Displaying items by tag: UK

UK/Ireland: Sean Quinn has bought ‘substantial’ tracts of limestone-rich land in Cavan and Fermanagh on 99-year leases, giving him sole extraction rights, over the past three and half years since his final severance with Quinn Industrial Holdings in mid-2016, according to the Sunday Times. The purchases may have been aimed at strengthening his position in his campaign to re-attain control over the company. It has stated that it has succeeded in supplementing its on-site limestone supply with material from further afield. “These materials are of a higher quality,” said a Quinn Industrial Holding spokesperson.

UK: The board of Quinn Industrial Holdings (QIH) has voted to send official correspondence to Sean Quinn, expected to contain a request that he keep his distance from operations. Quinn visited the company’s 0.5Mt/yr Ballyconnell plant on 21 November 2019 and quarries earlier in the month. The Sunday Independent reported that Quinn, who left his position as a consultant to his former enterprise in 2016, may be asked to return his company cars - a Range Rover and Audi A6. Quinn has condemned attacks on staff, including the kidnap and torture of executive director Kevin Lunney on 17 September 2019, for which four men appeared in court charged with assault and false imprisonment on 26 November 2019.

Ireland: CRH’s sales revenue grew by 4% on a like-for-like basis to Euro21.8bn in the first nine months of 2019. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 7% to Euro3.2bn. Sales grew fastest in its European and American heavy materials divisions with earnings growth more pronounced in North America than in Europe. The group reported growth in ready-mixed concrete and cement sales in North America as it continued to consolidate Ash Grove into the business. Sales in Europe were generally good, although declining construction activity in the UK was noted due to market uncertainty related to the country’s attempt to leave the European Union. CRH also reported falling sales volumes in the Philippines due to a slowdown in infrastructure spending.

UK: Breedon Southern, part of Breedon Group, plans to form a joint venture in London trading as Capital Concrete with Robert Brett and the Capital Concrete senior management. Three of Breedon’s existing ready-mixed concrete assets will be combined with those of Capital Concrete, Brett’s established ready-mixed concrete operation in London.

Capital Concrete currently operates seven ready-mixed concrete plants in Bow, Croydon, Romford, Rainham, Wembley, Silvertown and Staines. Breedon will contribute its plants in Cricklewood, Feltham and Enfield, together with Euro3.6m in cash, in return for a 43% interest in the joint venture. The remainder will be owned by Brett (43%) and management (14%).

“We have had a longstanding ambition to expand our footprint in the UK’s largest construction materials market. This joint venture enables us to secure immediate critical mass in Greater London, in collaboration with an experienced local partner, with the potential to develop a business of significant scale in the capital over the next few years,” said Pat Ward, group chief executive of Breedon.

Completion of the transaction is expected to take place on 1 December 2019.

UK: Breedon Group’s revenue grew by 8% year-on-year to Euro933m in the ten months to the end of October 2019. Its cement sales volumes increased by 6% but its ready-mixed concrete sales fell by 5%. Aggregate and asphalt sales volumes also rose. The group said that its results were achieved against the backdrop of a flat construction market in the UK where lower industry sales volumes were recorded for all major heavyside construction materials in the nine months to 30 September 2019.

Nigeria: UK-based Entec International has secured a contract to optimise maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) supply chains for Lafarge Africa. The project will involve the consolidation of 125 separate suppliers into a single supply chain, which will be managed by Entec, operating in a single currency with standardised terms. No value for the deal has been disclosed.

“This is a great step for Entec, this contract opens up a new market with huge potential for us. We are delighted to be working with LafargeHolcim, whose commitment to innovation and environmental sustainability reflects our ethos at Entec,” said Entec sales director Charlie Patterson.

Patterson expects Entec to achieve a 12% reduction in freight, clearance and handling costs for Lafarge Africa in year one of the three to five-year contract. Supply chain consolidation is predicted to cut the number of shipments by more than half and will deliver a reduction in the volume of purchase orders and invoices currencies into a single currency, replacing multiple payment terms from different suppliers into a single payment term and converting multiple air freight shipments from Europe and China into consolidated ocean freight.

Entec specialises in saving costs and reducing complexity for client companies by managing their MRO supply chains. It has managed complex supply chains for manufacturers in over 70 different shipping destinations. Entec’s client base includes customers in the food and beverage packaging industries, oil, gas production, textile processing and mining and minerals sectors.

UK: Quinn Industrial Holding’s Building Products division has launched two software upgrades aimed at improving customer experience. Its new Quinn Delivery Hub digitises mixed load delivery logistics coordination, facilitating collection and drop off of cement and other bulk materials from various locations with a centralised real-time management system. Customers can enjoy first-hand benefits of the new system with the new Genius by Quinn app, giving full visibility of every load from despatch to delivery.

Germany/UK: Pietro de Michieli, the managing director at Aumund Fördertechnik, has taken over the chair for Equipment Design and Infrastructure at the Port Equipment Manufacturers Association (PEMA) in the UK. In February 2019 he became the Vice Chairman of the Safety and Environment Committee at PEMA.

“I’m delighted to chair PEMA’s Equipment Design and Infrastructure Committee. I have an excellent contact network of people across a number of segments, so I offer an open window to different sectors. I have most experience in bulk handling – one of the sectors where PEMA is now attracting members. This is vital if we are to advance PEMA’s work on building the mutual exchange of information and learning best practice from across different sectors,” said de Michieli.

UK: Hanson has appointed Rick Green as the managing director of its Leicestershire-based asphalt and quarrying business MQP (Midland Quarry Products). He moves from his role as managing director of Hanson Contracting to replace Dave Bagshaw, who has retired after 39 years in the industry. Green has also been chair of the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) since 2017. The AIA was established in 2000 and is a partnership between the Mineral Products Association (MPA) and Eurobitume UK.

MQP consists of three quarries and 10 asphalt plants located across the Midlands. It was operated as a joint venture with Tarmac until 2013, when Hanson wholly acquired the company.

UK: A fire broke out at Cemex’s 1.8Mt/yr integrated Rugby plant at 02:00 on 6 November 2019. BBC News has reported that operations were unaffected and none of the plant’s 180 employees injured by the fire, which was caused by a mechanical malfunction in a machine belt conveying raw materials. The fire spread over three floors of the plant’s preheater tower.