Global Cement News

Trinidad: Guillermo Rojo De Diego, the general manager of Trinidad Cement, has taken over responsibility for the company’s subsidiary, Readymix (West Indies). It follows the reassignment of the former general manager Nigel Tozer to a new role within Cemex Group.

Finland: Metso has appointed Giuseppe Campanelli as President, Minerals Services business area and a member of its executive team. Previously he was a member of the Minerals Services business area management team heading Professional Services. It has also appointed Kalle Sipilä as President, Pumps business area and a member of the executive team. Prior to this, he was operationally in charge of the pumps business area in addition to his role as head of Finance and Business Control of the Minerals Services business area.

The new appointments follow the resignation of Mikko Keto, Metso’s former president of its Minerals Services and Pumps business areas.

UK: Bunting has appointed Alan Why as its UK Sales Manager overseeing all external sales activity. His engineering career began as a radio-frequency (RF) electronics design engineer and evolved into the role of Sales & Marketing Director of a small electronics company serving the defence electronics market. Why has developed magnet-related business for Bunting since he joined the company in 2013. The responsibilities of his new role cover a wider product range including magnets, magnetic separators and metal detectors.

Bunting is a designer and manufacturer of magnetic separators, metal detectors, magnets, magnetic assemblies and magnetising equipment. The Bunting European manufacturing facilities are in Redditch, just outside Birmingham, and Berkhamsted, both in the UK.

UK: Cemex has entered a conditional agreement with Breedon Group for the divestment of certain UK assets, including 49 ready-mix plants, 28 aggregate quarries and a cement terminal for Euro211m including Breedon Group’s assumption of Euro27.3m lease liability. Cemex UK retains the 1.2Mt/yr Rugby cement plant in Warwickshire. Breedon Group CEO Pat Ward said, “We expect the deal to be accretive to both earnings and free cash flow in the first full year, with a positive ongoing impact on the cash generation of the enlarged Group.” Cemex CEO Fernando Gonzalez said that the transaction ‘further rebalances our portfolio into our core markets, enhances our profitability and enables us to continue to focus on deleveraging.’

The businesses being handed over also include concrete products operations, depots and asphalt plants and fall under all six of Breedon Group’s regional divisions. Ward has said the acquisitions will significantly enlarge the group’s footprint in underrepresented divisions, implying that the cement terminal in question may be the Leith terminal in Scotland or the Newport terminal in Wales, two regions in which the company currently has no terminals to receive cement produced at its 1.5Mt/yr integrated Hope cement plant in Derbyshire. Breedon Group will seek to hire employees working on the operations from Cemex and expects to bring its total UK personnel to 3600 people as a result. It says its mineral reserves will exceed 1.0Bt.

Cemex UK retains 259 concrete plants and 36 aggregates quarries and dredging operations. Cemex said it ‘will retain a substantial integrated business in the UK encompassing cement production.’

US: The attorney’s office of Harris County in Texas filed a lawsuit against Sesco for alleged public safety and environmental violations following multiple complaints to the Harris County Pollution Control Board about dust. Piles of debris in an outdoor area of Sesco’s Houston cement terminal may have caused high dust levels in and around the facility and high pH levels in water located nearby. Houston Business Journal conjectured that the stockpiles might consist of surplus cement being stored unlawfully. Sesco stands accused of operating two silos and three hoppers without proper environmental clearance. Inspections in 2019 uncovered set cement in storm drains at the facility.