Displaying items by tag: Jobs

Spain: Cement consumption in Spain will close 2012 with a drop of 33% year-on-year, the fifth double-digit decline in a row, according to data from the country's association of cement producers Oficemen.

Oficemen expects that the demand will also shrink by 20% in 2013, until it reaches the levels similar to those in Morocco and Ecuador. Spanish cement consumption was at a 48-year low after the first half of 2012.

Meanwhile, the Spanish cement and building materials producer Sociedad de Cementos y Materiales de Construccion de Andalucia, controlled by Portuguese cement group Cimpor, is negotiating the lay-off of 35 staff with its employees and trade unions. The proposed move will affect 25 staff at its plant in Cordoba and 10 employees at a factory in Niebla.

Switzerland: As part of its on-going 'Leadership Journey' Swiss multinational cement producer Holcim has announced that it will be reducing its management structure in Europe to cope with lower levels of construction activity in the region. The group says that proposed measures evaluated and existing ones will lead to annual cost savings of at least Euro99m, a better utilisation rate of capacity and a more efficient allocation of capital expenditure.

The additional cash costs for restructuring in the fourth quarter of 2012 will amount to approximately Euro83.8m including site restoration costs. Write-offs of property, plant and equipment will total Euro339m and will be charged in the fourth quarter of 2012. Consultation procedures with regards to impact on personnel have been initiated in some group companies.

The restructuring accelerates the implementation of the Holcim Leadership Journey. The major part of the anticipated cash costs of Euro166m to realise the Holcim Leadership Journey will be incurred in 2012. The group's payout potential for the 2012 financial year (pre-write-offs) remains. The board of directors will propose the level of the payout at the end of February 2013, as part of the year-end financial statement to be submitted to the annual general meeting.

Italy: The Italian cement maker Italcementi has prepared a plan to reorganise its activities in Italy, to be implemented in 2013 and 2014. It envisages layoff schemes for up to 665 employees.

At present the company employs 2500 staff, of whom two-thirds are employed at its production sites. The remainder work at the company's headquarters in Bergamo.

The plan, dubbed 'Project 2015,' aims to rationalise the industrial and distribution structure of the group and reorganise the central structures and commercial network. The plan targets to reduce costs by around Euro40m/yr.

Australia: Building products maker Boral is cutting 90 jobs as it reduces some manufacturing at a cement plant in Geelong, Victoria, in favour of imports. About 90 staff at the Waurn Ponds cement plant will be affected by the suspension of clinker production. Boral intends to import clinker due to the high Australian dollar and low shipping costs and use the plant as a cement milling facility only. It is thought that the kiln will be shut down by April 2013.

The Australian Workers' Union (AWU) said that it will work with the company to try and save as many jobs as possible. Talks will be held with the workers over coming weeks to explore all options, to avoid or mitigate job losses and to organise redundancies or redeployment within the company.

"A continued low level of demand associated with the downturn in Australian building and construction activity is also adversely impacting the profitability of Boral's cement business, where high fixed cost manufacturing assets continue to be under-utilised," said Boral's CEO Mike Kane said in a statement. "Across all of our businesses we need to ensure that we are aligning our domestic production with demand levels and that our cost structures are globally competitive and can be sustained through the cycle."

Spain: Cemex España, the Spanish unit of Mexican cement company Cemex, will launch a downsizing plan for 280 employees, down from the initial intention to cut 370 jobs. The 25% reduction came as a result of an agreement reached between the company's management and trade unions.

The employees to be affected by the staff-reduction measure account for 16% of all of Cemex's 1740 employees in Spain at present. The laid-off employees will receive severance pays of 30 days per every year of work but not more than 22 monthly salaries.

Cemex's adjustment has had to be carried out due to the continued low demand for cement in the country. Cemex reported a 19% drop in its sales in Spain in 2011. The country is the company's third largest market in terms of the number of cement production plants after Mexico and the USA.

Australia: Holcim Australia, a subsidiary of Switzerland-based building materials company Holcim, plans to lay off 150 staff and mothball up to 30 facilities as part of a review of its Australian operations. The majority of the closures and lay offs will affect Holcim's Australia's concrete business.

The company expects to mothball or close about 10% of its sites when it completes an organisational review in the next week. Holcim Australia, previously know as Readymix, employs about 3200 staff and another 1800 contractors and casual workers.

"With softer activity and outlook in some of our key markets, we must also adjust our business to suit," said Holcim Australia chief executive Mark Campbell. He added that since the company had been exposed to both mining and non-mining sectors across Australia its had been able to ride the two-speed economy better than some of its competitors.

Holcim Australia's parent company launched a cost-cutting drive in May 2012 called the 'Holcim Leadership Journey' programme designed to save Euro1.25bn by 2014.

Spain: Cemex España, the Spanish subsidiary of Mexican cement company Cemex, plans to cut around 390 jobs. This represents 22% of its 1740 current employees. The company has attributed its decision to flagging cement consumption in Spain, amid continued ecomonic turmoil, austerity measures and unemployment.

UK: Hanson, the UK subsidiary of HeidelbergCement Group, has announced that it will have to make job losses after a fall in demand. Hanson told its workers that demand for its core products, including asphalt, concrete and cement, had fallen by more than 10% during 2012 and that 2013 is likely to be worse.

The company said that it would have to take steps to balance the size of the business by reducing capacity and bringing overheads into line, moves that would 'inevitably' result in job losses.

An announcement on restructuring proposals will be made by the end of October 2012, with no details available yet on the number of job losses. The GMB union said it feared that hundreds of jobs will be lost.

Italy: Two Italcementi workers have protested against company layoffs by occupying the bell tower of the Cathedral of St. Nicholas in Sassari, Sardinia. The workers climbed up on 19 September 2012 in what they described as a 'sit-in prayer'. Union representative Simone Testoni said that workers to be laid off in November 2012 still haven't been told what the company's next move will be.

Italcementi reached a deal in 2008 with the regional government in which it pledged that while consolidating all its operations on the island, it would transfer existing employees rather than lay them off. Yet in May 2010 the factory closed. Italcementi blamed the economic crisis.

Spain: The management of cement producer Cementos Lemona, a subsidiary of Cementos Portland Valderrivas (CPV), has presented a job-cutting plan, which will affect 34 employees at its in plant in Viscaya in the Basque region of Spain. The move is part of CPV's viability plan to adjust production in the current depression in the Spanish construction industry. Employees at Cementos Lemona have met to discuss the plan.