Displaying items by tag: Jobs

Australia: Struggling cement and construction materials giant Boral has announced that it will merge its construction materials and cement divisions. The building materials group recently axed 700 jobs but a spokeswoman for Boral said that the only worker to lose their job out of the merger would be the current, long-serving construction materials manager Murray Read, who has been made redundant. Joseph Goss, a senior executive in the cement division of Lafarge North America, has been appointed to manage the newly merged division.

A week after announcing the 700 job cuts in January 2013, Boral upgraded its underlying first-half profit forecast to US$53.2m from US$35.8m. However after restructuring costs, the company suffered a first half net loss of US$25.9m. It said that it expected conditions to remain challenging in the building products market. The result was dragged down by US$78.8m worth of significant items, including impairment charges relating to the suspension of clinker production at Waurn Ponds in Victoria and first half restructuring and redundancy costs.

Spain: On 4 March 2013 Cemex España, the Spanish subsidiary of Mexican cement group Cemex, reached an agreement with Spanish trade unions to reduce the number of employees who will be affected by the planned downsizing plan. The staff reduction measure now will affect 127 people instead of the initially planned 156 people.

Spain: Mexican cement company Cemex is currently preparing a second downsizing plan for its workforce in Spain. Over the 30 days to 28 February 2012 the company is expected to negotiate with the trade unions the dismissal of up to 156 employees out of a total of 1077 employees in Spain.

The move is in line with the flagging demand as well as with Cemex's strategic plan to adapt its production capacity. At the end of 2012 Cemex cut 290 jobs in Spain in a first round of job-cuts.

Australia: Boral, Australia's largest building materials supplier, has said that it will cut 1000 jobs from its global operations this fiscal year as part of a restructuring initiative intended to improve competitiveness. The changes are hoped to save US$95m annually with estimated savings of US$39m in 2013.

CEO and managing director Mike Kane described the company as 'burdened' with excessive overhead costs. "While this may be less obvious during the good times, it becomes critically exposed when times are tough," he said. The restructuring follows a 100 day review of the business which Kane conducted.

The majority of job losses are in Australia, where 885 positions will be axed. This includes the 90 roles Boral said that it would cut in December 2012 as it announced plans to suspend the production of clinker at its Waurn Ponds plant in eastern Australia. 15 jobs will be cut in the US.

In June 2012 the company reported having 14,740 employees, with around 8730 in Australia. A further reduction of 1420 employees will also take place due to Boral's previously announced divestment of assets in Asia and Australia.

Executive changes in Boral's cement division as part of the restructuring include the departure of Mike Beardsell, Divisional Managing Director, by the end of January 2013. He will be replaced by Ross Harper, who is currently in the role of Operations Manager, will increase his responsibilities to become Executive General Manager of the Cement division.

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.