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

  • Norwegian quarry opts for the Hitachi ZW310-5 wheel loader
    March 21, 2016
    Norwegian producer of high-quality aggregates Hamar Pukk og Grus has invested in a new ZW310-5 for loading trucks and trailers at its 60-hectare quarry on the outskirts of the town of Hamar. The wheeled loader is the first Hitachi machine in the company’s fleet and was delivered in April 2015 by the Norwegian dealer Nasta. It has joined a team of six personnel on the site, who are responsible for excavating 120,000m³ of materials and producing 250,000 tonnes of aggregates a year. Material is loaded in
  • DSS Group invests in Hitachi ZX670LC-5 excavator
    August 23, 2013
    One of Poland’s largest aggregates producers, DSS Group, has purchased a new Hitachi ZX670LC-5 for its quarry at Pilawa Górna in Lower Silesia. The company took delivery of the Zaxis-5 large excavator from Polish Hitachi dealer Tona in January 2013 as a key part of its strategy for aggregates production at the site. The DSS Group – owned by Dolnolskie Surowce Skalne SA – is the largest domestic producer of crushed aggregates for infrastructure projects. It has a 30-year licence to extract amphibolite (a
  • New excavator boosts aggregate production
    March 15, 2012
    A major French quarrying company has shown confidence in the aggregates market by ordering two new large Hitachi excavators. Brittany-based Pigeon Carrières has taken delivery of the ZX870LCR-3 for one of its large granite quarries, and an identical Zaxis machine is being used at one of the company’s limestone quarries.
  • New aggregate plant for Sinoma Cement in China
    May 16, 2016
    Sinoma Cement is one of the largest cement manufacturers in the Peoples Republic of China. In 2012 the company decided to boost its aggregate production, both for its own use in cement production, and to supply aggregates to the local construction market. In order to do this Sinoma Cement invested in two aggregate plants supplied by Sandvik Construction, consisting of feeders, screens, jaw and impact crushers. The firm’s extensive production of clinker cement is facilitated through three production lines