Supply Chain

The new Port of Tilbury could be used to move offsite components made in warehouses into central London sites by river or rail, the commercial director of its expansion project has said. Tilbury2, a £250m port, built next to the existing Port of Tilbury in Essex, features a freight ferry…

Cement manufacturer Cemex has agreed a deal that will enable it to develop affordable, industrial-scale approaches to reducing the CO2 released by the cement industry. The firm outlined its plans to work with Carbon Clean, a UK-based pioneer of carbon-capture technology, to adapt the tech company’s modular carbon capture and…

Breedon is to sell off some of its assets over competition concerns surrounding its acquisition of around 100 sites from Cemex in a £178m deal. The firm announced this morning that it had told the Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) it will offload a “small number” of ready-mixed concrete plants…

The Construction Leadership Council (CLC) has set up a group that will release industry guidance on Brexit ahead of the close of the transition period in the new year. The Brexit working group also will aim to identify critical issues facing the industry in the event of the UK failing…

More contractors reported problems with material supplies in the last two weeks of July, data from the Office for National Statistics has revealed. The proportion of firms reporting problems crept up to 37 per cent in the fortnight ending 26 July, up from 34 per cent the previous fortnight. This…

Plaster and some other key building materials continue to be affected by supply shortages, with ready availability unlikely to be re-established until mid-to-late September, according to the head of the Builders Merchants Federation (BMF). BMF chief executive John Newcomb told Construction News that merchants and manufacturers were working flat-out to meet…

Revenue at Travis Perkins was down 20 per cent for the first six months of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019. In a trading update this morning, the builders merchant reported a turnover of £2.78bn, compared with £3.48bn in the same period last year. Like-for-like sales in its…

While the majority of construction sites in the UK are now open and operating with various measures to minimise the risks posed by COVID-19, the availability of key building materials continues to present problems for many. In April, Construction News outlined shortages affecting 11 key products and services, caused by…

Travis Perkins has announced plans to cut 2,500 jobs – around 9 per cent of its workforce – as a result of the pandemic. The builders merchant said job losses would result from the closure of around 165 of its branches, reducing the number of outlets by about 8 per…

First-quarter tallies of builders merchant sales capture the initial dip in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Figures from the Builders Merchant Building Index (BMBI) show a 6.7 per cent year-on-year decline in the value of sales to builders and contractors in the first quarter of 2020, with a much steeper…