Chile: Fuchs Group has purchased a controlling stake in the lubricants business of Comercial Pacific. The agreement will see it hold 65% of the company with Comercial Pacific retaining the remaining 35%. The acquisition focuses in particular on the customer base and workforce. Comercial Pacific is a long-standing Fuchs distributor in Chile in the mining, food, paper and cellulose industries. The company employs 13 people in sales and application engineering.

France: LafargeHolcim France has inaugurated a new clinker loader at its Martres-Tolosane cement plant. The Euro4.4m project consists of a 1000t silo fed by a belt conveyor and a loading area for trains and trucks. It is intended to supply the grinding mill at LafargeHolcim’s La Couronne plant with raw materials. The loader was built by DB2i, a subsidiary of engineering company Demathieu & Bard with the assistance of Comminges Bâtiment and Alibert & Fils. The project is part of a wider Euro100m investment initiative at the site.

US: Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has resigned. The decision follows investigations into his security spending and other expenses, according to the Associated Press. In his resignation letter Pruitt said he had no regrets. He will be replaced by acting administrator Andrew Wheeler.

Switzerland: Cement deliveries grew by 3% year-on-year to 1.22Mt in the second quarter of 2018 from 1.19Mt in the same period in 2017. Deliveries for the first half of the year grew slightly to 2.06Mt according to the CemSuisse.