Skip to main content

Boom in Morocco's road construction materials

The strong road construction market in Morocco is helping boost the quarrying market in the country substantially. One such operation exists near the town of Ben Slimane, situated north of Casablanca. Agregat Oued Cherrat (AOC) owns a 65ha quarry, one of the largest of the 14 in the region and when the firm decided to buy new excavators, it also opted to buy Hitachi machines. AOC placed an order for one ZX330-3, with the second delivered three months later and the company now has three ZX330-3s, with a four
April 10, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
RSSThe strong road construction market in Morocco is helping boost the quarrying market in the country substantially. One such operation exists near the town of Ben Slimane, situated north of Casablanca. Agregat Oued Cherrat (AOC) owns a 65ha quarry, one of the largest of the 14 in the region and when the firm decided to buy new excavators, it also opted to buy 233 Hitachi machines. AOC placed an order for one ZX330-3, with the second delivered three months later and the company now has three ZX330-3s, with a fourth on order. Blasting is carried out every day yielding some 7,000tonnes/day and this is then loaded on to AOC's fleet of 17 trucks. In the past the site has produced 1,000,000 million tonnes/year and it is hoped that the annual output will increase to 1.8million tonnes by the end of this year with the new Hitachi machines.

The trucks unload the material into the separator, which removes the limestone from the soil. The limestone then moves on to the three primary crushers while the soil is used to refill the site. The heaps from the primary crushers are then processed through the three secondary crushers, after which the materials are further separated by two units into four different sizes of aggregates: from 0-3mm to 15-25mm.

Around 30% of the materials are delivered to companies over an average distance of 80km, but the majority is collected by customers. Some 80% of AOC's business is in the concrete sector and the remainder is dedicated to supplying aggregates to the expanding road construction market.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • German Joh. Sahler contractor goes down the Hitachi route
    April 30, 2015
    German contractor Joh. Sahler has changed its entire fleet of construction machinery to Hitachi Zaxis excavators. The two ZX38U-5s, ZX48U-3, ZX85USBLC-5, ZX145W-3, ZX170W-5 and ZX190W-3 were ordered by the Leverkusen-based company in June last year and delivered by the country’s authorised Hitachi dealer, Kiesel. Joh. Sahler was founded in 1945 and is now owned by a third-generation family member, Antonius Eisbach, and managed on a day-to-day basis by directors Dietmar Müller and Matthias Schindler.
  • Russian quarry increases efficiency with Sandvik equipment
    August 20, 2015
    A quarry facility in Russia has increased working efficiency by using Sandvik machinery. Located in in the Kurgan Region (Urals) of Russia, the Sinarsky Quarry is benefiting from an increase in throughput and reduced downtime since its new Sandvik crushing and screening plant became fully operational. The company invested over €2 million on the new plant, and is aiming to use it in order to double its aggregates production. This increase in production is required in order to meet the doubling of demand for
  • Excavator delivers high productivity
    February 16, 2012
    A Case CX700B excavator is delivering high productivity for an extraction application in Germany's volcanic Eifel region.
  • Quality granite from Rajasthan quarry
    November 29, 2013
    High quality Desert Cream Granite is being extracted from a sprawling 300ha site in Mungeria, in the Indian state of Rajasthan. The Barmer district in West India spreads forms part of the Great Indian Desert, also known as the Thar Desert. In summer months temperatures can soar to 51°C and drop to freezing point in winter, while Barmer is also home to a specialty stone, the durable Desert Cream Granite.