UK: Castle Cement factory sees slowdown
Production is being cut at a North Wales cement factory because of the recession in the construction industry. But the Castle Cement plant at Padeswood near Buckley is not planning to lay off any of its 250 workers.
The factory’s general manager Mark Cox blames the situation on the country’s economic recession which has hit the construction industry in particular. He said there would be no redundancies or lay-offs at the works.
“We also hope to find alternative work for our haulage contractors affected by the reduction in cement production,” he added.
Castle has invested UK£64m in a new state-of-the-art kiln, which produces about 800,000tpa of cement from stone quarried from the company’s Cefn Mawr quarry, near Gwernaffield, Mold. He said the new kiln was “more efficient than ever” and meant the company could respond immediately to an upturn in demand.
Mr Cox revealed that plans were in the pipeline to invest a further UK£9m in the Padeswood plant. He said the number five mill project involved new plant to grind clinker produced by the new kiln into cement. “The process will be under cover, reducing further the amount of fugitive dust,” he said. Published under Cement News
