Displaying items by tag: UK

Germany/UK: Langley Holdings says that the order intake for its subsidiary Claudius Peters was behind target for the first half of 2020 and expected to remain so for the rest of the year due to the associated lead time. Due to market disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic the group has implemented short-time working and agreed “tariff reductions with the workforce” to reduce costs.

Overall, the group’s revenue rose by 3.4% year-on-year to Euro411m in the first half of 2020 from Euro397m in the same period in 2019. However, this was attributed to its acquisition of Marelli Motori in mid-2019. Its operating profit dropped by 81% to Euro3.84m from Euro20.5m.

“Although the 2020 result is not yet secure at this point, we do have reasonable visibility on the second half and my principal concern now is for 2021, although the extent to which Coronavirus impacts our businesses next year will not start to become apparent until the autumn. Currently all divisions are reporting delays to capital equipment order placements and I expect these delays to continue into next year. I hope to be proven wrong but any notion of a rapid recovery from the economic fallout from Coronavirus would in my view, be wishful thinking,” said Anthony J Langley, the chairman of Langley Holdings.

UK: Breedon Group says it has completed the acquisition of selected assets from Cemex. Following instructions from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) the assets will be operated as Pinnacle Construction Materials, a newly-created separate business led by its own management team and operating from its own offices. Pinnacle will offer a range of heavy building materials, including aggregates, asphalt, ready-mixed concrete, concrete products and cement, together with contracting services, from approximately 100 locations in England, Wales and Scotland.

The CMA is still investigating the acquisition and plans to announce its initial conclusions in late August 2020. Breedon Group expects to integrate Pinnacle into its UK business at a later date once this process is fully completed. Cemex agreed to sell Breedon Group some of its UK assets in January 2020. This included 49 ready-mix plants, 28 aggregate quarries and a cement terminal for Euro211m.

Switzerland: LafargeHolcim says that net sales in each of its five regions ‘returned to prior-year levels by the end of June 2020’ following the easing of coronavirus-related lockdowns. Its net sales fell by 10.8% year-on-year to Euro9.95bn in the first half of 2020 on a like-for-like basis due to the ‘severe’ impact of the lockdowns on construction sites in several of its main operating countries. It also blamed negative currency effects for an additional fall in sales. Its recurring earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) dropped by 22% to Euro1.11bn. Its net debt decreased by 15.8% to Euro9.91bn from Euro11.8bn. Cement sales volumes fell by 13.1% to 87.2Mt, aggregates by 6% to 114Mt and ready-mix concrete (RMC) by 18.6% to 19.2Mm3.

Group chief executive officer Jan Jenisch said, “Our half-year results demonstrate the great resilience of our business. I’m encouraged by our team’s agility to weather the storm with the rapid execution of our ‘Health, Cost & Cash’ action plan, effectively driving cost savings ahead of expectations, improving net working capital and delivering record free cash flow.” He added, “The peak of the crisis is behind us. We expect a solid second half of the year based on June’s full recovery, the trend of our order book and upcoming government stimulus packages.”

By region the group noted the most severe coronavirus-related disruption in Asia-Pacific despite China delivering a full recovery and growing sales volumes by the end of the second quarter. In Europe lockdowns in the UK and France had a particular impact and it said that, “volumes suggest a V-shaped recovery in June 2020 for the majority of markets, except in the UK.” Significant impacts were noted in Ecuador, Colombia and El Salvador in Latin America. Sales volumes declined in Algeria, Egypt, Iraq and South Africa in the group’s Middle East Africa region but Nigeria delivered a ‘resilient’ performance. Finally, North America was the groups best performing region with slight dips in cement and aggregate sales volumes but a rise in RMX and rising recurring EBIT. This was attributed to, “fast and effective cost management in the US.”

UK/Ireland: Breedon Group’s sales fell by a quarter in the first half of 2020 due to coronavirus-related lockdown measures. Its revenue fell by 25% to Euro371m in the first half of 2020 from Euro495m in the same period in 2019. Its underlying earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) dropped to Euro0.7m from Euro54.8m. Cement sales volumes deceased by 20% to 0.8Mt, aggregates by 20% to 8Mt and ready-mixed concrete (RMX) by 33% to 1Mm³. Its net debt fell by 26% to Euro281m.

“Following the encouraging performance of our businesses in the first 12 weeks of the year, the move into lockdown and immediate fall in demand in the latter part of March led us into a swift and managed shutdown of the majority of our operations, leaving open only those which were servicing critical needs,” said group chief executive officer (CEO) Pat Ward. He added, “The recovery in our markets now appears to be well underway, and we have seen continued improvement into July. The great majority of our sites are now open, including both our cement plants. While near-term uncertainty remains, there is significant pent-up demand to be satisfied in both housing and infrastructure.”

UK: An independent report by Mott Macdonald has found that Breedon Group’s Hope Cement plant in Derbyshire contributes Euro67m/yr to the local economy, up by 15% from Euro58m/yr at the time of the previous report in July 2017. The 1.5Mt/yr integrated cement plant employs 270 people, 202 of them directly, corresponding to 1.8% of total employment in the national park in which it is situated. Its economic contribution to the park’s total economic output of Euro956m is 7%.

Breedon Group said that the 90-year-old plant “Has a long tradition of actively engaging with the local community through its many social and communal activities. These include access for local residents to the Hope Works estate and the Earles Sports and Social Club as well as on-site open days and tours and a range of local business and community partnerships.” Manager Ed Hope said, “It is gratifying to see the healthy increase in our contribution to the local economy over the past few years. We’re very proud of the part we play in the lives and employment of people in the Peak District National Park.”

US: Switzerland-based LafargeHolcim has announced the start of sales via its local subsidiaries of its ECOPact range of 30 - 100% reduced CO₂ concretes. Chief executive officer (CEO) Jan Jenisch said, “I am proud to introduce ECOPact, the industry’s broadest range of green concrete for high-performing, sustainable and circular construction.”

The company says that, where regulatory conditions allow, ECOPact products integrate upcycled construction and demolition materials, further closing the resource loop. ECOPact concretes will enter the Canadian, Latin American and UK markets in mid-late 2020. “With the roll-out of this Green Concrete, we are accelerating the transition to more sustainable building materials for greener construction,” added Jenisch.

UK: The British Standards Institution (BSI) has granted LafargeHolcim subsidiary Aggregate Industries the ISO 45001 Standard in Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems for its reduction of workplace risks and support of health and wellbeing at the work. Company health and safety director Mike Belson said, “Achieving this certification gives us a great sense of pride as it further shows our commitment to putting health and safety first in all that we do as an organisation. We are proud to have a strong health and safety culture, whereby our employees are encouraged to take an active role in their own operational health and safety.”

Ireland/UK: Quinn Building Products has said that rigid social distancing and sanitation practices introduced in response to the coronavirus in March 2020 have become the ‘new normal’ for its 800 employees across nine sites. The measures include: 22-person-capacity socially distanced team meeting areas, overflow break and lunch marquees; 24/7 cleaning services from AAA Pristine Clean; and socially distanced floor marking and directional signage.

The company said, “Our dedicated teams have done an outstanding job on designing and implementing these changes and their work has allowed us to reopen all of our production facilities in past weeks. We are also working with all our customers, contractors and suppliers to ensure we can safely service customer needs.”

UK: Mexico-based Cemex has confirmed its decision to mothball the 0.8Mt/yr integrated South Ferriby, Lincolnshire cement plant following a consultation period with employee and union representatives. The company estimates that the majority of redundancies of the plant’s 110 staff will happen in July 2020.

It said, “Cemex customers will be supplied from the company’s existing cement network. Cemex’s supply chain plan and commercial management will ensure that customer service will be maintained at all times. Cemex remains committed to the UK and will continue to have a strong national presence.”

France: UK-based Carbon8 Systems has announced plans for the commercial implementation of its carbon capture and use (CCU) system at Vicat’s Montalieu integrated cement plant in France. It follows successful demonstration projects at cement plants in the UK and Canada.

The company’s CO₂ntainer product will be deployed directly onsite at the plant and integrated into Vicat's existing industrial processes. It will capture CO₂ directly from the plant's flue gas emissions and use this as part of its Accelerated Carbonisation Technology (ACT) process. This accelerates the carbonation of cement bypass dust into lightweight aggregates. In its first phase of operation it will process and convert up to 12,000t of cement bypass dust.