Displaying items by tag: Australia

Australia: A general labourer and rigger who worked for Macweld Industries, contracted by Adelaide Brighton at its Birkenhead cement plant, is suing the cement company. The Advertiser has reported that the man is seeking damages for Adelaide Brighton’s ‘failure to take reasonable action to minimise risk of injury,’ which allegedly led to the man falling through a hole during upgrade works on the plant in 2016. The man previously received an unspecified sum in worker’s compensation benefits from his erstwhile employer.

Australia: Adelaide Brighton’s net profit in the first half of 2019 was US$37.0m, down by 35% from US$57.0m in the half year up to 30 June 2018. Chief executive Nick Miller told The Australian that Adelaide Brighton may consider a merger with Barro Group, which holds a 43% stake in the former.

Australia: Boral has suffered a decline in full year net profits of 38% to US$184m. This comes following USG-Boral’s statement regarding substantive changes to its gypsum dealings with Knauf.

Australia: Wagners’ net profit fell by 49% year-on-year to US$8.66m in its financial year to 30 June 2019 from US$16.8m in the same period in 2018. It blamed lower cement sales volumes on a dispute with Boral and a delay in large infrastructure projects. It suspended its supply of cement to Boral in March 2019 when the latter company said it had found cheaper cement from a ‘long established’ supplier in South East Queensland. Wagners sales revenue grew by 2.3% to US$161m from US$157m.

Australia: Adelaide Brighton says that it expects its net profit, after tax excluding property, to be no higher than US$90m in 2019. This is a further reduction on the forecast of around US$110m it made in May 2019. It has blamed poor residential and civil construction markets, continued competition in Queensland and South Australia, growing raw material costs and fees related to a cancelled import order.

Australia: Southern Cross Cement, a joint venture between Brickworks, Neilsen Group and Neumann Group, is planning to open a 0.2Mt/yr terminal by October 2019. The US$60m unit will import cement from south east Asia, according to the CourierMail newspaper. It is anticipated to supply 10% of Queensland market. A 12,000t/day mechanical ship unloader will be installed at the site.

Australia: ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions has opened a new service centre in Brisbane. The US$0.7m centre will be used to support customers in the mining, cement and chemical industries. It includes office, warehouse and workshop space.

“This new facility enables us to co-locate our engineering and project staff with our service personnel. For our clients in the mining, cement and chemical industries this means they benefit from an integrated project life-cycle approach, incorporating the latest products and technologies. After having worked successfully with our customers in Australia for many years, this investment was a logical consequence”, says Andrew Howie, chief executive officer (CEO) of ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions Australia.

Australia: Adelaide Brighton has signed a deal with Oz Minerals to continue supplying cement to the Oz Minerals Prominent Hill Operation. It will last five years with options to extend. In addition to the supply of cement, Adelaide Brighton will also supply aggregate and sand from its Sellicks Hill Quarry and its Price sand operation, as well as auxiliary logistics services.

Australia: Adelaide Brighton expects that its net profit in 2019 will fall by up to 15% year-on-year from the US$133m it reported in 2018. It forecasts that the decline will be driven by weakening demand from the residential market, increased competition from cement imports, higher competition in Queensland and rising raw material costs.

Australia: Wagners expects that its on-going suspension of cement products to Boral will cost it around US$7m in 2019. The company decided to stop the supply following Boral’s notification that it had found a cheaper source in March 2019. Since neither Wagners nor Boral have been able to resolve the disagreement it has now been referred to the Supreme Court of Queensland.