News Concrete bosses jailed for years-long price-fixing scam Four executives and a corporation were sentenced last week in the US state of Georgia for participating in a long-running conspiracy to fix prices, rig bids and allocate jobs for…
News US states, cities, developers, builders make low-carbon cement pledges The Biden-Harris administration this week unveiled a series of pledges made by some state and city governments along with cement manufacturers, construction firms, developers and tech companies to use lower-emission…
News Strabag and Liebherr unveil world’s first hydrogen-powered wheel loader Austrian contractor Strabag and German–Swiss machinery-maker Liebherr have begun a project that will showcase the world’s first-ever hydrogen-powered wheel loaded. The work in Kanzelstein Quarry, in Gratkorn, Austria, will feature…
News Saudi Arabia to set up $186m concrete factory to supply 170km-long city Plans have been announced to build a $186m concrete plant as part of the huge Neom development programme in Saudi Arabia’s northwestern Tabuk Province. Saudi building materials company Asas Al-Mohileb…
News MIT team finds way to print glass bricks A team at MIT has published a research paper detailing its work on printing bricks made from recycled glass that can be interlocked like Lego pieces. The use of printing…
News Ethiopia doubles cement-making capacity with advanced factory Ethiopia has doubled its cement-making capacity with a mega-factory in the Amhara region in the north of the country, Addis Insight reports. The $600m Lemi National Cement Factory will produce…
News Chinese scientists produce building materials on Mars for space construction A team of Chinese researchers is exploring the feasibility of producing building materials on Mars by melting its soil. The possibility of “in-situ resource generation” is being investigated by scientists…
News Mammoet launches crane able to lift up to 6,000 tonnes Dutch heavy lift specialist Mammoet has unveiled a crane with a capacity of 6,000 tonnes, which it describes as the world’s strongest land-based lifter. The SK6000 is electrically operated and…
Trends Ireland’s concrete block nightmare Thousands of homes in Ireland are crumbling. In videos posted online, angry and despairing owners pull rotten concrete blocks from their walls and dash them to dust on the ground.…
News Timber not to blame for mould at Singapore’s Gaia building, experts say The mould found on exterior and interior walls at the mass timber Gaia building at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is not caused by its timber, but is rather an…
News Australia warns of $3bn ore slump as China’s boom reverses Australia’s economic policy chief, Treasurer Jim Chalmers, has warned that falling iron ore prices linked to a major slowdown in China’s construction output could lead to a A$3bn hole in…
News Asia’s biggest timber building has a mould problem Mould is growing on the walls of Asia’s largest timber building – the six-storey Gaia building at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) – raising questions about the use of imported…
News EU starts procedure against Ireland over defective block crisis In response to thousands of homes crumbling in Ireland because of defective concrete blocks, the European Commission has launched an infringement procedure against the Irish government for allowing the sale…
News See the printed floor cassette researchers say could replace concrete, steel Researchers at the University of Maine have released images of the 3D-printed, natural-material floor cassette they say is strong enough to replace steel-and-concrete floors in multi-storey buildings. The university worked…
Innovation Professor invents instant concrete strength-checker. Highway bosses like it. AASHTO – the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials – has approved a Purdue University-invented device that uses vibrations to check when concrete has cured. After seven years…
Innovation New printed wood floor cassette can replace concrete and steel, say researchers Researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the University of Maine have unveiled a 3D-printed, recyclable, natural-material floor cassette they say is strong enough…
News Liebherr to build logistics site for the Americas in Mississippi German-Swiss equipment maker Liebherr has acquired 48ha of land in Tupelo, Mississippi, and plans to use it for a distribution centre and company campus. The aim is to stock and…
News New technology aids 22-hour concrete pour on $7bn Shiziyang Bridge Chinese equipment maker Sany says it has made a technical breakthrough in its work on the Shiziyang road bridge over the Pearl River delta in Guangdong. The $7bn crossing will…