US: The National Ready Mixed Concrete Association (NRMCA) has appointed Melissa Verwest as its senior director of sustainability programmes. Verwest will be responsible for initiatives including Environmental Product Declarations and Concrete Sustainability Council certifications, reporting to NRMCA senior vice-president of codes and standards Shamim Rashid-Sumar.

Verwest joins the NRMCA from concrete, aggregates and asphalt producer Knife River Corporation, where she served in roles including sustainable materials programme lead. She previously worked for Oldcastle Infrastructure and Coffman Engineers. Verwest holds a master’s degree from Washington State University in Pullman, US, and a bachelor’s degree from Michigan Technological University in Houghton, US, both in Civil Engineering. She has chaired the NRMCA Promotion Committee's sustainability subcommittee and has been an adjunct professor at Gonzaga University in Spokane for the past 15 years.

US: 350 ready-mix concrete mixer truck drivers at CalPortland sites in Northern California have returned to work and ratified a new one-year contract, following the conclusion of a two-week strike.

The Teamsters union, representing the drivers, said that the new contract implements ‘vital increases’ to their wage and health benefits. Global Concrete has found no statement forthcoming from CalPortland on the matter.

Peru: France-based Saint-Gobain has acquired construction chemicals producer QSI Productos para la Construcción. Saint-Gobain’s existing local construction chemicals platform includes the Soquimic, Weber and Z Aditivos brands.

China: China Resources Building Materials Technology sold 8Mm³ of ready-mix concrete in the first half of 2026, up by 16% year-on-year. During the half-year period, the producer increased its ready-mix concrete production capacity by 3.8Mm³/yr. Its capacity utilisation declined from 32% in the first half of 2025 to 31%.