new service centre will also service and repair equipment manufactured by Schade Lagertechnik GmbH and Samson Materials Handling Ltd.
Aumund Brazil started operations in 1975 with a sales office in Rio de Janerio. In 1993 the company moved to Jundai in São Paulo state and then to the city of São Paulo in 1997.
Cemex condemns assassination of its head of security 04 February 2015
Colombia: Cemex has condemned a recent attack that resulted in the death of Clavijo Rojas, head of Cemex security, near to a cement plant that it is building in Maceo, Magdalena Medio. Cemex executives want local authorities to investigate the incident so that the criminals can be apprehended. Clavijo Rojas, a 50 year old German citizen, was travelling in a car with another person when they were fired upon, possibly by a guerrilla group or by those linked to organised crime. Cemex said that it had not received any threats or demands in this area.
Zimbabwe: Plans to build a cement plant in Zvishavane by Chinese investors have been challenged as it has emerged that the mining rights in the area belong to Shabanie Mashaba Mines (SMM). This may delay the project as SMM is still the subject of an ownership dispute between the government and South African-based businessman Mutumwa Mawere.
The project was intended to be built 30km from the Zvishavane along the Zvishavane-Mbalabala road, according to local press. It was part of the deals made with China after President Robert Mugabe's visit to China in 2014 as well as negotiations between the Joint Zimbabwe-China Permanent Commission.
Vicat sales rise by 6% in 2014 04 February 2015
France: Vicat's total sales rose by 6% year-on-year to Euro2.42bn in 2014 from Euro2.29bn in 2013. Cement sales rose by 13.7% to Euro1.26bn. The French building materials manufacturer attributed the growth to markets in Asia and improvement in the US and Egypt.
By region, cement sales fell by 4.4% year-on-year in France to Euro356m with an increased decline seen in the fourth quarter of 2014. This was blamed on a slowdown in the construction sector. In the rest of Europe cement sales declined less sharply by 5% to Euro174m. In the US cement sales rose by 16.7% to Euro114m. In Asia, including Turkey, India and Kazakhstan, sales rose by 20% to Euro466m. In Africa and the Middle East cement sales rose by 23% to Euro374m.
Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to transfer six cement plant being built in Sichuan 04 February 2015
China: The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has released a plan to transfer the production capacity of six cement projects that are currently being built in Sichuan Province. These schemes, with a total cement production capacity of 6Mt/yr, will be publicised on the national production capacity replacement quota platform for future transfer.