Harsco Corp.’s metals division has received two multi-year contract renewals from Mexican steelmaker Ternium Mexico.
Ternium Mexico is a unit of Ternium S.A.
The contract renewals are estimated to have projected revenue worth more than $225 million, the industrial services company said Friday.
The pacts span close to 10 years each and include new and expanded commercial terms.
In January Harsco said it received two new orders worth $9 million to provide insulation services and scaffolding for a new refinery under construction in the Netherlands.
The company’s stock shed 25 cents to $32.87 in afternoon trading.
Via: Business Week
Carl Rook turned down the chance to play in the Conference Premier to return to Tonbridge Angels on a loan deal to the end of the season.The striker, who left Tonbridge last season to join Dartford, was loaned back to the Angels last week and started in the two recent draws against Kingstonian and Wealdstone.
Rook admitted he was surprised at the speed of the move back to Longmead, having been told last Tuesday by Dartford boss Tony Burman that he needed to go out on loan and get some games.
Conference Premier side Eastbourne Borough had expressed an interest, as had Carshalton Athletic, but when Angels boss Tommy Warrilow came calling, there was only one place the former Horsham man was going.
“Tony Burman told me I was going out on loan on the Tuesday and by Thursday I was back at Tonbridge,” Rook said. “It was quite a surprise to me if I’m honest, but there are three strikers at Dartford fighting for one place and I’ve been in and out of the side. The manager said that I needed to get out and get some games and I agreed. I made the decision to go back to Tonbridge, which was an easy one really; they’re pushing for promotion so hopefully I can score some goals to get us there.”
The 28-year-old scaffolder admitted the prospect of playing in the Conference Premier with Eastbourne Borough had appealed, but having looked at away trips to Wrexham, Gateshead and Southport in the next few weeks, work commitments ruled that out.
Having experienced the agony of missing out in the play-offs with the Angels in his first spell, Rook is confident Tonbridge have the squad to go one better this time around. Warrilow has also set him a goal target for the remaining games of the season, and the striker says promotion for Tonbridge to the Conference South next season may come into the equation when it comes to sorting out his future this summer.
He said: “It’s a shame if it has not worked out at Dartford, whether the manager sees something in me he does not like I don’t know.
“I’d love to be able to help Tonbridge go up and Tommy has set me a target of 10 goals in the last 12 games and hopefully I can achieve that. This is the best squad he has had at the club, and he’s had some good players in the last few years but not many would get in this side.
“I’m out of contract in the summer, but it’s up to other people with what happens. I’ve been in and out of the team at Dartford, but then you get an offer from Eastbourne Borough in the Conference Premier and it makes you think that someone sees something in you to play that level. I also really enjoy playing at Tonbridge and I enjoyed my time at Dartford, so there’s a lot to weigh up at the end of the season.”
Via: www.kentnews.co.uk
A LOUTH amateur boxer Sam McSpadden hopes to fulfil a lifelong dream by turning professional.The 21-year-old scaffolder has been put forward to the British Boxing Board of Control for a professional licence by his manager Trevor Frater.
Frater’s professional boxing partner Mike Shinfield – who manages several leading boxers in the country – has already seen McSpadden spar with other professional boxers, and said he has what it takes to make the step up.
He now has to face board members before being told whether he will be given his licence.
He said: “This is what I always wanted to do since I can remember.
“I will put in the training, time and effort that it will take for me to succeed in my ambitions to put Louth on the boxing map.”
McSpadden is a member of T&J Pro-Am School of Boxing on Louth Trading Estate, which Mr Frater owns.
He would become Louth’s only current professional boxer.
“That is why this is not just big for me but it is also big for the town, and can only be good for Louth,” said McSpadden.
“There isn’t another pro boxer who is from Louth so it would be a great moment for me.
“This is an opportunity of a lifetime and I really want to take it.
“I have always been encouraged by my family to do it. My dad had his own gym and boxing has always been in the family.”
At amateur level he has boxed at light-middleweight but says as a professional he would prefer to fight at welterweight or light-welterweight.
McSpadden was bought his first pair of gloves by his father before he could walk.
The youngest of seven siblings, McSpadden joined Fabien Boxing Academy, aged five.
He lost contact with the sport in his later primary school years, before taking it back up as a teenager and joining the armed forces where he went 12 competitions undefeated.
After a spell in the army, he left to move back to Louth with his family, joining T&J.
His first ABA competition was at Sheffield Working Men’s Club and he stopped a fighter with vastly superior experience inside 50 seconds of the first round.
After 17 fights in a year, he remained undefeated.
Mr Frater said: “I helped him with his fitness levels and his boxing skills and he showed mass improvement immediately.
“I noticed that, in-line with new ABA rules, I was going to have to completely change Sam’s boxing style.
“I don’t see the point doing that and after speaking with Mike we came to the same conclusion about Sam’s boxing career and are going to put him forward for a professional licence.”
McSpadden has undergone a medical and a brain scan in preparation. He will go around the country sparring with other professionals.
T&J Pro-Am are looking for sponsors for McSpadden. Call Trevor Frater on 07854081736.
Via: Grimsby Telegraph
Two companies have been convicted of health and safety breaches after a construction worker fell to his death at a top private school.
James Kelly, 50, was erecting stonework at Glasgow Academy in April 2007 when he fell about 30ft from scaffolding.
His employer Stirling Stone Limited and Robertson Construction Central Limited were found to have failed to meet their health and safety obligations.
Sentence at Glasgow Sheriff Court was deferred until next month.
The three-week trial heard that Mr Kelly had been employed as a labourer by Stirling Stone Limited.
He was working on the third level of a loading tower of the scaffolding when he fell in Glasgow’s Colebrook Street on 26 April 2007.
‘Family devastated’
Following the case, Elaine Taylor, head of the health and safety division at the Crown Office, said: “James Kelly went to work and as a result of failings by his employer and the principal contractor on site, he never returned home.
“He left a family devastated by their loss. The incident that led to Mr Kelly’s death was entirely avoidable had the two accused met their statutory health and safety obligations.”
Following the case, Health and Safety Executive inspector Iain Brodie said: “Companies working at height should ensure scaffolding is correctly erected, safe to use and properly checked and maintained.
“Where building materials are to be transferred into loading towers on scaffolding there should be a realistic safe system of work for workers to follow. They should be given information, instruction, training, and be adequately supervised.
“If these companies had taken these steps, then James Kelly might be alive today.”
MORE than 5,000 litres of diesel worth £12,000 were stolen in a raid on business premises in Bishop’s Stortford.
A gang cut a hole in a gate at Connect Scaffolding in Hadham Road last Friday evening (March 4) and used hoses to pump 4,000l (880 gallons) of diesel and 1,200l (264 gallons) of red diesel – used for agricultural and construction purposes – from two storage tanks.
Staff discovered the break-in the next morning. The theft was captured on CCTV. Footage shows a silver Subaru Forester pulling up outside the site at about 8.20pm and then driving away. The 4×4 had stolen number plates which had been taken from a vehicle in Braughing earlier in the day.
It returned later with a white 7.5-ton lorry. Police believe a tank or barrels to hold the stolen diesel were hidden behind the curtain sides of the lorry.
The thieves are thought to have left at about 10.45pm. Security has been stepped up at the site in the wake of the theft.
Witnesses or anyone with information are asked to call Herts police on 0845 3300 222.
Via: www.hertsandessexobserver.co.uk
DEESIDE-BASED scaffolding and industrial services firm NSG UK has given a youth club a £5,000 cash lift.
The donation to Shrewsbury House Youth Club in Everton, Merseyside, is to mark the milestone of one million hours of accident-free work time at the Ineos ChlorVinyls site in Runcorn, one NSG’s clients.
NSG UK is involved in a training and apprenticeship scheme with the club which sees youths offered a free 12-week placement, after which they are able to seek work within the industry.
Two members have completed the course and both have been given full-time employment with NSG UK.
NSG UK supervisor Damien Cummings, a former member of the youth club, said: “This scheme is something I have always wanted to see set up.
“It is great to put something back into the club which gave me and a lot of others a start in life – a scheme whereby youngsters of today are able to get into constructive work.
“It is hard enough for these young people to prove that they have the skills and energy to make their way in life, and this scheme is giving them that chance.”
NSG UK managing director Mike Carr added: “We are delighted to be able to give this donation to a charity which does a lot of good work with young people who are struggling to find employment.
“NSG UK is committed to taking on and developing young talented people and this scheme is a great example.”
A spokesman for the youth club said: “We are grateful to NSG.
“This is excellent support and we will be putting all of the money into a range of services aimed at tackling the current crisis of youth unemployment.”
Via: www.flintshirechronicle.co.uk
Bolton-based TI Industrial Group has increased its presence in the north east and Scotland after buying a majority stake in a scaffolding business.
It has acquired 76 per cent of Project Scaffolding, which has offices in Middlesbrough, Newcastle and Livingston.
The company has worked on construction projects including the refurbishment of Edinburgh’s Haymarket train station and The Sage, a music centre in Gateshead.
Advisers who worked on the deal included a team at Manchester law firm George Davies comprising partners Chris Wilkinson and Sara Barrett along with Charlie Yates and Sam Mason.
TWO building firms involved with the construction of the Radisson Blu hotel face huge fines after an accident left a worker with severe brain injuries.The Radisson Blu Hotel in Bristol
Richard Chodkiewicz, 53, now needs 24-hour care for the rest of his life after a scaffolding pole being used as a makeshift plumb line fell 15 storeys down a lift shaft and hit him in the head in July 2008.
Bristol Magistrates’ Court heard that the 7lb (3.7kg) pole was being used to measure the shaft when a line holding it – made of either plastic or piano wire – broke and it fell to the shaft pit.
Mr Chodkiewicz, who was wearing a hard hat at the time, suffered a “catastrophic brain injury” that required part of his skull to be removed.
He spent six weeks in intensive care and was then transferred to the brain injury rehabilitation unit at Frenchay Hospital.
Prosecuting on behalf of the health and safety executive, Dale Collins said the accident had completely changed the lives of Mr Chodkiewicz and his family, who are receiving counselling.
He said: “This has had a devastating effect on Mr Chodkiewicz and also his five children and grandchildren. He now requires 24-hour care and is unable to work.”
Reading a statement from his family, Mr Collins said: “Richard can’t be left alone because he is always at risk, and he needs help with all aspects of daily living. Richard is very childlike in his abilities and needs prompting for all basic skills.”
Yesterday Hoistway Limited, Mr Chodkiewicz’s employer, pleaded guilty to failing to ensure the health and safety of an employee.
Miller Construction, the main contractor on site during the transformation of the former Bristol and West office block, also pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that a person was not exposed to risks while undertaking the installation of lifts.
Mr Collins told magistrates that Hoistway had failed to provide adequate risk assessments and did not identify hazards; that using a piece of scaffolding was not standard equipment checked by a competent person and was improvised; that there was inadequate site management and supervision, and that there was inadequate protection against people or objects falling.
He said that Miller Construction had carried out insufficient risk assessments, had left openings unguarded and at risk of falling objects, and had not fully checked and failings in Hoistway Limited’s risk assessment.
Defending Hoistway, Ben Compton said it “accepted unequivocally” failings in a duty to its employees.
He added: “The offence was not a deliberate breach of the law. It was not reckless, but careless.”
Simon Antrobus, for Miller, said the company’s role was of “overview and monitoring”, adding that its culpability in the case was “relatively low”.
Magistrates said the two companies had failed in their duties “to a significant degree” and ordered the pair be sentenced at Bristol Crown Court, saying that their own powers, to impose a maximum fine of £20,000, were insufficient to adequately punish the firms.
Via: www.thisisbristol.co.uk
A scaffolder and bricklayer who are Bristol City fans threw punches at Leeds United fans have been banned from all matches for three years.Scaffolder Francis Lloyd
The pair were arrested by police shortly after City lost to Leeds United at Ashton Gate last month.
Both have been ordered to pay £200 in fines and costs.
Both men, from Shirehampton, pleaded guilty at Bristol Magistrates’ Court yesterday to using words or behaviour with intent to cause fear of unlawful violence, after swearing and throwing punches at Leeds supporters after the match.
Scaffolder Francis Lloyd, 21, of Penpole Avenue, and Bricklayer Joseph Burns, 19, of Nigel Park, appeared separately in the dock.
Avon and Somerset police football officer Roger Thayer was present for both cases and successfully applied to the court for the three-year banning orders to be imposed on the men.
Lloyd, who was known to the police, ran across Winter- stoke Road and “threw a number of punches towards Leeds fans”, prosecutor Gareth Giddings told the court.
Police officers were only about 20 metres away and quickly arrested the 21-year-old scaffolder to prevent further attacks or reprisals as they escorted the Leeds fans away from the stadium shortly after 5pm.
The scaffolder was fined £100 and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £15 and costs of £85 by presiding magistrate Roger Dunster. Burns was given an identical sentence.
Mr Giddings told the court that Burns, a bricklayer who lives with his dad, was arrested at around the same time after walking towards a group of around 30 Leeds fans “with arms outstretched and clenched fists”, swearing and shouting at them.
When he was about five yards away from the group Burns leaned forward and threw a punch, missed and started to square up to the group again before police officers close by arrested him, said Mr Giddings.
Burns apologised to the court and added: “It was really stupid.”
The pair are now banned from all organised football matches in the UK.
Via: www.thisisbristol.co.uk
A motorist was slightly injured and traffic was blocked for about two hours after a construction scaffolding collapsed in the northern section of the north-south No. 1 Freeway last night.
Firemen rushing to the scene for rescue operations said the scaffolding of 20 meters high erected by highway maintenance teams at the spot of 50.5 kilometers suddenly collapsed at around 8:06 p.m. in the evening and caught a passing car.
The 28-year-old driver surnamed Yu sustained minor injuries in the right leg while his car was half damaged. He was taken to a hospital for treatment.
Vehicles affected by the blockade ran for more than 10 km as more cars lined up in the queues.
The blocked section on the No. 1 Freeway, aka Zhongshan Freeway, was reopened to two-way traffic at around 10:00 p.m.
A foreman at the construction site said no one was sure what caused the collapse of the scaffolding.