Displaying items by tag: Romania

Romania: Concrete paving slab producer Symmetrica's sales grew by 40% to €30.2m in the first half of 2024, driven by strong demand for road and water infrastructure projects. Sales volumes also grew, by 30%, to 2.7Mm². The producer noted high costs, which it partly offset by raising its prices. It also faced collection issues and a decline in residential demand.

SeeNews has reported that Symmetrica is currently building a new €48m concrete paving slab plant Bucharest. When commissioned in mid-late 2024, it will be the largest plant of its kind in the region.

Romania: IBB Holding inaugurated a new €1.5m ready-mix concrete batching plant in Mogoșoaia, Bucharest. Money News has reported that the plant is the company’s fourth.

CEO Ion Crăciunescu said "Through this new concrete plant located in the north of Bucharest, we are in a favourable position to participate in tenders for infrastructure projects in this area and establish strategic partnerships with real estate developers. Moreover, we can ensure the quality of the materials used, faster and more efficient services. Our strategy is to offer services integrated with production, with responsibility towards the environment and towards future generations, adapted to each type of project in which we are involved: infrastructure, residential, commercial or industrial construction. The real need that Romania has both in terms of investments in infrastructure and in the housing fund, as well as the projects already started, leads us to look optimistically at the development of our businesses in the medium and long term."

Romania: Holcim Romania invested Euro15m in an upgrade to its Abjud autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) block plant in Vrancea, using equipment supplied by AAC specialist Aircrete Europe. The producer says that the project raised the production capacity of the plant by 45%.

Holcim Romania CEO Bogdan Dobre said "The investment involved the automation of processes in order to harmonise operations with Holcim standards, but also to bring our customers the best performing products. With the investment, the previous production line, almost 50 years old, was completely replaced.” He continued “We have rethought the entire industrial process, making it more efficient and increasing the degree of safety at work.”

Romania: CRH subsidiary Romcim has acquired precast concrete producer Bauelemente from Michael Dietrich. Bauelemente operates plants at Aricestii Rahtivani in Prahova County, Bolintin in Ilfov County and Cristian in Sibiu County. The company will continue to operate under the new branding 'Bauelemente, a CRH company.' Romcim now controls six precast concrete plants, with 500 employees.

Romcim's building materials general manager Monica Tudor said "We are happy to welcome our new Bauelemente colleagues to Romcim and the CRH family."

Romania: Holcim Romania has announced its acquisition of independent ready-mix concrete market leader General Beton Romania. The latter operates eight batching plants with a total of 160 employees. Its markets include Arad, Bucharest, Constanta and Sibiu. Holcim Romania says that it plans to use the acquisition to grow its ECOPact green concrete’s footprint.

Europe, Middle East Africa regional head Miljan Gutovic said “General Beton provides an excellent addition to our strong and diversified ready-mix concrete operations. Over more than two decades, General Beton has been a long-standing Holcim partner as well as a growing and highly successful business. I am delighted to welcome them to the Holcim family.”

Romania: Xella Romania has sold its Macon precast concrete operations to Romcim, a subsidiary of Ireland-based CRH. The operations being sold served the civil engineering and transport infrastructure end markets in Romania. The price of the divestment has not been disclosed.

Christophe Clemente, chief executive officer of Xella Group, said, "The sale of Macon's precast concrete division will sharpen Xella's profile in the autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) and construction market and will allow us to focus our resources on the development of sustainable and efficient walling solutions for the building industry.”

Xella Romania acquired Macon Group in 2018. The addition added AAC as well as precast concrete, lime and terracotta operations. Parent company Germany-based Xella says that the acquisition made its subsidiary the largest AAC producer in Romania. The precast concrete business line is managed by Simbeton and operates two production facilities in Deva and Oradea.