Materials

In Colombia a big debate is in hand between producers of asphalt and concrete as to which is best for building roads. Colombia has a major programme for road construction with some US$23.54 billion planned to be invested over the next 10 years. Large producers such as Holcim, Cemex and Argos, which sell most of the 11 million tonnes/year of cement consumed in Colombia are involved actively in the debate. Cement firms have estimated that the 15 road projects that are most advanced will need some 8 million to

Metso's Indian-manufactured Nordwheeler portable crushing and screening plants are said to be playing an important role in a number of road and other construction infrastructure projects in Asia and Africa. During a short period of time, Metso has sold over 30 portable Nordwheeler plants to Asian and African-based aggregates producers. The plants are manufactured in Metso's factory in Bawal, India – earlier this year reaching the milestone of 1,000 Indian-manufactured portable plants.

Dennis Lysemose Andersen, senior oil risk manager at Global Risk Management, explained: "Bitumen hedging safeguards the economics of the company, whether it is a consumer or producer of bitumen. Looking at the consumer side as an example; an asphalt company may be involved in a large infrastructure project, where the company needs to offer a fixed price to the contractor – maybe a state-owned Road Agency – but only later can it source the bitumen. Thus the asphalt company is exposed to bitumen costs increas

Zoomlion has announced the formal acquisition of dry-mixed mortar equipment manufacturer M-TEC. A spokesperson for Zoomlion said the move for Neuenbürg, Germany-based M-TEC strengthens the Chinese construction equipment manufacturing giant’s “top brand position” in the concrete machinery field. The latest concrete sector company acquisition by Zoomlion follows the group’s acquisition of leading Italian concrete machinery manufacturer CIFA in 2008.

Chinese quarry producer Beijing Xindadi Equipment Company is looking to increase the size of its Caterpillar machine fleet as part of its plan to increase output The company is based at Beijing Miyun Taishi Village and currently produces 1-1.5 million tonnes/year of limestone, which is used for general construction in the Beijing area. Zhang Guofeng is equipment manager for the firm and said, “Business is good because the market is not affected by the downturn.”

The Ammann Group is changing its operations in the UK and Ireland. The firm is retaining sales and service support for its asphalt plant business within its existing subsidiary Ammann UK. However the firm is selling the compaction machine sales and support business to AY Equipment in a management buyout arrangement that involves a share deal. This move makes AY Equipment the Ammann dealer for the entire range of Ammann compaction products, including sales, maintenance and spare parts services, for the UK an