Displaying items by tag: France

Belgium/France: LafargeHolcim has appointed François Petry as the chief executive officer (CEO) of LafargeHolcim France and Head of France - Belgium. He succeeds Bénédicte de Bonnechose, who has decided to leave the group.

Petry has been the managing director of Aggregate Industries, a subsidiary of LafargeHolcim in the UK, since 2015. Prior to this he was the CEO of LafargeHolcim Romania since 2014 and the general manager for Aggregates in Holcim France since 2008. Before that, he held senior positions across the infrastructure, construction and waste industries in France.

He holds degree in Engineering from the École Nationale Superieure D’Arts et Metiers, ParisTech, as well as an executive MBA from the École des Hautes Etudes Commerciales de Paris.

France/Syria: A group of Yazidi women have applied to become ‘civil parties’ in a criminal case brought in France against Lafarge and several of its executives for complicity in crimes against humanity and financing a terrorist organisation. The women survived rape and slavery at the hands of the Islamic State (IS) group in Iraq and Syria, according to the Agence France Presse. Lafarge allegedly made multi-million dollar payments to IS in order to continue operations at one of its cement plants in northern Syria in 2013. Lawyers on behalf of the Yazidi said that the case would allow the women, "to have their voices heard in a court of law."

Lafarge Syria is suspected of paying nearly Euro13m to IS and other militant groups to keep the Jalabiya plant running. Payments by the cement company were considered a ‘tax’ in exchange for which militants allowed free movement of the company's staff and goods inside the warzone, according to investigators.

Oman: Four French investors and technology suppliers, including Fives and Suez, have created a syndicate to develop business opportunities in the Special Economic Zone Authority of Duqm. The other partners are CMA CGM and EDF Renewables. The companies intend to assess various investment options in the area and develop them. In particular, the syndicate has an interest in a ‘global approach to cement factory ecosystems’ and related facilities including transport facilities, a solar power generation plant and the production of alternative fuels.

France: Ciments Calcia has launched Hop’ pour les Pros, a dissolvable cement bag product. Cement sold in the bags can be placed directly into a mixer to make ready-mix concrete. Its puported beneifts include reduce spillage, time savings and no packaging. CEM II 32.5 R cement will be used in the product manufactured at he company’s Bussac-Forêt cement plant in Charente-Maritime.

France: Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies has inaugurated its pilot plant at Bournezeau, Vendée. The 50,000t/yr unit will manufacture cement products using metakaolin and blast-furnace slag, according to the L'Usine Nouvelle magazine. It says it will produce cement with reduced CO₂ emissions up to 250kg/t using a flash-calcined process down from 900kg/t in the normal clinker production process. The project had investment of Euro10m.

France: Bénédicte de Bonnechose, the president of the French cement industry union (SFIC), says that country’s cement market is expected to grow by 3% in 2018. She made the comments whilst unveiling local CO₂ reduction targets by 2050, according to the Agence France Presse. The local industry recorded growth of 4% in 2017. She described 2018 as a ‘positive recovery’ with sustained growth following a good first half.

SFIC forecasts that new low-clinker cement products will enter the market by mid-2020. These products include EMC II / CM, EMC VI and LC3 types of cement. These should reduce the CO₂ emissions related to current sold cement products by 35%. Other CO₂ capture initiatives including Oxyfuel, Leiliac and calcium looping cleanker technologies were also mentioned.

France: Vicat’s cement sales rose by 1.8% year-on-year to Euro948m in the first nine months of 2018 from Euro932m in the same period in 2017. At constant scope and exchange rates it rose by 10.2%. Overall sales grew by 1.4% to Euro1.95bn from Euro1.92bn. The group’s sales volumes of cement rose by 3.1% to 17.4Mt from 16.9Mt.

“The group achieved healthy increases over the period in all our territories, except Switzerland and Egypt,” said the group’s chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) Guy Sidos. “In the third quarter, business trends held up well, despite a downturn in the economic and industry environment in Turkey, which was hit by the sharp depreciation in its currency. The acquisition of Ciplan in Brazil, a country with tremendous potential, reinforces Vicat’s strategy of sustainable growth, leveraging its high-quality assets and strong regional positions to generate cash flow.”

Greece: Titan Group has submitted a share exchange offer to help list its shares at exchanges in Brussels and Paris. Following the completion of the process, Belgium-based Titan Cement International will become Titan's ultimate parent company managed from Cyprus, according to Reuters. The group intends to list its shares at Euronext Brussels with secondary listings on the Athens Exchange and Euronext Paris. Titan says it wants to broaden its funding sources by improving access to international finance.

France/Syria: A judicial investigation has seized Euro4m from former Lafarge executives, including former chief executive officer (CEO) Bruno Lafont, as part of a probe into the company’s conduct in Syria. Sources quoted by the Agence France Presse said that Euro2.5m was confiscated from Lafont’s leaving package of Euro8.4m as Lafarge merged with Holcim to form LafargeHolcim. Funds were also taken from Bruno Pescheux and Frédéric Jolibois, the former directors of Lafarge Cement Syria, and from Christian Herrault, a dormer deputy general regional manager with overview of Syria.

Lafarge SA, a subsidiary of LafargeHolcim, has been placed under judicial investigation over its actions in Syria between 2011 and 2014. It has been accused of complicity in crimes against humanity and financing terrorism. A panel of three judges in Paris has ordered Lafarge to pay over Euro30m as a security deposit ahead of the trial. Eight former executives, including Lafont, have been charged in connection to the investigation.

France: Fives has appointed Denis Mercier in the newly created role of Deputy General Manager. He will start working for Fives on 15 October 2018. Directly reporting to Frédéric Sanchez, chairman of the executive board, he will join the Group’s Executive Committee.

Mercier’s main duties will be supervising all Fives functional departments involved in group transformation: operational performance, human resources, communication, innovation, strategy and marketing, international development and information technology.

Between 2012 and 2015, Mercier was Chief of Staff of the French Air Force. Since 2015, he has been North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, a role that ended in September 2018. Born in 1959, Denis Mercier has received the awards of Grand Officier de la Légion d’honneur and Officier de l’Ordre national du Mérite.