©Dreamstime In his State of the Union address in January 2006, President George W Bush warned of the dangers of being “addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world”. Ten years on, the world is showing how hard it is to break that habit. The
Building materials firm Hanson has been up in court on safety charges for the second time in two weeks. Yesterday Hanson Packed Products was fined £750,000 at Southwark Crown Court for offences that led to the death of an employee, sucked into a machine at its cement bagging site in
NewCold Advanced Cold Logistics, who have their firm base in the town of Wakefield, are reinvigorating themselves for January 2017 by restructuring their 36-strong line of tractor vehicles. These, furnished by a company in Birstall known as Crossroads Truck & Bus, are expected to be hired continuously by NewCold for
With the impending celebration of innovation by the JEC Group Awards to be scheduled between March 14th-16th in Paris, France, it might be of use to the building enthusiast to know which contestant was awarded the well-regarded construction prize. As announced, the construction prize went to a Spanish company known
The German company Voith Composites GmbH has recently been awarded the prize for most innovative manufacturing process by the JEC Group. They have been awarded this for a new process known as a “Voith Roving Applicator.” (VRA) The aim of this incredible new design is to create neat stacks that
One of the most prolific businesses for indoor renovations, design and decoration currently operating in the Midlands has been recently handed the brilliant achievement of “Excellence” in terms of a work area’s safety measures. This company, known as Rhino Interiors Group, has been recognized by Alcumus SafeContractor for its consistent
The doom and gloom decrying that not enough companies within the field of construction has been lifted by the latest findings of a survey conducted by Tata Steel back in 2016, which reveals that of the firms that replied and accepted the survey, more than 80 per cent of them
Amiri Construction have been receiving an extended helping hand from Clarke Willmott LLP on how to restructure themselves for the challenges of 2017 that lie ahead of them. Based exclusively in the Southern regions of this country, Amiri have been in place since 12 years ago and manage lucrative projects
BDC 319 : Aug 2024
©Dreamstime In his State of the Union address in January 2006, President George W Bush warned of the dangers of being “addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world”. Ten years on, the world is showing how hard it is to break that habit. The head of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, pointed out last week that the share of the world’s oil supplies coming from the Middle East had risen to its highest since the 1970s, and was likely to continue to grow. His comments were a salutary reminder of a weakness that is too easily forgotten at a time when crude is cheap: the world is still vulnerable to an oil supply shock. Among the large consuming countries, the US has had the most success in reducing its reliance on imported oil. The policies promoted by Mr Bush, including mandates for biofuels and tighter vehicle fuel efficiency standards, had some effect, but the bigger factors have been the slow recovery from the recession of 2007-09, and the shale oil production boom of the past six years. Net petroleum imports dropped from 12.5m barrels a day in 2005 to 4.7m b/d last year. That still leaves America as a significant importer though, and with US production falling and consumption rising, the decline in imports appears to have come to end for the time being. Other developed countries have cut their oil consumption through higher efficiency and weaker growth, but remain largely import-dependent. Meanwhile the large emerging economies have become more thirsty for Middle Eastern oil. China’s oil consumption grew by 73 per cent during 2005-15, and the proportion covered by domestic production dropped from 53 per cent to 36 per cent. India’s oil consumption grew 60 per cent over the same period, and its own production dropped from 28 per cent to 21 per cent of that. For oil importers, the upside of the price collapse of the past two years is that it has boosted their spending power. The downside is that consumers and businesses have been encouraged to make investment decisions that lock in demand. Sales of gas-guzzling SUVs have been booming in both the US and China. The more the world becomes accustomed to the idea that oil prices will stay low, the worse the pain will be if they rise sharply. The volatility of the Middle East, and other producers such as Venezuela, means that a sudden disruption to supplies is always a risk. If oil markets tighten because of steady growth in demand and erosion of inventories, then the US shale industry can be expected to respond with increased activity and production that will hold prices down. But the US is not a “swing producer” in the sense that it can react within weeks to a supply shock. Deploying the capital, equipment and workers needed to raise US output will take time. As the 1970s showed, plenty of damage can be done by even a temporary spike in prices. One answer for consuming countries is that they need to lean against the wind, using fuel taxes, efficiency standards and support for electric vehicles to discourage short-sighted responses to oil prices that may be only temporarily low. Subsidies for oil consumption should be cut wherever politics allow it. There is only so much that those efforts can achieve, however. Oil consumers also need to recognise that they are tied in a codependent relationship with the Middle East and are likely to remain so for decades to come. With an addiction that is this difficult to kick, it is important to make sure it is carefully managed. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016. You may share using our article tools. Please don’t cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web. Source link
Building materials firm Hanson has been up in court on safety charges for the second time in two weeks. Yesterday Hanson Packed Products was fined £750,000 at Southwark Crown Court for offences that led to the death of an employee, sucked into a machine at its cement bagging site in Dagenham. The hearing came just a week after Derby Crown Court fined it £80,000 for its part in the death of a delivery driver, crushed by a concrete panel. [See previous report here.] The Dagenham employee, 26-year-old William Ridge, was clearing sand around the base of an in-feed conveyor on 25th September 2013 moments before his right arm was drawn into the roller. Southwark Crown Court heard that there should have been fixed guards surrounding the powered roller to prevent access to the dangerous moving parts. A Health & Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that a critical guard had not been in place on the machine for a few days. It also found there had been issues with the machinery on the previous day, which Mr Ridge was trying to rectify at the time of the incident. Hanson Packed Products Ltd – part of Germany’s Heidelberg Cement Group – pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, and were fined £750,000 and ordered to pay costs of £29,511. This article was published on 18 Dec 2015 (last updated on 18 Dec 2015). Source link
NewCold Advanced Cold Logistics, who have their firm base in the town of Wakefield, are reinvigorating themselves for January 2017 by restructuring their 36-strong line of tractor vehicles. These, furnished by a company in Birstall known as Crossroads Truck & Bus, are expected to be hired continuously by NewCold for a grand total of three years to come. Fitted with an all-new I-Shift transmission by Volvo themselves, it is hoped that this will allow NewCold to operate during the adverse winter conditions and to cope with the wishes of its increasingly popular client base. The amount of double-deckers will also increase to 12, thus allowing costs to the environment and of travel to be significantly reduced by the Wakefield company. The Managing Directors of NewCold are confident that by the end of this year alone, they will have invested in and deployed an extra 30 double-decker transport vehicles to demonstrate their concern for lowering transport costs and increasing their impressive regard for the safeguard of the environment. Mister Jon Miles, its Country Director, is adamant that such vehicles NewCold have been investing in such as the FH4 500 are extremely popular among fleet drivers and are equally beneficial to the company in their cost efficiency on fuel usage. Mister Miles is also extremely satisfied with their ongoing partnership with Crossroads Truck & Bus and is hopeful that they will be able to continue this bounteous future with them and that their support will be mutual with the harsh winter months ahead. With bases of food storage all over Europe, including in France and Poland, NewCold’s announcements today are encouraging signs that up-and-coming successful companies like itself are committed to ensuring that their rising profits and success does not run at the expense of the natural environment. One can only hope that similar companies will be as conscientious as the team behind NewCold.
With the impending celebration of innovation by the JEC Group Awards to be scheduled between March 14th-16th in Paris, France, it might be of use to the building enthusiast to know which contestant was awarded the well-regarded construction prize. As announced, the construction prize went to a Spanish company known as Acciona for developing all new materials different to the ones ordinarily used in rail tunnel building. The product itself was developed following a potentially disastrous amount of water seeping into the Pajares tunnel and covering approximately a total of 30 per cent of the length of the structure. With a problem as great as this to be solved, Acciona were going to need to turn to more inventive solutions than the standard procedure normally used to dealing with problems encountered along tunnel railways. In order to circumnavigate the structural and chemical problems inherent, Acciona developed some new panels that were able to be bent in order to match the shape of the tunnel itself. At 9.2 meters in length, it was imperative that each of these panels would be pliable enough to be fitted easily into the Pajares tunnel. There was then however another problem that the designers of these panels needed to contend with: how would they be able to produce the 1,500 needed within a foreseeable schedule and at a reduced cost? The ingenious resolution to this was to increase the panel production regularity through the implementation of various cheap anti-flammable resin into the material. With this method in place, Acciona were able to make as many one individual panel every half an hour. Ultimately, the installation of 15,000 panels across an area of 200,000 square meters was greatly facilitated by the panels’ lightness. The combination of cost effectiveness, the various advantageous properties of the new material itself and its relatively simple methods of implementation ensured that the tunnel was repaired and at not too great a cost either, making Acciona the deserving winner of the JEC award dedicated to construction.
The German company Voith Composites GmbH has recently been awarded the prize for most innovative manufacturing process by the JEC Group. They have been awarded this for a new process known as a “Voith Roving Applicator.” (VRA) The aim of this incredible new design is to create neat stacks that are not wet from manufacture and are created in a series of ingenious different steps. The manufactured product is first collected into a tape with a width of precisely 50 mm. Then the binding substance is joined, made sure to be accurate by the VRA machine itself, and then positioned on a worktop table by the machine’s moveable grips. What it ultimately leads to is a compact shape that can be positioned anywhere depending on the necessity and desire of the user. It is clear that the many advantages of Voith’s product are its efficiency and its ability to reduce the amount of waste products from the materials that it stacks. In fact, hardly any amount of waste is ever produced by the new system supplied by VRA. Their achievement is equally that their product is able to complete all of the manufacturing processes in a limited amount of processes, resulting in an easy use for employees as well as a greater manufacturing speed. Adaptation is perhaps the key advantage of the VRA machine, meaning that prospective users will be able to tailor its settings to whichever materials that they would seek to manufacture. The prize having been awarded to Voith Composites GmbH is a sure sign that they are one of the most successful advocators of sustainability and have been duly rewarded with this prize by the JEC prize. It is hoped that other similar CAD/CAM manufacturing firms will follow suit and encourage other businesses to consider the advantages of researching greater methods of invention and creation within the manufacturing industries.
One of the most prolific businesses for indoor renovations, design and decoration currently operating in the Midlands has been recently handed the brilliant achievement of “Excellence” in terms of a work area’s safety measures. This company, known as Rhino Interiors Group, has been recognized by Alcumus SafeContractor for its consistent advances in making the working space for its 20-plus workforce a safer and better place. This is undoubtedly fantastic news for Rhino, who have had contracts with as many star-studded enterprises as diverse as Aston Martin and Siemens. With clients as wide and varied as that, it is clear that Rhino deliver very high standards of output and are consistently able to satisfy their famous clients again and again. Yet an investigation of Rhino’s health and safety standards was however essential as, being such a high-profile company, as explained by SafeContractor Director Gemma Archibald, certain standards had to be met and checked. It is clear that SafeContractor were also eager to ensure that Rhino Interiors Group passed the various tests with flying colors, and were pleased that the process had gone smoothly. Mister Adrian Dearnley of RIG was eager to emphasize that Rhino accepted and welcomed the various tests that needed to be implemented in order to assess the methods against risks in the work place that were already in place. Mister Dearnley seems eager for the rigorous implementation of these regulations so that the contractors and employees of RIG put their safety first before anything else. Furthermore, the Director of RIG emphasizes his pride that the award finally defines the West Midlands firm as a bastion of health and safety regulation. It is hoped that the rewards of this will result in attracting an even wider spectrum of clientele to knock at the doors of Rhino Interiors Group and to use the services of a company that they know is concerned for the wellbeing of its staff.
The doom and gloom decrying that not enough companies within the field of construction has been lifted by the latest findings of a survey conducted by Tata Steel back in 2016, which reveals that of the firms that replied and accepted the survey, more than 80 per cent of them certified that they either were or would commit themselves to greater contributions to the ethics of sustainability. The tests and results gathered by Tata Steel over the course of a few months were completed by all manner and form of members in the building industry. This varied from planners and architects to development experts, who were required to respond to such subjects surrounding sustainable plans as diverse as ways of investing and educating businesses. As Barry Rust of Tata Steel intimates, the subject of a sustainable business is the hot topic and the primary objectives and goals of numerous building enterprises. Tata Steel itself has the good fortune and insight of being able to create materials that are approved by BES 6001 standards, but not every building company has the foresight to be this conscientious. Yet even those companies tested that did not yet have an appropriate action plan for a sustainable future still indicated in the survey that they would consider introducing sustainability into their plans. Other leaders in the building industry such as Rory Bergin of HTA Design LLP and John Hutton of BAM Nuttall both emphasized the need for concerns about sustainability to be consistently raised so that other issues such as those of eye and noise pollution could be explored and rectified as well. Much needs to be done to also ensure that the buildings maintain the levels of sustainability that they were initially built on, and a great deal of this clearly involves the use of all aspects of education to ensure that building contractors as well as clients are knowledgeable of the ways in which sustainability for all can progress further into the 21st Century.
Amiri Construction have been receiving an extended helping hand from Clarke Willmott LLP on how to restructure themselves for the challenges of 2017 that lie ahead of them. Based exclusively in the Southern regions of this country, Amiri have been in place since 12 years ago and manage lucrative projects through fields as diverse as commerce and the relaxation industries. With working on projects as expensive as 10 million pounds, it was imperative that their transition of shareholding went as in organized a fashion as possible so that they would be able to maintain their strong expertise in exceptional client satisfaction. The office-based company Clarke Willmott, which has a base in Southampton, was a key component in bringing a new series of shareholders to deal with the company’s management base. Mister Richard Swain was instrumental in collaborating with Clarke Willmott to ensure that the transition to new managerial shareholders at Amiri went smoothly and that they felt welcomed in their new working environment. Messrs. Lyster, Corry, Moore and Tidby were able to secure themselves, with the aid of Clarke Willmott, a smooth transition and movement to the high echelons of Amiri which will ensure that the company is in good stead to operate into the 21st Century. It was however a very good idea that they dispensed of the services of an experienced firm like Clarke Willmott so that they were able to ensure such a smooth transition. Mister Grahaeme Pettit and Kevin Lendon, the creative forces behind Amiri Construction, have expressed their delight in welcoming the new participants to their company and seem pleased with the service Clarke Willmott provided. And why shouldn’t they be? Indeed, Clarke Willmott LLP is a very well-respected firm with bases all over the country ranging from areas in Wales to Birmingham in the Midlands. And today the Southampton branch can be proud that they have continued Clarke Willmott’s excellence in giving legal advice to clients.
