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Iraq: Etihad Al Saqar has entered into a US$260m contract with China Machinery Engineering for a new cement plant. The unit will have a clinker production capacity of 6000t/day and will use a 52.2MW heavy fuel oil power plant, according to ET Net News. China Machinery Engineering, as the general contractor, will be responsible for the design, supply, civil engineering and construction, installation, training, commissioning, warranty and other works of the project. Construction is expected to last 30 months.
Philippines: Cemex Philippines has broken ground on the new US$235m production line at its Solid Cement plant at Antipolo in Rizal. The new production line will increase the plant’s production capacity to 3.4Mt/yr from 1.9Mt/yr, according to BusinessWorld magazine. The upgrade is intended to support the government’s ‘Build, Build, Build' infrastructure program.
Belarus: President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has issued an edict supporting loan deferments for the country’s three major cement producers. The total amount includes loans totalling about US$550m that were provided by China’s Eximbank in 2008 – 2009 for upgrades to the company’s plants, according to the Belapan news agency. The loans were repaid to the Chinese bank by the Belarusian government in the period from 2015 to 2019.
Under the edict, Belarusian Cement Plant should repay its debt to the government in the period from 2029 to 2038, Krasnaselskbudmateryyaly’s debt should be repaid in 2030 - 2037 and Krychawtsementnashyfer’s debt should be repaid in 2038 - 2049. The edict also sets out a repayment schedule for interest on the loans with a total of US$370m to the mid-2020s.
In addition, the energy ministry has been ordered to grant the cement companies a deferment until the end of 2019, followed by a repayment plan to 2023 for late natural gas bills.
Bhutan: Dungsam Cement has reduced its loss in 2018 by increasing its production volumes. It reported a loss of US$0.43m in 2018 from US$10.3m in 2017, according to the Bhutan Broadcasting Service. Its cement production volume more than tripled to 0.63Mt in 2018 from 0.2Mt in 2014.
The plant at Nganglam has commissioned in 2014 and it has reportedly been making a loss since then due to a loan. The cement producer has suffered from a low production capacity utilisation rate, as the plant has a production capacity of 1.3Mt/yr and it has had problems exporting cement to India. However, sales to hydroelectric projects in the country have been increasing.
Senegal: Falling export sales have reduced cement production. Exports dropped by 28% year-on-year to 0.14Mt in March 2019 from 0.2Mt in March 2018, according to the Agence de Presse Africaine. Cement production fell by 10% year-on-year to 0.59Mt in the first quarter of 2019 from 0.66Mt in the same period in 2018. Local sales remained stable in March 2019.