Displaying items by tag: UK

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.

UK: The Mayor of London visited Mexican-based Cemex’s Stepney readymix concrete plant to launch a road safety initiative along with Transport for London (TfL) and London Councils. The initiative consists of a ratings scheme of up to five stars for in-cabin vision for heavy goods vehicles (HGVs), with a ban on zero-star vehicles inside of Greater London. The regulation comes into effect in November 2020, before which time HGV operators may install a ‘Safe System’ consisting of sensors and noise alerts, in order to apply for a Safety Permit to keep their vehicles on the roads.

UK: Tarmac has announced plans for the construction of a materials terminal including aggregate processing and manufacturing facilities at the Thames’ new Tilbury2 port in Essex. The terminal will be able to receive vessels of up to 0.1Mt. Tarmac and the Port of Tilbury will develop the site from late 2019, ending in the establishment of operations before 2021.

UK: GyroMetric Systems has signed an agreement to install digital monitoring equipment on a 11kV raw mill drive at Tarmac’s Tunstead cement plant in Derbyshire. Measured digital parameters will include dynamic torque across the coupling, radial displacement of the shaft (and therefore misalignment), and torsional vibrations of the drive system. The data will also provide information on the condition of the gearbox. GyroMetric Systems is controlled by Remote Monitored Systems. No value for the order has been disclosed.

UK: The Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) has launched ‘Innovandi,’ a research network between industry and scientific institutions. The network intends to research the areas of process technology, including the impact of co-processing, efficiency of clinker production and implementation of CCUS/ technologies, and products. This will include the impact of clinker substitutes and alternative binders in concrete, low carbon concrete technology and improve the understanding of CO₂ reduction through re-carbonation.

“Our industry is fully committed to taking action to reduce CO₂ emissions. As such, Innovandi is an industry led initiative and will bring together the best minds from all corners of the cement and concrete world, academia and business. Together we will truly collaborate on a global scale and use our expertise to find new ways of working and developing effective innovations,” said Benjamin Sporton, the chief executive officer (CEO) of the GCCA.

24 companies from the cement and concrete industry, including cement and concrete manufacturers, admixture specialists and equipment suppliers, have committed to the initiative, with scientific institutions and additional companies set to join as its work begins work. These include Buzzi Unicem, Cementir Holding, Cementos Argos, Cementos Molins, Cementos Pacasmayo, Cemento Progresso, Cemex, CNBM, Chryso, CRH, Dalmia Cement, FLSmidth, Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC), GCP Applied Technologies, Mapei, HeidelbergCement, LafargeHolcim, Nesher Israel Enterprises, SCG Cement, Titan Cement, Refratechnik Cement, Sika Technology, Subote New Materials and Votorantim.

As part of the new initiative, the GCCA also intends to establish an annual Innovandi global conference to promote collaboration on innovation and research in the sector.

UK: Dr Nina Cardinal has joined Hanson Cement as its new national technical manager. She heads up the division’s technical team, which offers customers advice, information and support on all cement and cementitious issues.

Nina previously worked at Tata Speciality Steels for more than 20 years, latterly as technical director responsible for a 70-strong team, before joining the University of Sheffield as director of operations in the Faculty of Science in 2016.

“I am delighted to join the Hanson team,” said Cardinal. “I am looking forward to building on our market-leading technical support and working with our customers to ensure they get the best possible customer service.”

Mark Hickingbottom, commercial director bulk products, added, “Nina has an excellent understanding of product and service development and will be working with customers and operational teams across our cement and concrete business lines.”

Kazakhstan: Steppe Cement has announced that its revenue fell by 10% during the third quarter of 2019 on the back of lower sales volumes. The UK-listed, Kazakhstan-based producer of construction materials said that revenue for the third quarter was US$27.0m compared with US$29.9m in the year earlier period. The company said that sales volumes for the quarter fell by 11% to 576,692t. For the first nine months of 2019, Steppe Cement’s revenue rose by 10% to US$630m.

UK: The Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) has launched the GCCA Industry EPD Tool (Version 2.0) to support the publication of environmental product declarations (EPDs) by cement and concrete producers. Originally commissioned by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development Cement Sustainability Initiative, the new GCCA Industry EPD Tool includes the latest database of energy impacts from cement production from across the world, supporting the output of more accurate EPD data. The GCCA is making the tool available to all producers and organisations in the cement and concrete industry to increase availability to designers and clients of EPDs to support the sector deliver a sustainable built environment.

“We are committed to supporting the cement and concrete industry to reduce its environmental impact and support global sustainability goals. With the launch of the new EPD Tool, we are enabling the industry and its customers to better quantify and verify the life cycle environmental impact of existing products and to develop lower-impact products in the future,” said Andrew Minson, GCCA Concrete and Sustainable Construction Director.

The GCCA Industry EPD Tool has been developed by Quantis, verified by Studio Fieschi, and the GCCA says it is the first industry tool in the International EPD System. It is based on internationally recognised standards and product category rules.