Displaying items by tag: Headquarters

France: HeidelbergCement’s subsidiary Ciments Calcia plans to stop clinker production at two plants as part of a Euro400m investment and reorganisation programme for several of its sites in France. Around Euro300m of this will be spent at the integrated Airvault cement plant. The company also intends to: convert its integrated Gargenville cement plant into a grinding plant and shut down its kiln systems and quarry operations; convert its integrated Cruas white cement plant into an automated cement terminal for the distribution of white cement; and adapt the organisation at its French headquarters at Guerville. The plan will cut 162 jobs and create 20 new ones.

“As part of our global business excellence initiative, we intend to further optimise effectiveness, processes and structures of our French sites,” said Dominik von Achten, chairman of the managing board of HeidelbergCement. “We want to considerably speed up the modernisation of our plants in order to enhance our performance in France, while ensuring alignment with the goals of the Paris agreement. This is why we focus our initiatives on the main CO₂-emitting plants in France.”

France: Vicat recorded net sales of Euro2.07bn in the first nine months of 2020, up slightly from Euro2.06bn in the first nine months of 2019. Sales rose in Africa by 23% to Euro198m from Euro161m, in Europe (excluding France) by 8% to Euro317m from Euro294m and in the Americas by 7% to Euro471m from Euro442m.

Cement sales constituted 51% of sales at Euro1.05bn, up by 5% from Euro991m. Cement volumes rose by 8% to 18.0Mt from 16.7Mt, while concrete volumes fell by 2% to 6.65Mt from 6.78Mt.

Chair and chief executive officer (CEO) Guy Sidos said, “The impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on the group's operating profit was eliminated by the end of July 2020. The good momentum observed since then, particularly in the group's most recent operations in India and Brazil, leads us to envisage that operating profit may increase significantly at constant scope and exchange rates in 2020. Nevertheless, the group is continuing its efforts to reduce structural costs, signified by the relocation on 1 October 2020 of its head office to l’Isle d'Abeau in Isère.”

Austria: Waste processing specialist Lindner has celebrated the groundbreaking ceremony for its new headquarters. The company says that the 45,000m² site will also encompass a new “state-of-the-art waste processing technology production plant.” It says that the facility will enable it to better serve the industries that depend on its expertise, including the cement sector. “That’s why it is so important to us to constantly expand this know-how, develop new solutions and systematically prepare and pass on the knowledge gained,” it added.

France: Eqiom has announced the relocation of its headquarters to Courbevoie, Hauts-de-Seine Department from Levallois-Perret, also in Hauts-de-Seine Department. The company said that “new working methods favouring digital work, the agility of group work and the importance of good life practices” compounded the decision to move. It added, “The transfer operation was completed in just three days with no major surprises.”

Vietnam: ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions has announced the relocation of its Asia Pacific cement regional division headquarters to Hanoi from Singapore. The new headquarters are on the site of one of the company’s “largest cement plant engineering centres.” It retains offices in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. The main motivation for the move is to better enable ThyssenKrupp to supply Vietnamese cement producers.

Cement technologies chief executive officer (CEO) Pablo Hofelich said, “In our new headquarters, we bring together experts from Germany, Singapore and Thailand to support the Vietnam office. Vietnam is the largest market in terms of cement production capacity in a dynamic and growing Asia Pacific.” Asia Pacific cement business CEO Lukas Schoeneck said, “We are focusing on know-how transfer and the development of solutions that are tailored to the requirements of the local markets in Asia Pacific. Besides, we will expand our service activities to strengthen our local footprint and proximity to clients. Lastly, we will push sustainable technologies within our Grey2Green initiative.”

Sweden: Refractories specialist Höganäs Borgestad opened its new headquarters at Gävle, Gävleborg county on 27 April 2020. The facility will house the Energy and Kiln Engineering, Installation and Management departments.

During the coronavirus lockdown one project of note for Höganäs Borgestad has been refractory maintenance at Germany-based HeidelbergCement subsidiary Norcem’s 1.2Mt/yr Brevik cement plant in Telemark, Norway, for which it supplied 600t of refractories and 45 workers over a three week period.

Spain: Cementos Molins says that 13 of its 14 directors want to keep the company’s headquarters in Madrid following a request by a minority shareholder. This represents a hardening by the board on the issue following its move from near Barcelona in 2017, according to Crónica. The cement producer decided to move its registered address away from Sant Vicenc dels Horts in Catalonia following moves by the regional government to push for independence.

South Africa: PPC has started a cost cutting campaign at its head office following poor cement sales so far in 2018. A source quoted by Business Report told the newspaper that staff redundancies had taken place already. The fall in sales has been blamed on poor local economic growth, the impact of a value added tax (VAT) increase on consumer spending and problems in the construction industry, including a fall in large infrastructure projects and private non-residential building.

US: Air Products is preparing to build a new global headquarters in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania. The new site will be situation around 2km from its existing location in Allentown. Ground breaking is expected in March 2019 with occupancy scheduled for the summer of 2021. The new location will be the base for approximately 2000 Air Products employees with capacity for growth.

The decision to change headquarters has been taken to allow the company to modernise its facilities. The new headquarters site will include new administration offices, a research and development (R&D) facility, and an enclosed parking structure for employees.

Air Products operates an industrial gases business providing atmospheric and process gases and related equipment to manufacturing markets, including the cement and lime industries as well as refining and petrochemical, metals, electronics, and food and beverage sectors. Air Products is also a supplier of liquefied natural gas process technology and equipment.

UK: Cemex UK will move its headquarters from Thorpe, Surrey to its offices in Rugby, Warwickshire from 1 July 2018. The new premises were the former global head offices for the Rugby Group until 2000. To date the Rugby offices have provided a regional centre for the company. From July 2018 the senior leadership team and all back-office functions such as taxation, communications and human resources will be based at Rugby, working alongside business areas such as the national customer service centre, Marketing and logistics.

“Rugby lies geographically at the centre of our UK business and with changing patterns of working such as increased working from home and from operational sites, it makes good business sense to consolidate our offices. Rugby and the Rugby brand are at the ‘heart’ of our business and the creation of the new headquarters will ensure greater efficiency and communication,” said Michel Andre, Country President, Cemex UK.