Displaying items by tag: Australia

Australia: Boral plans to increase raw limestone production at its Marulan South quarry in New South Wales to 4.0Mt/yr. Additionally, the company will increase aggregate extraction at the site to 1.0Mt/yr. The Goulburn Post reports that the new South Wales state government has agreed to the US$3.23m upgrade on condition that the building materials company upgrades and realigns a local access road to improve safety. Boral originally applied to expand the open cast mine in 2018.

Australia: Adelaide Brighton says that it has begun bagging its cement in water-resistant bags developed in partnership with packaging supplier Mondi, which supplied its Advantage Protect White water-resistant sack kraft paper product, and local bagging solutions provider Pope Packaging.

Adelaide Brighton is promoting the high tensile strength and water repellent surface of the bags, which it says can withstand rain for up to six hours and exposure to damp for 120 hours, earning them the nickname ’rain barriers.’ The company said, “After being actively involved in testing and developing the new product, Adelaide Brighton is the first business in the country to market the new innovative product. We are in the process of converting all of our cement and hydrated lime paper bags, manufactured in South Australia and the Northern Territory, across to rain barrier bags.”

Australia: Adelaide Brighton has secured a renewal of its contract with BHP for supply of cement and lime to its Olympic Dam, South Australia mine until 2026. The producer has said that the contract would generate US$116m in revenue for the group over the full six year term of the deal.

Chief executive officer (CEO) Nick Miller said, “We are pleased to extend our long-term relationship with BHP at its Olympic Dam project, which demonstrates the strength of our integrated cement and lime position, as well as our high quality and cost competitive product offering. We thank BHP for supporting a home-grown producer over an imported product, which protects local jobs and benefits the broader South Australian economy.

Denmark: FLSmidth has appointed Tamer Eid as the new president for the Australia region, with effect from 14 September 2020, and Claudio Garcia Bernal as president for the South America region. The group also announced that Ramanathan (Ram) Chandran, who was appointed president for the Subcontinental India region in August 2020, will start his role on 4 September 2020.

Tamer Eid has held various senior executive and technical roles in the mining and oil and gas sectors including working with Weir in the US and UK and in various senior roles within Outotec. He holds an MBA and a degree in mechanical engineering. He will be based out of FLSmidth’s Welshpool facility in Perth, Australia.

Claudio Garcia Bernal previously served as acting president for the South America region since April 2020. Ramanathan Chandran joins FLSmdith from Minerals Technologies Inc. where he was Vice President (Minteq Asia) & MD (Minerals Technologies India).

Australia: Adelaide Brighton has extended its lease over its Sellicks Hill quarry in South Australia until 2090. The Advertiser newspaper has reported that the signing of the lease, which secures the company’s local supply of limestone, “coincides with a rise in local cement consumption due to the government’s South Australia HomeBuilder building and renovation subsidy scheme,” according to the company. In August 2020 Adelaide Brighton signed supply contracts with BHP and OZ Minerals for infrastructure projects in the state.

Australia: Adelaide Brighton has recorded a net profit of US$21.1m in the first half of 2020, compared to a US$13.0m loss in the first half of 2019. Revenues fell by 7.3% to US$508m from US$548m due to a 12% construction decline over the period, according to the company. Residential construction fell by 16%, however mining and infrastructure activity remained consistent with levels in the first half of 2019. Adelaide Brighton said, “Cement demand is likely to continue to benefit from a strong production outlook for gold, nickel, and iron ore in particular, and stable demand from the alumina sector.”

Australia: The SmartCrete Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) has appointed Warren South as its chief executive officer (CEO). He will join the cement and concrete research organisation in mid-September 2020 and lead the consolidation of its central services function, initially supporting the ‘Fast Start’ and Round 1 research projects. South joins the SmartCrete CRC following nine years as Director – Research and Technical Services with Cement Concrete and Aggregates Australia (CCAA).

Australia: James Hardie’s operating profit in the three-month period ended 30 June 2020 was US$89.3m, down by 1% year-on-year from US$90.2m in the corresponding period of 2019. Earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) were US$125m, consistent with the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal year.

Chief executive officer (CEO) Jack Truong said, “In February 2019 we launched a global strategy to transform James Hardie from a big small company to a small big company capable of delivering growth above market with strong returns, consistently. This is our fifth consecutive quarter of delivering strong results in line with the core goal of that strategy: growth above market and strong returns. I am very pleased to note that not only do we remain on track with our transformation, but we are also accelerating our transformation during the coronavirus pandemic.”

Australia: Adelaide Brighton says its sites in Victoria can continue to operate during coronavirus-related lockdown measures that have been implemented until mid-September 2020. It said it would work with its customers, “to assess their requirements for construction materials and modify production levels in response to demand.” The company operates a jointly-owned cement grinding plant in Melbourne as well as concrete and aggregate units in the state.

Australia: US-based bauxite, alumina and aluminium producer Alcoa has said that it will not renew its US$48.5m/yr lime supply contract with Adelaide Brighton subsidiary Cockburn Cement following its expiry at the end of June 2020. Business News Western Australia has reported that the end of the 50-year contract puts between 40 and 50 jobs at risk at Cockburn Cement.

Adelaide Brighton chief executive officer (CEO) Nick Miller said, “We are disappointed with Alcoa's decision to displace a locally-manufactured product with imports from multiple sources. We will work quickly to mitigate the impact on local jobs supporting our lime business and we remain committed to supplying our Western Australia resources sector customers.”