Displaying items by tag: US
Vulcan Materials elects David P Steiner to board of directors
22 February 2017US: Vulcan Materials has elected David P Steiner to its board of directors. Steiner will serve on Vulcan's Safety, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee and the Governance Committee. Steiner most recently served as chief executive officer of Waste Management from 2004 to 2016, a North American waste management services company that covers collection, transfer, recycling and resource recovery services as well as landfill disposal. He currently serves on the board of directors of FedEx Corporation.
Vulcan also announced that Elaine L Chao has stepped down from the Board after being confirmed by the US Senate to serve as US Secretary of Transportation. Secretary Chao joined Vulcan's Board in February 2015.
Co-founder of Vortex dies
22 February 2017US: Loren Neil Peterson, the co-founder of Vortex, has died at the age of 87. After starting working with dry bulk solids at Salina Manufacturing in the 1950s, Peterson founded Vortex with his son-in-law Lee Young in 1977. His inventions included a type of slide gate called an Orifice Gate that was patented in 1980 and which received the John C Vaalar Award by Chemical Processing Magazine judging it ‘a major contributor toward more efficient and effective operation of plants in the chemical processing industry’. His other innovations included the Wye Line Diverter, Roller Gate and Fill Pass Diverter. He was awarded his last patent for the Clear Action Gate in 1990, a year after he retired in 1989.
“Neil was great. Nobody worked harder than him. When I left Salina, I looked everywhere for the same calibre of engineer. Unfortunately for me, he was one of a kind,” said Joe Walton, former chief executive officer and president of Walton/Stout.
US: SSI Shredding Systems has appointed Paul Breithaupt as its Director of Engineering. He will be overseeing the day-to-day engineering operations as well as working to optimise SSI’s internal processes and products.
Breithaupt has been working with an engineering consulting firm in Portland, Oregon for the past seven years. There he primarily worked on capital projects for major food manufacturers such as Nabisco. He holds a degree in Manufacturing Engineering from California Polytechnic State University.
Portland Cement Association welcomes Scott Pruitt as Environment Protection Agency administrator
20 February 2017US: The Portland Cement Association (PCA) has welcomed the confirmation of Scott Pruitt as the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by the US Senate.
“We congratulate Pruitt on his confirmation and look forward to working with him in the years ahead,” said PCA president and chief executive officer (CEO) James G Toscas. “His experience and background are strong indicators that we will see a common-sense approach to regulations that protect public health and the environment. We have always believed that the best regulatory solutions derive from adherence to the intent of the enabling legislation, together with an honest consideration of the perspectives and concerns of all involved, including public stakeholders, the regulating agency and the regulated industry. We believe and expect that Pruitt will restore balance to the regulatory process."
Cemex USA officially opens new headquarters in Houston
14 February 2017US: Cemex USA has officially opened its new headquarters in Houston, Texas. Division president Ignacio Madridejos marked the event by presiding over a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the site at 10100 Katy Freeway in Memorial City in west Houston. More than 200 employees are now working at the new offices.
“These new offices show how Cemex USA stands strong,” said Madridejos. “This beautiful building will be part of the community for years and illustrates our commitment to being part of it.”
Cemex completes sale of Fairborn cement plant to Eagle Materials
13 February 2017US: Cemex has completed the sale of its Fairborn cement plant in Ohio and a cement terminal in Columbus to Eagle Materials for US$400m. Cemex said proceeds from the sale will be used for debt reduction and general corporate purposes. Bank of America Merrill Lynch acted as financial advisor to the cement producer for the transaction.
Italy: A recovery in sales volumes in Central and Eastern Europe has helped Buzzi Unicem maintain stable sales in 2016. Its net sales rose slightly to Euro2.67bn in 2016 from Euro2.66bn in 2015. Cement and clinker sales volumes remained flat at 25.6Mt. It also reduced its net debt to Euro942m from Euro1.03bn. The cement producer reported slowing sales growth in the US, a decline in Russia and a continued ‘marked’ fall in sales in Italy.
By region, the cement producer said that cement and clinker sales volumes fell by 6.2% year-on-year due to a reduction in exports. Volumes rose in Germany by 3.4% despite low prices and oil well cement demand picked up in the last quarter of the year. Poland reported a 11.9% boost in volumes, driven by the second half of the year, despite lower prices compared to 2015. In Russia sales volumes started to improve in the second half of the year hitting an overall decline of 1% as a decline in construction industry investment started to soften. Also of note, sales of oil well cement started to recovery towards the end of the year.
Cement sales volumes in the US started to decline throughout the year, eventually falling by 1.7%, with a notable weakness in demand in Texas, particularly in the Houston area. Again, oil well cement products declined over the year as a whole but showed signs of recovery in the final months of the period. Finally, Buzzi Unicem’s associate company Corporación Moctezuma saw its cement sales volumes rise slightly compared to 2015, supported by rising prices.
Cementos Portland Valderrivas makes loss of Euro225m in 2016
07 February 2017Spain: Cementos Portland Valderrivas (CPV) has made a loss of Euro225m in 2016. It increased from a loss of Euro62m in 2015. It reported that its sales fell by 7.6% year-on-year to Euro536m in 2016 from Euro580m in 2015. It attributed this to the sale of its US subsidiary, Giant Cement, falling sales in Tunisia, a decrease in the value of the Tunisian dinar and rising fuel prices.
The cement producer’s sales volumes of cement fell slightly to 7.2Mt in 2016. However, once sales from Giant Cement are removed then, its sales volumes rose by 1.6% due to a 49% increase in exports from Spain. This compensated for declining markets in Spain and Tunisia.
The cement producer said that overall cement consumption in Spain fell by 3.1% to 11.1Mt in 2016, although this was partially offset by exports rising by 5.6% to 9.8Mt. Reduced domestic demand and rising exports have led to clinker production rising slightly in 2016 to 17Mt. It added that cement consumption increases were slowing down in the US, although the regions its subsidiary Giant Cement operates in reported above average increases of almost 11% to November 2016 in the South East, Mid Atlantic and New England regions. In Tunisia it reported that the market fell by 3.9% to 7.2Mt and that exports to Algeria and Libya had fallen.
Headwaters shareholders approve acquisition by Boral
06 February 2017US: The shareholders of Headwaters have approved the acquisition of the company by Australia’s Boral. Over 98% of the votes cast were in favour of the deal. Boral will now continue to seek regulatory approval for the purchase and it plans to complete the deal by mid-2017. Headwaters’ Construction Materials division is one of the largest marketers of fly ash in the US.
Eagle Materials revenue up by 5% to US$933m in first nine months of 2017 financial year
25 January 2017US: Eagle Materials revenue has risen by 5% year-on-year to US$933m in the first nine months of its financial year to 31 March 2017 from US$891m in the same period in the previous year. Its net earnings rose by 43% to US$162m from US$113m. Sales from its cement division rose by 7% to US$359m from US$335m. However, sales volumes fell slightly to 3.89Mt. Sales volumes of cement from its joint-venture in Texas grew faster than wholly-owned plants, despite cement prices falling as production shifted from oil well cement to construction-grade cement over the past year.