Displaying items by tag: US

US: CalPortland has held the official opening of a rapid fill bulk cement loading station at the Oro Grande, California cement plant. The loading station is the final part of an upgrade project that originally started in 2008 when Riverside Cement owned the plant. This included two new cement loadout facilities, two distribution silos and a cement grinding mill. The upgrade cost US$58.5m.

“Our engineering staff and the Oro Grande operations team have developed a truck loadout system that is one of the fastest in the industry. The added rapid fill bulk loading stations will prevent long wait times for our customers by reducing the total number of trucks on each loading station, thereby further contributing to reduction of greenhouse gas emissions,” said Allen Hamblen, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of CalPortland.

Italy: Buzzi Unicem’s sales rose by 21.7% year-on-year to Euro656m in the first quarter of 2019 from Euro539m in the same period in 2018. Its cement sales volumes grew by 16.9% to 6Mt and its ready-mixed concrete sales rose by 7.3% to 2.6Mm³. It attributed the gain in sales to improved weather in the reporting period. The group reported particular sales growth in Italy, the US and Germany.

France: Vicat’s sales have risen due to its acquisition of Ciplan in Brazil. Its sales rose by 4.7% year-on-year to Euro600m in the first quarter of 2019 from Euro573m in the same period in 2018. However, adjusted for the acquisition, its sales remain stable. The group’s cement sales revenue fell by 1.4% to Euro302m when similarly adjusted. Its concrete and aggregate sales rose by 6.6% to Euro225m.

“The rise in prices across all zones has resulted in stable consolidated sales at constant scope and perimeter, despite strong volume erosions in Turkey as a result of the 2018 lira devaluation and of the consequences of highly adverse weather conditions in California. The integration of Ciplan in Brazil is on track amid conditions that are stabilising after several years of major consumption falls,” said chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) Guy Sidos.

By region sales were strong in France, stable in the rest of Europe and Africa and poor in the Americas, Asia and Turkey. Poor weather in California dragged down sales in the US, competition was reported in India and an economic slowdown was reported in Turkey.

US: Charah Solutions has opened a terminal for fly ash in Hopedale, Massachusetts. The unit has railway access and is connected to local road networks. It is intended to serve customers in New England.

Charah Solutions says that the terminal will increase the availability of fly ash from its MultiSource materials network locations in the South, New England, the Midwest, the Rocky Mountains and California. These locations supply Class C and Class F fly ash for ready mix concrete producers and other customers.

US: National Cement is tendering for a new 5000t/day production line at its Ragland plant in Alabama. The subsidiary of France’s Vicat has reportedly had a permit for the upgrade since 2006. The plant operates one dry process kiln with a production capacity of 1.9Mt/yr.

US: Martin Marietta has benefited from aggregate sales volume growth in the first quarter of 2019. Its revenue grew by 17% year-on-year to US$939m from US$802m. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 28% to US$159m from US$124m. However, the gross profit on its cement business was down and both sales and profit was down for ready-mixed concrete (RMX). Despite this the company said that its cement shipments and pricing increased 7.3% due to demand in Texas, a new Houston-area sales yard and an enhanced product line.

US: Rockwell Automation has launched the FactoryTalk Analytics LogixAI module, an update to its Project Sherlock software product. It is intended to detect production anomalies and alert workers so they can investigate or intervene. The add-on module for the company’s ControlLogix fits directly into a control chassis and streams controller data over the backplane to build predictive models. It can continuously monitor a production operation, detecting anomalies against its derived understanding.

The FactoryTalk Analytics LogixAI module is the newest addition to the FactoryTalk Analytics portfolio from Rockwell Automation. The portfolio includes FactoryTalk Analytics for Devices, which learns about an automation system’s structure to tell workers about problems with individual devices. The LogixAI module expands on this by learning about an automation system’s application and helping identify anomalies with its overall function.

US: Robert McCaffrey, the editorial director of Global Cement, has presented ‘The global cement industry in 2050’ at the 61st IEEE-IAS/PCA Cement Technical Conference 2019 taking place at St Louis in Missouri. The presentation used data from a variety of sources to explore how the cement and concrete industries could look in 2050 including shifts in societies, demographics, technologies, business and the environment.

For more information about the presentation and to download a copy visit: www.globalcement.com/reports/cement-2050

Global Cement is exhibiting at the IEEE-IAS/PCA at Booth 128

US: John King Chains USA has joined the Power Transmission Distributors Association (PTDA). The association brings together over 370 industrial power transmission and motion control distribution channel and manufacturing companies.

Mexico: Cemex’s cement sales volumes fell by 6% year-on-year to 14.9Mt in the first quarter of 2019 from 15.9Mt in the same period in 2018. It has blamed this on falling volumes in its key markets in Mexico and the US. Its net sales dropped by 3% to US$3.24bn from US$3.34bn. Its operating earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) decreased by 6% to US$562m from US$598m. Its concrete sales volumes fell slightly to 12.1Mm3 from 12.2Mm3.

“We are pleased with the 1% top-line growth we achieved during the first quarter, despite volume declines in our two most important markets: Mexico and the US. During the quarter, we enjoyed improved pricing performance in all our regions with favourable volume dynamics in Europe. In the US, ready-mix and aggregates volumes also grew despite adverse weather in part of our footprint,” said Fernando A Gonzalez, chief executive officer (CEO) of Cemex.

By region, the group also reported falling sales in its South, Central America and the Caribbean and Asia, Middle East and Africa regions. However, sales volumes of both cement and concrete increased by over 10% in Europe. Here, net sales rose by 3% to US$805m from US$781m. This was attributed to ‘strong’ domestic demand in most countries and a mild winter.