Nigeria: The Cement Company of Northern Nigeria (CCNN) has announced the appointment of Yusuf Binji as its new Managing Director, effective 1 September 2018.

Prior to this appointment, Binji was the Managing Director of Obu Cement Company, a subsidiary of BUA Cement in Okpella, Edo State, a position he has held since February 2017.

Speaking on the appointment, Abdul Samad Rabiu, the Chairman of CCNN Board of Directors, said that Binji’s appointment was part of a restructuring effort aimed at further positioning the company for better business performance.

Binji brings with him almost 30 years experience garnered from the African cement industry, having worked with HeidelbergCement Africa, CCNN and BUA Cement in various capacities.

Binji is a chemical engineering graduate from Ahmadinejad Bello University, Nigeria and also studied at the University College, London, UK. He is a fellow of Nigerian Society of Engineers, the Solar Energy Society of Nigeria and the Nigerian Society of Chemical Engineers. He is also a registered engineer with the Council for Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) and an associate member of the UK’s Institution of Chemical Engineers.

US: Eagle Materials Inc. has announced that Michael Haack has been named as its new President in addition to his role as Chief Operating Officer (COO). The announcement was made by Dave Powers, Eagle’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO). "Michael has been serving as our COO since 2014 and has distinguished himself across all of our lines of business,” said Powers. “This expansion of Michael's role reflects the company's significant growth in recent years and the opportunity to build our leadership capacity, as we extend Eagle's track-record as the benchmark operating performer in the industry."

Michael Haack added, "I am excited to take on this expanded responsibility, as we continue to pursue our well-established strategy of value creation and capitalise on the many opportunities we see ahead."

Prior to joining Eagle, Haack spent 17 years at Halliburton Energy Services, holding successively senior operating positions, culminating with the management of Global Operations for Sperry Drilling, a multi-billion dollar company in the drilling and evaluation division of Halliburton. Haack holds a Master of Science degree from Texas A&M University and a Bachelor of Science degree from Purdue University, both in Industrial Engineering, as well as an MBA from Rice University.

Mexico: Elementia has said that it will install a new cement grinding plant in Yucatán. It will invest US$30m and will start at a capacity of 0.25Mt/yr. Commercial operation is expected within the first half of 2019.

UK: The Times has reported on preliminary tests at Lancaster University, Lancashire, UK, which indicate that adding nanoplatelets from carrots and/or sugar beets to concrete significantly enhances its strength.

Including nanoplatelets is reported to increase the concentration of calcium silicate hydrate, leading directly to stronger cement. The researcher reported that, when platelets are added, 40kg less cement is required to make a cubic metre of concrete with the same strength as a sample that does not contain nanoplatelets. This leads to lower CO₂ emissions.

The team added that nanoplatelets performed better than other additives, such as graphene. The concrete made also had a denser microstructure, which helps to prevent corrosion, extending concrete life.

Costa Rica: Mexico’s Cemex has introduced its Cemex Go platform to the Costa Rican market. The new platform will enable customers to place orders, make payments, manage invoices and track deliveries in one place online. The new platform is available for mobile phones, tablets and computers. It has already been launched in nine countries and has over 13,000 users worldwide.

Indonesia: A Chinese company, in cooperation with PT Banggai Citra Lestari, has announced that it will build a cement factory in the district of Banggai, Central Sulawesi. It will be the first cement factory in the Province.

"We already carried out a survey for a location in the sub-district of Balantak and we already have the mining license," said Budi Kurniadi, CEO of PT Banggai Citra Lestari at a meeting with Central Sulawesi Governor Longki Djanggola. He was speaking alongside the project manager Wang Yong.

Kurniadi announced that his company and the unnamed Chinese partner would build a factory with a production capacity of 9.0Mt/yr of cement. Governor Longki Djanggola said he appreciated the plan and pledged to facilitate implementation of the project.

India: Rain Industries has approved an upgrade project on a cement mill at Rain Cement’s Boincheruvupalli Village plant in Andhra Pradesh. The project is approved up to a cost of US$5.9m, funded through internal accruals. It is expected to be completed by 30 June 2019. After the upgrade the plant’s grinding capacity will increase from 2.0Mt/yr to 2.8Mt/yr.

Pakistan: Kohat Cement Company Ltd. has ordered four vertical roller mills (VRM) from Germany’s Loesche in order to expand its cement plant in Kohat, 160km west of Pakistan’s capital Islamabad.

The order comprises a 4-roller raw material mill with a material throughput of 500t/hr and two cement mills each with a grinding capacity of 210t/hr of Portland cement. The order is finally complemented by another vertical roller mill for grinding 50t/hr of anthracite. They will all be used on the same cement production line, which Kohat Cement is in the process of building. The lead time for the mills will be eight months.

The plant’s production capacity is currently around 2.8Mt/yr of Portland and white cement. When the new line enters production, the plant’s capacity will rise by 2.2Mt/yr to reach 5.0Mt/yr.

Brazil: SNIC, Brazil's national cement industry union, has announced that sales of cement in Brazil came to 4.6Mt in July 2018. The figure is down by 2.5% in comparison to July 2017. In the comparison for working days, the drop reached 4.6% in July 2018 in the year-on-year comparison, and 9.5% in comparison with June 2018. In the first seven months of 2018 domestic cement sales totalled 30.4Mt, a fall of 1.7%. SNIC forecasts a drop of 1-2% for 2018 compared to 2017.

Colombia: DANE, Colombia's national department for statistics, has announced that sales of grey cement stood at 0.94Mt between January and June 2018, which represented an increase of 3.6% compared to the same period of 2017. A DANE report indicated a gradual recovery of the sector after a sales drop of 10% registered in March 2018. However, the Colombian Association of Concrete Producers (Asocreto) has predicted that consumption would close the year with similar results to those posted in 2017, when sales were lower than in 2015 and 2016.