Displaying items by tag: Jobs
Hanson to announce job losses
10 October 2012UK: Hanson, the UK subsidiary of HeidelbergCement Group, has announced that it will have to make job losses after a fall in demand. Hanson told its workers that demand for its core products, including asphalt, concrete and cement, had fallen by more than 10% during 2012 and that 2013 is likely to be worse.
The company said that it would have to take steps to balance the size of the business by reducing capacity and bringing overheads into line, moves that would 'inevitably' result in job losses.
An announcement on restructuring proposals will be made by the end of October 2012, with no details available yet on the number of job losses. The GMB union said it feared that hundreds of jobs will be lost.
Italian workers occupy cathedral bell tower to protest layoffs
26 September 2012Italy: Two Italcementi workers have protested against company layoffs by occupying the bell tower of the Cathedral of St. Nicholas in Sassari, Sardinia. The workers climbed up on 19 September 2012 in what they described as a 'sit-in prayer'. Union representative Simone Testoni said that workers to be laid off in November 2012 still haven't been told what the company's next move will be.
Italcementi reached a deal in 2008 with the regional government in which it pledged that while consolidating all its operations on the island, it would transfer existing employees rather than lay them off. Yet in May 2010 the factory closed. Italcementi blamed the economic crisis.
Cementos Lemona announces job cuts
20 September 2012Spain: The management of cement producer Cementos Lemona, a subsidiary of Cementos Portland Valderrivas (CPV), has presented a job-cutting plan, which will affect 34 employees at its in plant in Viscaya in the Basque region of Spain. The move is part of CPV's viability plan to adjust production in the current depression in the Spanish construction industry. Employees at Cementos Lemona have met to discuss the plan.
CRH to cut 50 jobs in Ireland
04 September 2012Ireland: Irish Cement, a CRH subsidiary, intends to cut 50 jobs at its Castlemungret plant due to a decline in demand for cement. Management has opened talks with workers and unions on a restructuring programme. Irish Cement has been in production at the Limerick site since 1938.
"Management at Irish Cement has met with employees at the company's manufacturing facility at Castlemungret in County Limerick. The company advised workers and union representatives that the unprecedented deterioration in market conditions, combined with a sustained decline in the demand for cement products, have led to the need for a significant restructuring plan to be put in place at the Limerick facility," said a company spokesman.
According to the release the move follows almost five years of decline in the Irish construction industry, with activity now nearly 80% below peak levels in 2007. Currently there is little visible indication of any market improvement in the foreseeable future.
Lafarge to axe a further 97 jobs at home
27 June 2012France: On 22 June 2012 Lafarge announced that it expected to cut a further 97 jobs in France as part of a plan to merge its three French divisions, based around its different product lines, into one national unit to be headquartered in the Paris region.
The move came just a week after the cement maker unveiled plans to cut costs by Euro1.3bn and boost profits over the next four years as it seeks to cut its debt and regain an investment-grade rating. At the start of 2012 the group, which employs a total of 68,000 people around the globe, said that it would cut 460 jobs worldwide, including 90 in France, as part of corporate reshuffling.
Holcim Spain to cut 35% of workforce
23 May 2012Spain: Holcim has launched a restructuring plan that will cut 373 jobs in Spain, 35% of its staff in the country. The new organisation will retain 680 employees.
As part of a four stage plan Holcim will streamline its business operations under a single management, the company's corporate structure will be reduced with administrative functions centralised in Madrid, capacity of cement production will be reduced and further activities in other lines of construction materials will also be scaled down. Holcim further detailed that two kilns at its Yeles Plant in Toledo will be shuttered as will the entire Lorca Plant in Murcia.
The company has made the move as the Spanish domestic market faces its fifth year of recession, with cement consumption dropping from 56Mt/yr in 2007 to 20.2Mt/yr in 2011. In the first four months of 2012 the markets dropped 40% year-on-year.
Lafarge North America moves to Illinois
18 April 2012US: Lafarge North America will relocate its headquarters from Virginia to Illinois, a move that is expected to create around 100 jobs.
The company, currently based in Reston, already has a presence in Illinois with a facility in South Chicago and about 300 employees in the state. The relocation would move its administrative offices and create around 90 jobs in the first two years. Company officials haven't determined a timeline for the move or the exact location but said the new headquarters would be near Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.
"The location and all of the infrastructure this area offers is very important: the airport, the trains, the rivers, the lakes and the roads," said John Stull, a CEO for Larfarge's cement and aggregate concrete operations. He added that the company does a majority of its business in the Midwest and a Chicago-area location made sense.
In exchange, Illinois is offering about US$6.3m million in tax incentives to the company, which the company only gets if it meets certain job creation and economic targets. Despite this Illinois has come under fire in recent months with some business groups and companies alleging an unfriendly business climate because of high taxes and state budget woes including US$8bn in unpaid bills.
Third of workforce laid off as Joppa kiln shuts
19 March 2012US: Lafarge US has announced that it has laid off 36 workers at its plant at Joppa, Illinois, representing about one-third of the plant's total workforce. The layoffs, which took place Thursday 15 March 2012, were cited as the result of the closure of one of the two kilns at the plant, which has a total installed capacity of 1.25Mt/yr.
The kiln has been mothballed due to consistent low cement demand, with Lafarge saying that local sales have fallen by 44% in recent years.
Lafarge details restructuring plans - 460 jobs to go
03 February 2012France: Lafarge has begun a consultation procedure regarding the proposed reorganisation of its corporate functions and shared resources in France. This follows from its 21 November 2011 announcement that it was planning a restructuring along geographical lines rather than its product types. Lafarge has now said that the proposed changes would result in 460 job losses, 90 of which would be in France. It said that voluntary redundancy plans would help it to avoid compulsory job losses.
Lafarge has said that the reorganisation will be structured around an Executive Committee consisting of a 'Performance' function, chiefly responsible for the technical centers and engineering, IT systems and the leadership of commercial and industrial performance; an 'Innovation' function, chiefly responsible for research and development, marketing and transformation; three Executive Vice Presidents, whose mission will be supervising 42 operating entities and support functions.
The group says that the shift in its centre of gravity towards countries would lead to a decentralisation ofcorporate functions. As a result, the outline of the new organisation that is being announced today entails a reduction in staff numbers. Lafarge says that the new group organisation will enable it to be more focused on the needs of its markets and its customers and will enable it to accelerate the development of the group through organic growth and innovation.
Italcementi faces staff cut of 7.5%
26 January 2012Italy: An on-going personnel crisis at Italcementi has prompted the company to request unemployment subsidies from the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies.
Following a statement from the company on 11 January 2012 that up to 265 workers would be made redundant, Italcementi sought out the Extraordinary Redundancy Fund, a specialist Italian fund designed to help ailing industries. This loss represents approximately 7.5% of the company's Italian workforce.
In the statement Italcementi announced that layoffs would affect a total of 265 existing employees: 80 at the headquarters of Italcementi, 60 at Group Technical Centre in Bergamo, 115 (out of a total of 1651 employees) in 18 Italian plants and 10 in the company's commercial network.
Outside of Italy the restructuring of the group will include changes in Spain, Belgium, Egypt and the US. 22,000 employees work for Italcementi worldwide, with 3500 in Italy. In November 2011 the company reported a 51.7% drop in third quarter profits despite the sale of its Turkish assets.
Italcementi has not responded to requests for further information from Global Cement.