Materials

Cutting-edge Sandvik Construction equipment is said to be giving ambitious Argentinian quarry firm Canteras Amadeo a commercial advantage Starting life as a one-quarry enterprise in Córdoba, Argentina, in 1999, Canteras Amadeo is a flourishing business with additional operations in Cordoba and Santiago del Estero. Key to its success is said to be its owners’ embrace of technological improvement, and their choice of Sandvik equipment to improve their processes.

Located 40km north of Panama City, Panama Development of Infrastructure (PDI) is assisting the Petaquilla Gold Mine, part of Petaquilla Minerals, in producing high quality aggregates from excavated materials at the mine. In order to support the activities of Petaquilla Minerals, the only mining company currently operating in Panama, PDI is using a selection of Sandvik drilling, crushing and screening equipment, all manufactured by, which has been supplied, and is supported by, Sandvik’s distributor in Pana

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

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

Asia’s emerging economies will be building roads for the next two decades, delegates at a recent Argus Asian Bitumen conference in Singapore heard. That means there are big opportunities for suppliers of bitumen, related technology and risk management companies - Kristina Smith reports One of the strongest messages to emerge from the Argus Asian Bitumen conference held in Singapore earlier this year is the sheer volume of road building planned in the region. For many countries there are political and finan

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.”