Cement News tagged under: europe

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Holcim and Cemex to swap, combine assets in Europe

28 August 2013, Published under Cement News

Holcim and Cemex have reached an agreement to conduct a series of transactions to exchange and combine assets in parts of Europe with the aim of improving synergies and boosting operating profit. Cemex increase its presence in Central Europe through the acquisition of Holcim Cesko in the Czech Republic. The deal includes one cement plant (cement and clinker capacities of 1.1Mta and 0.9Mta, respectively), four aggregate quarries and 17 ready-mix plants. Holcim said it will continue to serve...

Cemex opens new marine terminal in Norway

16 August 2013, Published under Cement News

The southern Norwegian port of Kristiansand is now home to Cemex’s fifth marine terminal. “With this strategically-located terminal in Kristiansand we close the gap between the west and east coast of Norway, because we could not reach this geographic region by truck,” explained Andreas Rotermund, Cemex Deutschland’s commercial and logistics vice president. The first cement cargo to be unloaded at the terminal was shipped from Cemex OstZement’s Rüdersdorf works in Germany. Following the...

Titan's European profitability suffers

02 August 2013, Published under Cement News

Titan's first-half turnover improved by 4.4 per cent to €571.9m but the EBITDA fell by 17.8 per cent to €92.2m as European profitability continues to suffer. The trading profit fell by 36.6 per cent to €32m, but the net financial charge, that had dropped by 54.9 per cent to €20.5m a year ago, more than doubled to €44m. As a result, there was a pre-tax loss of €12.4m compared with a profit of €29.5m and the net attributable loss amounted to €21.8m. Capital investment recovered by 5.7 p...

Cemex expects best volume growth from USA

26 July 2013, Published under Cement News

Cemex reported a slight decline in turnover for the first half of 2013, with EBITDA also down marginally but the trading profit improved by double digits. While volumes were down in the first six months, the group sees full year sales edging ahead with the USA expected to show the best advance. Cemex' first half turnover eased by 0.7 per cent to US$7322.1m and  EBITDA came off by 1.7 per cent to US$1251.2m, but the trading profit improved 13.8 per cent to US$690.2m. Net interest payment...

CRH: acquisition and investment update, Ireland

02 July 2013, Published under Cement News

Irish building materials major CRH plc announced it has undertaken 17 acquisition and investment initiatives during the first half of 2013. These transactions, together with the acquisition of Cementos Lemona in Spain (acquired as part of the Uniland asset swap announced in February) and net deferred consideration payments, bring development spend for the first half of 2013 to approximately €470m. Proceeds to date from divestments and disposals, including the Uniland swap, amount to approxim...

Catalonian producers cut exports, Spain

24 May 2013, Published under Cement News

Cement producers in Spain's autonomous region of Catalonia reduced their exports by 41 per cent between January and April, compared to the same period in 2012. The drop was explained by a five per cent cut in the price per tonne, which made the sales abroad less profitable. (Abstracted from an original article in Expansion)

EU construction output falls in March

20 May 2013, Published under Cement News

Construction output in the EU27 fell by 1.7 per cent in the euro area and 1.1 per cent in March 2013, compared with the previous month, according to first estimates released by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. Compared with March 2012, production decreased by 7.9 per cent in the euro area and by 7.2 per cent in the EU27 in March 2013. Among the Member States for which data are available for March 2013, production in construction fell in ten and rose in four. The l...

HeidelbergCement net loss widens, confirms 2013 outlook

08 May 2013, Published under Cement News

HeidelbergCement said its first-quarter loss widened in the first quarter of 2013 compared to a year ago as sales were impaired mostly by a weak European market. However, the German cement major reported a rise in operating income and has confirmed its 2013 outlook. Group share of the after-tax loss was  EUR235m in the first quarter of 2013, wider than the EUR208m loss a year earlier. Operating income before depreciation was higher on the year EUR219m from EUR212 in the same period a ...

CRH sees US operations offsetting weaker European market

08 May 2013, Published under Cement News

In trading statement released today, CRH said the first four months of 2013 were affected by adverse weather conditions but expects growth in the second half to be led by its US operations. Combined with a challenging economic environment, most of CRH’s European operations experienced lower activity and sales declined 12 per cent (approximately €0.3bn) in the first four months of the year compared to the same period of 2012. Wet and cold conditions also persisted in the US in the first ...

Euro area construction output down by 0.8%

18 April 2013, Published under Cement News

Construction output in the euro area declined for the fourth consecutive month in February, the latest data from Eurostat shows. Construction in the euro zone decreased 0.8 per cent from January, when it fell 2.1 per cent, the European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg said yesterday. The January figure was revised lower from an initial estimate of a 1.4 per cent drop. However, from a year earlier, February construction gained 0.8 per cent. In Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, c...