Displaying items by tag: Infrastructure

Egypt: Lafarge Egypt has been named as the sole cement supplier for base construction work by China State Construction Engineering (CSCE) for the Central Business District in the New Administrative Capital. The subsidiary of LafargeHolcim will supply its cement based on a framework of the long-term partnership between Lafarge Egypt and CSCEC to erect several high-rise buildings, including a tower that is set to be the tallest in Africa. It will use its Hydrocem Plus cement product for the project. Lafarge Egypt will also take part in the concrete pouring for the foundations.

"We are proud to hold such a long-term cooperation with CSCE for the construction of such a historical project and we value their trust in our products’ quality, which magnifies our capabilities in providing tailored and unique products and solutions to meet our customers' needs. Additionally our capability as a company helped us supply large quantities of cement in a short time which helped complete the pouring in 40 consecutive hours only," said Hussein Mansi, Chief Executive Officer of Lafarge Egypt.

Lafarge Egypt is also engaged in a number of projects in the New Administrative Capital project, including different types of concrete products and steel fibres.

Puerto Rico: Road reconstruction work, housing and other infrastructure projects are raising cement sales. Over US$0.9bn of local and federal funding is being spent on rebuilding roads and around US$1.5bn has been approved for other projects, according to the El Vocero newspaper. Cement sales rose by 13.5% year-on-year to 1.2 million bags in December 2018.

France: LafargeHolcim has been awarded contracts worth Euro110m as part of the Euro38.5bn Grand Paris Express (GPE) project. The GPE will improve transport infrastructure in Paris in preparation for the 2024 Olympic Games. It will require around 200km of new railway line and 68 new stations.

LafargeHolcim will deliver 600,000t of aggregates and 260,000t of cement to produce 650,000m³ of ready-mix concrete. To support the project’s schedule, the company has added mobile ready-mix concrete plants to its existing Parisian ready-mix concrete network, enabling an average production of 300m³/hr for the GPE. It will remove and treat at least 3Mt of earth from the construction site, then use the excavated material to re-landscape its nearby quarries. For the transportation of both aggregates coming from nearby quarries situated in the Seine valley and the excavated earth, LafargeHolcim will use barges on the River Seine. The company aims to work on the GPE over the next 15 years.

“We are proud to be a key partner on this historic project. With this partnership we are demonstrating our leadership in the building materials industry, making a lasting contribution to improving the transport experience of the people living and working in the Paris area. The project once more shows our capacity and reliability in delivering a large amount of high-quality concrete and our ability to provide efficient logistics and supply solutions,” said chief executive officer (CEO) Jan Jenisch.

US: President Donald Trump has signed an executive order making it the policy of the federal government to buy goods locally, including cement, for infrastructure projects. The directive aims to strengthen the ‘Buy American and Hire American’ executive order issues in 2017 by giving a preference for raw materials manufactured in the US for use in government-backed projects.

US: The Portland Cement Association (PCA) has praised President Donald Trump’s call to rebuild the country’s infrastructure in his State of the Union address. Trump said that he wanted both political parties to work together to pass an infrastructure bill.

“The Portland Cement Association applauds President Trump for emphasising the political imperative of addressing America’s long-neglected infrastructure needs in his State of the Union address. America’s cement manufacturers are ready and willing to work with Congress and the Trump Administration to find a legislative solution that shores up our transportation and waterways in a fiscally responsible manner,” said PCA president and chief executive officer (CEO) Michael Ireland.

Peru: Research from Scotiabank forecasts that cement consumption will grow by 6.5% in 2019 due to construction sector growth. The market will be supported by both private and public investment, according to the Gestión newspaper. Private investment will be supported by the mining industry. Infrastructure projects including Line 2 of the Lima Metro, the expansion of the Jorge Chávez Airport, the Port of San Martín, the Port of Salaverry and others are expected to support public investment. Local consumption of cement grew by 3.7% year-on-year in 2018, the highest rate of growth since 2013.

Sweden: Conveyor belts supplied by Germany’s Continental are being used in the Förbifart Stockholm road infrastructure project. HeidelbergCement’s aggregate company Jehander is using Continental steel cord conveyor belts at its Löten quarry near Stockholm to allow rubble from tunnelling to be reused for road construction. In addition, drilling machines from Epiroc are using Continental DrillMaster tyres to provide high cut resistance, good traction and stability.

Overall, around 5.5Mt of rock will be extracted to build the tunnels required for the new bypass. A series of conveyor belt systems are being used to transport the extracted rock to three temporary ports that have been set up for the project. The rubble is taken across the waterways by inland vessels from the construction site in Stockholm to Löten. The rubble is then reused as concrete, mostly for road construction, or it used for local construction.

Philippines: A shortage of cement is causing delays to infrastructure projects in parts of Pangasinan province. Department of Public Works and Highways Pangasinan 3 District Engineer Gerardo de Guzman said that the region's cement manufacturer Northern Cement was not producing enough cement to support the region, according to the Manila Bulletin newspaper. Cement is being rationed as a result.

Netherlands: LafargeHolcim has been awarded a contract for the renovation of the Afsluitdijk, a sea defence infrastructure projects. The building materials company will use its Holcim Basalton Quattroblock concrete product to cover around 700,000m² of the 32km long dam. In addition, LafargeHolcim has developed a logistics plan where materials are delivered by sea to avoid additional traffic on the dam. The total construction costs for the project is around Euro550m.

To support the project, LafargeHolcim is also investing in the expansion of its Dutch concrete products plant that is part of its Solutions & Products segment. When completed later in 2019, the expanded plant will be able to produce 1000t/day of concrete Quattroblocks for customers in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

The Afsluitdijk upgrade is intended to enable the dyke to withstand a one in 10,000 year storm as well as provide protection against rising sea water levels. The project is led by the Levvel consortium comprising BAM, Van Oord and Rebel. Construction started at the end of 2018 and it is scheduled for completion in 2023.

US: Aggregate Industries, a US subsidiary of LafargeHolcim, has secured the contract to provide concrete for the US$2bn Minneapolis-area Southwest Light Rail Transit (LRT) extension of the Metro Green Line. The new line will run 14.5 miles from downtown Minneapolis to the suburb of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, and require construction of 16 new stations, plus the rail infrastructure itself. The project will require an estimated 0.30Mm³ of ready-mix concrete. It includes the construction of 44 structures, 29 new bridges, two cut and cover tunnels, six pedestrian tunnels, 15 at-grade crossings, 110 retaining walls and over 45,000m of track.