Performance Panels, the distribution arm of See Limited, will now supply Broadview’s Formica Compact Collection across the UK, adding to its existing Trespa distribution agreement. The compact laminate range targets high-wear education, healthcare, and commercial interiors where impact resistance, moisture tolerance, and low-maintenance surfaces are critical for lifecycle cost and hygiene performance. Combining Formica Compact with Trespa panels gives architects, contractors, and fabricators a broader specification palette from a single distributor, simplifying procurement and detailing for robust wall linings, worktops, and façade-adjacent applications.
Reynaers Aluminium UK has appointed Jim Smith, a building products veteran with more than 30 years’ experience, as managing director with a mandate to accelerate growth in the architecture and specification markets and strengthen commercial capability. Smith will maintain a core focus on the group’s Science-Based Targets initiative pathway, which commits to a 50% carbon footprint reduction by 2030. For façade, window and door specifiers, Reynaers is pushing aluminium systems designed for energy efficiency, climate resilience, durability and recyclability, embedding circularity and eco-design at project design stage.
Commonwealth Fusion Systems has become the first international partner in the UK Atomic Energy Authority’s Lithium Breeding Tritium Innovation (Librti) programme at Culham, supporting development of tritium-breeding technologies for future fusion power plants. The collaboration will focus on testing lithium-based breeder materials and component designs under fusion-relevant conditions to optimise tritium production and recovery. For civil and materials engineers, the work points to future design requirements for breeder blankets, cooling circuits and radiation-resistant structural materials in commercial fusion infrastructure.
VASO Global has secured £5m from PXN Ventures, Scottish Enterprise, UK Research Innovation and Eco Group to accelerate development of structural composite panels manufactured from recycled glass. The funding will support scale-up of panel production and validation of load-bearing performance, targeting use in building envelopes and other structural applications where composites can replace steel or concrete elements. For engineers, the move signals growing investor confidence in glass-based composites as a lower-carbon alternative material, pending full structural testing and certification.
Lhoist North America and Martin Marietta Materials have agreed a definitive merger that will combine Lhoist’s lime and limestone operations with Martin Marietta’s aggregates and heavy building materials portfolio into a single North American minerals group. The deal brings together Lhoist’s industrial lime plants and kiln assets with Martin Marietta’s quarry network and rail-linked distribution terminals, creating a larger integrated platform for construction aggregates, chemical-grade limestone and lime products. For geotechnical and civil contractors, the combined entity is likely to influence regional pricing and availability of aggregates, armourstone and stabilisation lime on major infrastructure and mining projects.
VEGAPULS non-contact radar level sensors have replaced traditional silo weighing systems at Sto’s building materials plant to monitor raw material and finished product stocks in real time. Each silo is now fitted with a VEGAPULS unit mounted on the roof, providing continuous level measurement unaffected by dust, material build-up or varying bulk densities that previously distorted load-cell readings. The upgrade is aimed at tightening inventory control and supporting punctual deliveries of cementitious and other construction materials to infrastructure projects.
Marlborough Highways has resurfaced three live streets for Barnet Council in six days using Holcim SuperLow asphalt and ACLA, a carbon-negative aggregate alternative from Low Carbon Materials, as part of the borough’s BarNET ZERO programme. ACLA was incorporated in the binder course to cut embodied carbon while maintaining carriageway performance, supported by electric rollers, electric disc cutters and electric vans on a 100% renewable tariff, with HVO-powered plant used where electrification was not viable. The scheme cut the estimated carbon footprint from 62.34t CO₂e to as low as 4.49t CO₂e, with most savings coming from material selection rather than plant changes.
Paebbl has launched Rebond 300, a near‑white, carbon negative cement alternative with a footprint of -149kg CO2 per tonne that can replace up to 30% of conventional cement in standard mixes. The SCM-based binder delivers up to 40% reduction in embodied carbon at typical replacement ratios, a 10x improvement over Paebbl’s first‑generation material, while remaining compatible with existing ready‑mix and precast workflows. The Rebond Series is formulated to work across a family of silicate minerals and uses lower clinker process temperatures, reducing heat demand and permanently storing CO2.
Decarbonising the cement sector hinges on cutting process emissions from limestone calcination and fuel combustion in high-temperature kilns, which together make cement one of construction’s largest embodied carbon sources. The piece centres on how robust carbon accounting frameworks, including project-level whole-life carbon assessments and product-level Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), can expose the relative impacts of clinker content, alternative fuels and SCMs such as fly ash or GGBS. For designers and contractors, consistent accounting is critical to comparing low-clinker cements, specifying lower-carbon mixes and evidencing compliance with client net zero targets.
Martin Engineering has introduced the N2 Air Cannon Intelligence (ACI) System, turning conventional air cannons in cement kilns and other high-temperature process lines into monitored, connected assets. Wireless N2 sensors mounted on each cannon feed real-time pressure, firing and cycle data to a central gateway, allowing operators to detect misfires, blocked valves and suboptimal firing sequences without manual inspection. For materials handling and process engineers, this enables tighter control of build-up removal on preheaters, riser ducts and clinker coolers, reducing unplanned shutdowns and compressed air waste.
Trelleborg has launched a new inch-size polyurethane sealing line for light-, medium- and heavy-duty hydraulic cylinders, covering piston, rod and buffer seals plus wipers for linear hydraulic applications. The Zurcon RU9 and Zurcon U-Cup RU9 profiles are engineered to retrofit directly into common American groove sizes in OEM and replacement equipment, targeting mining and other mobile hydraulics. For maintenance and design engineers, the inch-based range simplifies specifying high-performance PU seals without re-machining existing cylinder hardware.
ALLU’s specialised Asphalt Recycling Bucket, designed for attachment to heavy-duty excavators and wheel loaders, screens and crushes cold-milled asphalt and reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) in a single pass to produce reusable aggregate on site. Developed over six years by the Finnish manufacturer founded in 1985, the bucket targets waste and recycling applications where mobile plants are impractical or uneconomic. For road contractors and pavement recyclers, the unit reduces haulage of millings, supports higher RAP contents in new mixes, and enables small-batch, on-demand processing at the jobfront.
Holcim’s Tilbury Cement Works has begun importing cementitious materials via a deep‑water berth at the Port of Tilbury, using a new ship‑to‑shore conveyor, enclosed belt conveyors and the UK’s first 30,000‑tonne cement dome silo to feed six loading heads and five weighbridges. A vertical roller mill due in late 2026 will grind GBFS and recycled concrete fines to produce GGBFS and blended cements, with ECOPlanet and ECOPlanet with ECOCycle products scheduled for early 2027. The site has been built using circular practices, reusing 25,000m³ of crushed concrete and 10,000 tonnes of reclaimed asphalt.
China Baowu and Rio Tinto have completed industrial-scale pelletisation and hydrogen-based shaft furnace trials at Baoshan Iron & Steel’s Zhanjiang operations using Rio Tinto’s Pilbara Blend fines. The campaign tested direct reduction-grade pellets in a shaft furnace charged with hydrogen-rich gas, aiming to validate lower-carbon ironmaking routes compatible with existing Baowu infrastructure. Results will inform process design for future DR-grade pellet plants and potential retrofits of blast furnace–basic oxygen furnace lines in China’s coastal steel hubs.
VEGA’s radar level and point level instruments are being used by Dutch floor screed manufacturer Quartzline in Dordrecht to continuously monitor raw material stocks in silos and storage vessels. Non-contact radar sensors and point level switches provide real-time data on resin, sand and filler levels, allowing tighter batching control and reducing manual silo checks and over-ordering. For materials and plant engineers, the case shows how robust level measurement in abrasive, dusty bulk environments can stabilise mix quality and cut inventory and production downtime.
Rio Tinto and China Baowu have completed industrial-scale hydrogen-based direct reduction trials using Pilbara Blend iron ore in a shaft furnace, showing that the mid-grade (~62% Fe) Western Australian ore can achieve metallisation levels suitable for low-carbon DRI. Tests at Baowu’s Zhanjiang base used hydrogen-rich gas in place of coke-based reductants, validating pellet quality, sticking behaviour and gas utilisation under commercial conditions. The work signals that existing Pilbara ore supply chains could be adapted for hydrogen DRI routes, reducing dependence on high-grade (>67% Fe) ores.
Reid has launched the ReidBar™ TX Coupler, a mechanical reinforcing bar splice system designed to cut installation time and improve constructability on bridge projects while meeting some of Australia’s strictest state road authority specifications. The coupler is engineered for high-strength threaded bar connections, enabling faster bar fixing, reduced congestion at pier and abutment zones, and simplified detailing for heavily reinforced bridge decks. For civil contractors and designers, the system offers a standardised, certifiable alternative to lap splices and site welding, with clear compliance pathways for major infrastructure works.
Overbury has installed Adaptavate’s bio-based Breathaboard wallboard at Legal & General’s new London headquarters at 10 Coleman Street, providing a carbon‑storing, compostable alternative to conventional gypsum board. The pilot sits within a deep refurbishment that retains around 95% of the existing structure and integrates low‑carbon systems such as air source heat pumps, supporting L&G’s target of operational Net Zero across its offices by 2030. Adaptavate reports more than 100 projects registered and over £19m in demand via letters of intent and offtake agreements, signalling strong market interest in carbon‑negative fit‑out materials.
Sodium-ion batteries are emerging as a mass-market option for grid-scale storage and lower-cost urban EVs, with CATL already selling sodium-ion passenger vehicles and utility systems exceeding 1 GWh, but they do not displace lithium in high-energy-density applications. Because sodium is geologically ubiquitous—essentially salt at 2.3% of the crust—the bottleneck moves from scarce deposits like Greenbushes and the Lithium Triangle to midstream processing and gigafactory-scale manufacturing. China now controls over 90% of installed and announced sodium-ion manufacturing capacity, deepening Western dependence despite abundant raw sodium.
Kryton International will debut at EXPONOR in Chile this month, showcasing its Hard-Cem® integral hardening technology already deployed in British Columbia mining infrastructure. Hard-Cem is added directly to concrete to improve abrasion and erosion resistance in high-wear elements such as haul road slabs, ore passes and crusher foundations, aiming to extend service life without increasing cement content. For mine operators, the pitch centres on reduced shutdowns for resurfacing, lower lifecycle concrete volumes and more predictable performance in aggressive, high-impact environments.
Rio Tinto has begun a $1.5 billion expansion of its AP60 low‑carbon aluminium smelter at Arvida, Quebec, adding 96 new AP60 pots to lift capacity to about 220,000 tonnes per year, a 160,000‑tonne increase. Powered by hydroelectricity, the AP60 process emits about one‑seventh of the global industry average and is expected to cut Rio’s carbon emissions by roughly 290,000 tonnes per year as older Arvida potlines are phased out by next month. The project, backed by up to $113 million from Quebec, has created more than 1,500 construction jobs and will employ about 100 permanent staff, with a nearby recycling facility planned to integrate post‑consumer aluminium.
US efforts to revive primary aluminium hinge on securing long-term, industrial-scale power contracts of 500+ MW per smelter, with advocates warning that data centres and hyperscalers are outbidding producers for grid capacity. Imports of Canadian primary aluminium fell from 2,745 kt in 2024 to 1,950 kt in 2025 after Section 232 tariffs rose to 50%, even as Century Aluminum and Emirates Global Aluminium plan the first new US smelter since 1980 in Oklahoma, still stalled pending a power deal. Rio Tinto’s $1.5 billion AP60 low-carbon smelter expansion in Quebec and EU CBAM-driven demand are meanwhile pulling more Canadian hydropower-based metal towards Europe, risking longer-term diversion of supply away from the US.
Edinburgh’s Gold Copper Diamide Extraction (GCDE) process has been exclusively licensed to Lithium Universe, enabling low‑temperature hydrometallurgical recovery of gold and copper from e‑waste using small, reusable organic ligands instead of >1,200°C smelting or cyanide and mercury leaching. The diamide “molecular magnet” first targets gold, followed by a selective copper step, delivering high‑purity metals from printed circuit boards where gold and copper content can exceed US$48,000 per tonne at current prices. Lithium Universe will integrate GCDE into its Precious Metals Recycling Division and sub‑licence the technology globally.
Advanced Magnet Lab has secured a US$2 million, two-year Defense Logistics Agency contract to qualify domestically produced high‑grade sintered NdFeB PM‑Wire magnets, including defence‑grade compositions such as N48SH and N35EH. The Florida firm will develop alloying, supply chain management and advanced manufacturing routes to scale permanent magnet production using its PM‑Wire process, which is designed to fit existing magnet‑making lines. AML is also progressing SmFeN, MnBi, anisotropic NdFeB and (Mischmetal‑Nd)FeB magnets, working with Phoenix Tailings, Ionic Rare Earths and Momentum to reduce critical rare earth content and improve material traceability.
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