Displaying items by tag: Australia

Australia: Boral has appointed Belinda Shaw as its chief financial officer (CFO). She succeeds Jared Gashel, who has held the position of Acting CFO since April 2022.

Shaw holds over 25 years of professional experience, including more than 10 years of senior executive finance experience across multiple industries. She was appointed as Acting CFO of Sydney Airport, after three years at the company. Her previous roles included Deputy CFO, General Manager Finance, General Manager Investor Relations & Financial Control, and Head of Finance Transformation & Strategy. Prior to her time at Sydney Airport, Shaw worked at General Electric Company where she held roles including CFO ANZ & PNG, CFO Global Mining, and CFO Global Locomotive. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of South Australia and is a Fellow Certified Practicing Accountant (FCPA).

Australia/China: A Charles Sturt University team has found that the use of clay in soft soil foundation stabilisation can eliminate 40% of cement used in this type of construction. Australian Associated Press News has reported that China-based Kunming University of Science and Technology also supported the research.

Australia: First Graphene has appointed Lester Lee as its Commercial Manager – Cement & Concrete. Singapore-based Lee holds nearly 30 years of experience working in the cement and concrete industries. This includes management roles in Hong Kong and Singapore with multinational companies such as Fosroc Construction Chemicals, K Wah Concrete Company and WR Grace.

First Graphene is an Australia-based supplier of graphitic materials and product formulations to sectors including cement and concrete, composites and plastics, coatings, adhesives, silicones and elastomers (CASE) and energy storage applications.

Australia: Fremantle Ports has broken ground on its construction of a new US$35.1m cement terminal at Kwinana Bulk Terminal in Western Australia. Business News Western Australia has reported that contractor COVA-Haywards will build a 40,000t-capacity clinker storage dome at the site. The terminal will supply BGC and Cockburn Cement's local grinding operations. Commissioning is scheduled for 2024.

State development minister Roger Cook said"It will significantly improve our capability to move clinker faster, more safely and with very significant environmental benefits, and provide the capacity for the port facility to accommodate future trade growth. It's a great example of planning assets to integrate the state-owned port with adjacent private facilities, with benefits for all."

UK: Innovative Ash Solutions, a joint venture of Levenseat and Organic Innovative Solutions, has launched a new air pollution control residue (APCR)-based supplementary cementitious material (SCM). The supplier produces the material at its Lanarkshire treatment facility using APCR local from municipal solid waste (MSW) and wood biomass incinerators. Innovative Ash Solutions has received planning permission for a 54,000t/yr industrial-scale APCR-based SCM plant, and plans to establish a total of three plants in the UK, one of which will reach a capacity of 500,000t/yr. It has also signed an exclusive licensing agreement with an Australia-based importer for the material.

The SCM is designed to replace pulverised fly ash (PFA), of which the UK imported 325,000t in 2019, more than four times its 2012 import volumes of 76,000t.

Innovative Ash Solutions director Robert Gren said “We are excited to bring this new product to market. Innovative Ash Solutions is the first and, so far, the only company in the UK to have achieved ‘End of Waste’ accreditation for a PFA replacement for this type of use. Our research shows there is potential to produce more than 500,000t/yr of PFA replacement from UK APCRs every year, which would reduce the need for importing materials and support the decarbonisation of cement and concrete products.”

Australia: Boral has announced that Vik Bansal will start work as its chief executive officer and managing director on 10 October 2022. It was previously announced that he would succeed Zlatko Todorcevski in early December 2022.

Australia: BGC has cancelled its latest attempt to sell the company, blaming the decision on labour shortages and supply chain disruption. It said it had received “very strong interest from a range of parties” but had made the decision based on poor market conditions, according to the West Australian newspaper. A shortage of skilled tradespersons in West Australia is negatively affecting the local home construction sector and reducing BGC’s value consequently. A second attempt to sell the company started in April 2022 with Macquarie Capital appointed to run the process. The company plans resume its sale in 2023 when market conditions have improved.

Australia: Boral has posted a slump in its annual profit, which fell by a third year-on-year for the 12 months to 30 June 2022. It made a profit of US$73.7m, down from US$98m in the 12 months to 30 June 2021

The company said that the result had been impacted by rising energy and haulage costs, while severe rains in eastern Australia at the start of 2022 had forced temporary stoppages to numerous construction projects. The company withheld profit guidance in its announcement, saying only that it expected revenue to be higher in the 2023 fiscal year as a result of annual price increases and new freight charges for customers.

Australia: Adbri has reported that the ongoing upgrade at its Kwinana cement plant, previously estimated to cost US$137m, is now likely to cost closer to US$157m. It cited inflation and supply chain issues as the main reasons behind the 15% increase to the cost of the project, which seeks to combine its Western Australia operations at a single site, while raising its capacity by 36% to 1.5Mt/yr. The company said the upgrade was about 25% compete as at 30 June 2022, while procurement was about 75% committed. It is scheduled for commissioning in mid 2023.

Elsewhere, Adbri has also said that its definitive feasibility study for a Kalgoorlie lime kiln is on track for completion in the first half of 2023. The study includes mine planning and front-end engineering design.

Australia: James Hardie has informed investors that it has frozen all non-critical hiring. The Australian newspaper has reported that the move is designed to counteract the impacts of a rise in costs. The company also plans to announce a new round of price rises on its products.