Displaying items by tag: Spain

Spain: La Unión Cement has been accused of producing sexist advertising, including using bikini-clad women and close ups of cleavages, to sell its product, according to local media.

A court in Valencia is due to rule on the alleged sexist advertising after a lawsuit was filed against the building supplies company in October 2015 by the Madrid-based Institute of Women, part of the government's Ministry of Equality. It is the first time the Violence Against Women department of the public prosecutor's office has been part of a case of sexist advertising and it will rule alongside the department of trade on the case.

The lawsuit concerns various promotional videos for the cement company, which show scantily clad women for no apparent reason, according to the Institute of Women. "Our job is usually based on raising awareness of gender equality, but sometimes there are instances, such as this, when we are moved to take legal action," said the Institute´s Head of Communication, María Jesús Ortiz Gómez.

The prosecution has demanded that the cement company cease all allegedly sexist advertising and has also asked the court to ban any further usage of the images in question. The defence has argued that the images belong to an old campaign that is no longer running. La Unión has previously been keen to point out how much it prizes equality. "La Unión reaffirms its corporate vision in favour of the training of women and their inclusion in the company," it said in a press released dated August 2015. The company claims that it 'exceeds today´s standards of equality and gender parity.'

Spain: LafargeHolcim plans to launch a downsizing plan for a total 15% of its workforce in Spain. The launch of the downsizing plan was attributed to the difficulties that the company faces in Spain due to the low cement demand in the country and the overlapping of workforces following the merger of Lafarge and Holcim. LafargeHolcim currently has a workforce of 1000 employees in Spain and its annual revenues in the country amount to Euro300m.

Spain: Mexico's Carlos Slim has appointed Carlos Jarque and Juan Rodriguez Torres as proprietary directors of Cementos Portland Valderrivas. After the appointments, Carlos Slim controls more than half of the board of directors of Cementos Portland Valderrivas, with Gerrardo Kuri as CEO. Spanish builder FCC has three representatives on the board of Cementos Portland Valderrivas, namely Esther Koplowitz, Alicia Alcocer and Carmen Alcocer Koplowitz. FCC is the second biggest shareholder in Cementos Portland Valderrivas.

Spain: Cementos Portland Valderrivas has reported that in the first half of 2015, its net sales grew by 11.3% to Euro289m compared to Euro260m in the same period of 2014. Its cement sales grew by 4.1% year-on-year. In the first half of 2015, Cementos Portland Valderrivas reported a Euro39.9m loss compared to Euro31m in the same period of 2014.

Spain: LafargeHolcim has said that it expects an annual turnover of some Euro300m in Spain, where it has a cement production capacity of more than 10Mt/yr. It also operates five cement grinding plants, 40 mortar plants, 13 quarries, five terminals and a waste treatment plant in the country.

Spain: According to the Spanish Collection, Cementos Molins plans to invest Euro127m in 2015 to boost its expansion on the markets where it already has presence. Its investments on the Spanish market will stand at Euro10m and its main project abroad will be the construction of a furnace at the San Luis plant in Argentina. Cementos Molins expects a rise in profit year-on-year in 2015. In the first quarter of the year, its consolidated profit was Euro15.1m.

Spain: Lafarge has invested a total of Euro20m in its Spanish plant of Montcada i Reixac, Catalonia in the last 10 years. Lafarge has most recently invested Euro200,000 to upgrade two of its crusher filters, which capture the dust produced during the processing of raw materials.

Spain: Spanish competition regulator CNMC has expanded its probe into cement and concrete producers on alleged cartel agreements. The CNMC carried out inspections at the headquarters of cement and concrete makers on 27 and 28 May 2015 as part of the probe on 14 sector players, the CNMC said in a statement. The regulator said it has 18 months to decide whether it will impose a fine on the companies.

Spain: Cementos Portland, a subsidiary of Spanish builder FCC, saw its loss grow by 21.2% year-on-year to Euro29.5m during the first three months of 2015.

The company boosted its revenue by 9.4% year-on-year to Euro122m, while its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) slumped by 59.9% to Euro6.3m. Cementos Portland attributed its negative results to a reduction in CO₂ emission sales on the secondary market and its new accounting procedures concerning costs generated by the annual renovation of its cement plants.

Should the aforementioned effects be neglected, Cementos Portland would have boosted its results by some Euro7m for the period to a loss of Euro25.7m, versus Euro32.7m a year earlier.

Spain: Spanish competition regulator CNMC has included Lafarge and Holcim in the proceedings for alleged cartel agreements brought up against a number of sector players at the end of 2014. Additionally, the CNMC has extended the proceedings to Materiales y Hormigones and Hormibusa. The move was based on information gathered during several inspections carried out in September 2014 for alleged exchange of information, price fixing and market division practices in the cement and concrete sector. The CNMC will complete the investigation and produce a resolution within 18 months.