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Heidelberg Cement has agreed a new bridging facility to refinance a € 600 million loan that was due for repayment today.

Rental rates in North America fell by 8% or more in the first quarter of the year and could decline by even more in the second quarter, according to rental consultant Dan Kaplan. He warned that the beginnings of a damaging rates war was now evident in North America.

Both of IPAF’s newly published reports in the powered access rental markets in Europe and the United States are now available to buy from KHL Group’s website, www.KHL.com

Ramirent managed €0.5 million net profit in the first three months of the year despite reporting net sales 24.6% down at €122.2 million compared to the same period in 2008. All its markets were down, with the worst performing area being Europe East (Baltic States, Russia and the Ukraine), down 54.6%. Other territories were down between 14.1% (Finland) and 23.1% (Sweden).

Bad weather and downturn in France pushes Q1 revenues down -2,6%.

Acciona's Polish subsidiary Mostostal Warszawa has won the contract to construct the 40000-capacity Wroclaw (Poland) municipal stadium as part of a consortium including Mostostal's subsidiary Wrobis, Greece's J&P Ajax and design firm MCD.

Queensland Dam Consortium has been appointed to build the AU$ 348 million (US$ 266 million) Wyaralong Dam by Queensland Water Infrastructure (QWI).

McDermott International reported sales for the first quarter of US$ 1.49 billion, up +3% on the US$ 1.45 billion recorded 12 months previously.

Mats Paulsson has resigned as CEO of Peab's civil engineering and contracting business, Peab Industri.

The Al-Futtaim Carillion/Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) Joint Venture has been awarded the contract to construct a US$ 340 million retail centre in Cairo Festival City.

Company hopes to raise € 570 million with discounted offer.

Revenues of Harsco Infrastructure in the first quarter of 2009 fell US$95.1 million, or 25% from $378.8 million in the same period last year, to $283.7 million. The lower performance was due primarily to reduced end-market demand, particularly in the United Kingdom, and to negative foreign currency translation effects.

Ashtead Group said rental revenues in its fourth quarter to 30 April will be around 24% down (at constant exchange rates) with volumes holding up “relatively well” but rental rates deteriorating worse than anticipated.

UK events hire company Thorns Group has acquired the rental stock of its Manchester-based competitor, CHS Catering Equipment and Furniture Hire. CHS went into administration last month.

Rental revenues at H&E Equipment Services fell 22.1% to US$55.5 million in the first quarter of 2009. That was a decline of $15.7 million from $71.2 million in the same period in 2008 for the US equipment sales and rental company.

Hitachi Consulting, the consulting and IT division of Hitachi Ltd, has formed an alliance with Result Group, the UK-based rental software firm. The two, who have been working together for several years, will cooperate on marketing and implementing the Result Group software, rentalresult.

SNC-Lavalin reported first quarter pre-tax profits of CA$ 77.4 million (US$ 66.8 million), up +9.4% on the CA$ 70.8 million (US$ 61 million) recorded 12 months ago.

Demand for asphalt in China is expected to rise +5% annually through 2012 to 16.8 million tonnes.

Skanska has revealed the announcement of US stimulus packages, in the short term, had a negative effect on civil construction markets in North America.

RSC Equipment Rental posted a first quarter net loss of US$14 million on total revenues on $351 million, which were down 16.8% on the same three months in 2008. Rental revenues fell by 23% to $287 million and RSC said it expected a 35-40% decline in the second quarter compared to the same period in 2008.