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Blue Circle Blue Circle is to close the Weardale cement works in County Durham with the loss of 150 jobs, and the region will now be supplied from plants in Scotland and Derbyshire. 24-Jan-2002 Blue Circle has won government approval to build a new cement works at Snodland, Kent, to replace the existing Northfleet operation, with the creation of 180 jobs. 29-Nov-2001 Blue Circle is planning to quit its central London headquarters in order to consolidate into its regional operations. 10-Sep-2001 Blue Circle Cement is seeking permission from the Environment Agency to use sanitised sewage pellets as a replacement for coal at its Cauldon Low works in Ashbourne. 22-May-2001 Blue Circle Industries, the cement maker, is to be acquired by Lafarge of France for £3.1bn, which will lead to about 500 job losses at Blue Circle's UK headquarters and at research centres in Greenhithe and France. 09-Jan-2001 Blue Circle Industries and Michelin are forming a joint venture called Sapphire Energy Recovery, in order to burn used tyres at Blue Circle's cement kilns and save up to £6m a year. 04-Dec-2000 Blue Circle has sold its 50% stake in Aalborg Portland, the Danish cement company, to its local partner for £120m. 01-Aug-2000 Blue Circle is planning to shed 350 jobs in its UK cement business over the next 18 months. 22-Jun-2000 Blue Circle Industries is in discussions to acquire a cement plant in India from the Bira group of companies. 08-Jun-2000 Blue Circle is considering plans to reopen merger talks with Southdown of the US, in order to strengthen its defence against the possibility of a renewed takeover approach from Lafarge. 22-May-2000 Lafarge of France has won European Commission approval for its £3.4bn bid for Blue Circle, but the UK cement maker is still trying to resist the deal. 11-Apr-2000 Blue Circle is considering plans for a £550m business and residential development programme on its brownfield sites in Kent and the South East. 27-Mar-2000 Blue Circle is to launch a virtual marketplace for the cement industry on the internet, in partnership with Just2Clicks.com. 10-Mar-2000 Blue Circle has received a £3.4bn takeover approach from Lafarge of France, as part of an ongoing consolidation in the UK building materials sector. 01-Feb-2000 Blue Circle is negotiating the acquisition of a 74% stake in Alexandria Portland Cement of Egypt, in a £120m deal. 01-Dec-1999 Blue Circle is selling its heating division to Baxi Partnership for £480m, and has also announced the acquisition of a controlling stake in Heracles Cement of Greece for £388m. 11-Oct-1999 Blue Circle is acquiring Iligan Cement of the Philippines for £32m, as part of an ongoing expansion in east Asia. 21-Jul-1999 Blue Circle has put its heating division up for sale, and is expected to raise about £400m to invest in heavy building products. 29-Jun-1999 Scottish Power is forming an alliance with Blue Circle to sell pulverised fuel ash from its power stations to the construction industry. 17-Jun-1999 Blue Circle is to set up a £1m cement depot on the quayside at Salford, in order to replace existing facilities in Manchester and Widnes. 10-Jun-1999 Blue Circle has acquired Calcemento International for £401m, which gives it a controlling stake in two Greek cement companies - Heracles General Cement and Halkis Cement. 01-Jun-1999 Blue Circle is considering plans to spend a further £400m on acquisitions this year, and is particularly interested in the cement markets of Asia and South America. 30-Mar-1999 Blue Circle is to sell Brotje, its German wholesale heating business with 27 outlets, to GC Group for £41m. 13-Feb-1999 Blue Circle has sold its bathrooms division, which includes nine UK factories employing 2,200 people, to American Standard for £253m. 03-Feb-1999 Blue Circle is investing £0.5m in the Moorswater rail freight depot in Liskeard, Cornwall, and it is hoped that other national companies will join the scheme. 11-Jan-1999 Blue Circle Industries has applied for planning permission from North Lincolnshire Council for a £100m commercial and industrial development at Barton, which would create up to 1,200 jobs. 08-Jan-1999 Blue Circle has shortlisted five companies to buy its bathrooms division for about £200m, and a sale is expected by April. 02-Jan-1999 Blue Circle is to acquire Kedah Cement, the Malaysian cement company, for up to £356m. 28-Oct-1998 Blue Circle is to auction off its bathrooms division, which includes Armitage Shanks, for up to £200m. 20-Oct-1998 Blue Circle is said to be planning to auction off Armitage Shanks, the bathroom fittings company, for up to £250m. 28-Sep-1998 Blue Circle Industries has sold its South African cement business to Lafarge of France for $240m. 22-Sep-1998 Blue Circle Industries is to close cement plants near Plymouth and Ipswich with the loss of 250 jobs. 09-Sep-1998 Blue Circle Industries is acquiring the remaining 50% of two Malaysian cement companies - Associated Pan Malaysia Cement and Pan Malaysia Cement Works Singapore - for £177m. 29-Aug-1998 Blue Circle Industries has acquired a further 33% of Republic Cement of the Philippines for £32m, taking its stake to 54%. 18-Aug-1998 Blue Circle is to acquire Needler, the Canadian aggregates and concrete blocks company, for £17m in order to strengthen its position in Ontario. 17-Jun-1998 Blue Circle Industries is increasing its share of the Fillipino cement market to 18% with two share purchases at a cost of £42m, and it is now looking to expand in Malaysia and Thailand. 09-Jun-1998 Blue Circle Industries has acquired the cement business of Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile for £19m through its Empresas Melon subsidiary, and SQM will take a 14% stake in Melon. 21-May-1998 Blue Circle is looking to spend up to £500m on acquisitions and is particularly interested in expanding its presence in the building materials markets of Malaysia and the Philippines. 31-Mar-1998 Blue Circle Industries is said to be negotiating the acquisition of a controlling stake in Herecles Cement of Greece as part of a plan to expand its cement business in continental Europe. 28-Mar-1998 Blue Circle has sold its Blue Circle Incineration subsidiary to a management team for £3m. 20-Mar-1998 Blue Circle is planning to build a £180 cement works at Holborough in Kent as part of a programme to improve UK productivity. 16-Dec-1997 Blue Circle Industries has sold Ockley Brick to Chelwood Brick for £14.4m in order to focus more on its core cement business. 23-Sep-1997 Blue Circle is to continue with plans to double its output of cement in Malaysia despite the Malaysian government's decision to cut back on construction projects. 09-Sep-1997 Blue Circle Industries is acquiring St Mary's Cement Corporation of Canada for £164m. 25-Mar-1997 Blue Circle is planning to acquire St Mary's Cement Corporation of Canada for about £200m, in order to strengthen its North American activities. 22-Jan-1997 Blue Circle is to increase grey cement prices by £4 a tonne from next March, in order to recover margins that have been lost over the last 5 years. 04-Dec-1996 Blue Circle Industries has bought Venesta Cubicle Systems, the manufacturer of washroom products, for £5.5m. 03-Dec-1996 Blue Circle Industries, the cement and building products company, is considering acquisitions in the US, Asia and South America. 04-Sep-1996 Blue Circle is planning a £180m cement plant in Kent as part of a £330m investment programme aimed at improving productivity. 22-Jun-1996 Blue Circle, the cement group, is looking to expand through acquisition in countries such as Argentina, Vietnam and the Philippines. 06-Jun-1996 Blue Circle is restructuring its European heating operation with the loss of 1,300 jobs, including the transfer of its boiler making from Warwick to Lancashire. 27-Feb-1996 Blue Circle is offering a 3.75% pay rise to process and craft workers and will be looking at ways to reduce the working week from 39 to 37 hours. 20-Feb-1996 Blue Circle Industries is planning to build a new town at Ebbsfleet, Kent, with 3,200 homes, creating up to 20,000 permanent jobs. 31-Jan-1996 More from the Construction sector Related pages: Berkeley McInerney Castle Cement Halladale T Clarke Blue Circle website: www.bluecircle.co.uk The information on this page comes from the UK Activity Report. 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