India: JSW Cement was among 20 companies from various industries in attendance at a roundtable discussion on the subject of leveraging clean energy to journey towards net zero on 13 April 2023. The discussion covered a broad range of ways to end the use of fossil fuels, including energy storage and the use of electric vehicles. Press Trust of India News has reported that advanced batteries developer Log9 Materials hosted the event in partnership with networking platform Blue Circle – not to be confused with the former cement producer of the same name. Executive director and chief risk officer Arvind Bodhankar represented Dalmia Bharat, while chief sustainability and innovation officer Manoj Rustagi represented JSW Cement.

India: JSW One Platforms, JSW Group’s online business-to-business sales platform, has raised US$25m through an investment from Japan-based Mitsui Bussan. The business will use the funds to strengthen its market presence and further enhance technology capabilities. It also plans to expand its operations in Northern India, and to invest in credit, logistics and new technologies to improve customer experience. The platform stocks JSW Group subsidiary JSW Cement’s range of cement products. The Times of India newspaper has reported that Mitsui Bussan valued JSW One Platforms at US$336m.

JSW One Platforms CEO Gaurav Sachdeva said “There is a lot of distrust in the space and it’s highly fragmented. We want to be a one-stop shop for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, with defined service level agreements and deliverables. We will be the fastest in the space to touch US$1bn in gross merchandise value.” Sachdeva added that he expects the platform’s sales to more than double to US$91.6m in the current, 2024, financial year, from US$36.6m in the 2023 financial year.

Huaxin Cement completed its acquisition of a majority stake in Oman Cement this week. The China-based company estimated that the purchase price was around US$193m. Following the transaction with a subsidiary of the Oman Investment Authority, the country’s sovereign wealth fund, the cement producer now controls just under a 60% share in Oman Cement.

A key part of the deal includes Oman Cement’s integrated plant at Ruwi in the north of the country. The three-line unit has clinker and cement production capacities of 2.6Mt/yr and 3.6Mt/yr respectively. With the partial ownership share of 60% taken into account, this places the capacity purchase price at around US$124/t, a lower figure for capacity compared to other international acquisitions.

Oman Cement has a couple of new projects in the pipeline that have been mentioned on and off previously over the last year or so. These include the construction of a new 10,000t/day fourth production line, an upgrade to line 3 to 4000t/day from 3000t/day at present and plans for a new plant at the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at Duqm. The company said it was looking for a contractor to carry out the upgrades at the Ruwi plant. However, Rashid bin Sultan al Hashmi, the chair of Oman Cement, said in the company’s annual results for 2022 that the Duqm project, operating under the name Al Sahawa Cement, had run into problems with the supply of gas for the proposed unit. Another recent development was the signing of a deal between Omani Environment Services Holding Company (Be’ah) and Oman Cement for the supply of refuse-derived fuel (RDF). As an aside, that last one may also have received a boost this week with the news that the local Environment Authority has suspended licenses for the export of used tyres from the country.

How these existing projects will fare under the new ownership remains to be seen, but Huaxin Cement has a track record for developing new cement production capacity outside of China. The cement producer describes itself as de-facto controlled by Switzerland-based Holcim although Holcim said in its annual report for 2022 that Huaxin Cement is a joint-venture. It currently operates plants in Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan, Malawi, Nepal, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Uzbekistan and Zambia and says that it has 10 additional projects in Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere in preparation for future business expansion. In 2022 it started operating a 3000t/day production line at Nepal Narayani and commenced the second stage of a project to build a 4000t/day clinker line at Maweni in Tanzania. Plus, as mentioned in our recent roundup of China-based producers, 13% of the group’s operating revenue derived from business outside of China in 2022 compared to 8% in 2021.

Other producers from outside of Oman have also been active locally in 2023. In late January 2023 India-based UltraTech Cement agreed a deal to buy a 70% stake in Duqm Cement Project International from Seven Seas for US$2.25m. The agreement covered a limestone mining lease that UltraTech Cement said was important for “raw material security.”

The other big development in the Oman cement market since we last covered the country in September 2021 was an intervention by the Capital Market Authority (CMA) on Raysut Cement. The chief financial officer resigned in November 2022 before the CMA questioned the company’s financial results for the second quarter of 2022. The CMA then replaced the board of Raysut Cement in December 2022 saying it had detected ‘material misrepresentation’ in the company’s third quarter results.

The last four months or so have marked a turning point for the local cement sector with a change in leadership for the two largest producers. Oman Cement reported strong growth in 2022 although it warned of “low priced cement being supplied by competitors.” Raysut Cement, unsurprisingly, recorded a loss in 2022. The construction market in the country is expected to grow as the economy leaves the coronavirus period behind, mounting energy prices boost national revenue and potentially some of this heads into infrastructure development. This puts the new management at both producers in a good position going forward.

Oman: Oman Cement has appointed Xu Gang, Chen Qian, Ian Riley and Li Yeqing as temporary board members following its acquisition by China-based Huaxin Cement. The new personnel will remain in place until the company’s next ordinary general meeting. Former chair Rashid Sultan Al Hashmi and board members Mohammed Sulaiman Al Salmi, Mohammed Abdullah Al Harthi and Sami Abdullah Al Sinani have also resigned.

Li Yeqing is the chief executive officer (CEO), secretary of the party committee and senior engineer at Huaxin Group. He holds a bachelor degree in engineering, a master’s degree in engineering and a Ph.D in business administration. He joined Huaxin Cement in 1987. He also works as the vice chair of the China Building Materials Federation and China Cement Association, and chair of the Hubei Building Materials Federation. He previously held the post of executive vice chair of the Sixth Council of China Building Materials Federation.

Xu Gang is the vice president of the Huaxin Cement. He has worked in various management roles for cement companies such as safety engineer and technical manager. He has also worked as a director for Lafarge and Huaxin Cement. Xu Gang holds a master’s degree in business administration (MBA) from Tsinghua University, a bachelor’s degree in safety engineering from the China University of Geosciences and a bachelor's degree in financial management from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

Ian Riley is the head of the World Cement Association. Prior to this, he held various positions such as an executive director of Tianqiao International (Shanghai) Consulting Company, the president of Asilinko Information Technology (Shanghai), the general manager of SIP (Shanghai), Information Director and the assistant and the vice president to the Xeroc. He also served as the head of Holcim Group's China region. Riley holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in engineering from the University of Cambridge.

Chen Qian is the vice president and chief financial officer (CFO) of Huaxin Group. Previously he held positions in various financial positions including senior auditor, senior consultant and CFO for several companies. Chan Qian is a Chinese Certified Public Accountant and a fellow member of the Chartered Global Management Accountant. He holds a bachelor's degree in world economics from Fudan University and a master's degree in business administration from the Anderson School of Business in the US.

Mexico: Cooperativa La Cruz Azul has removed director José Alfredo Álvarez Cuevas from his position and terminated his membership in the cooperative. ESPN News has reported that Mario Sánchez Álvarez, Eduardo Borrell Rodríguez and Ramsés Dolores Anguiano also received exclusions from the cement company.

Cooperativa La Cruz Azul’s ordinary general assembly established that the four former employees had ‘improperly exercised their positions’ and ‘availed themselves to commission of acts of corruption.’

Switzerland: Holcim has appointed Rodolfo Vargas Pedroza as Group Expert Geology. He previously worked as Group Lead Geology for the company from 2018. He has worked for Holcim Group since 2018 and other prior positions include Lead Geologist and Senior Mining Engineer. Before this he was the Head of Geology and Mining for Cemex from 2001 to 2011 and the Geology and Mining Manager for Cemex Colombia in the late 1990s. Vargas Pedroza is a graduate in geology from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

UK: Germany-based Aumund Group has appointed Martin Dummigan as the managing director of its Samson Materials Handling subsidiary. He succeeds Dale Lockley in the post.

Dummigan holds a master’s degree in electrical and electronic engineering from Queen’s University in Belfast. He started his career in 1990 as a research and development engineer. Over the next 30 years he has held numerous manufacturing and corporate management positions at companies including Telestack and Terex in various countries including China, the US, Japan and South Africa. His last position was as the Group Vice President of Operations for Astec Material Solutions. He is also a co-founder of the Spadetown Brewery based in Northern Ireland.

Germany: Heidelberg Materials has appointed industrial gases and engineering company Linde to install a carbon capture and liquefaction plant at its 1Mt/yr Lengfurt, Bavaria, cement plant. The project is scheduled for delivery in 2025. When commissioned, the system will capture and liquefy 70,000t/yr of CO₂. Heidelberg Materials plans to use a small part of the liquefied CO₂ in its development of recarbonation technologies for cement and concrete, with the remainder to be marketed by Linde to industries, including chemicals and food. The German government granted Euro15m in funding for the project under its Decarbonisation of Industry programme.

Heidelberg Materials’ chief executive officer Dominik von Achten said "We are pleased to be able to implement the world's first carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) project in the cement industry on an industrial scale.”

Linde’s executive vice president Jürgen Nowicki said “With this joint venture, two companies that are world leaders in their field are combining their skills with the aim of finding a solution that is as sustainable as it is economical. After successful pilot applications, this large-scale plant paves the way for sustainable cement production.”

Image credit: Cement plant Lengfurt, Germany. Copyright: Heidelberg Materials. Photographer: Steffen Fuchs.

Saudi Arabia: The General Authority for Competition (GAC) has fined 14 local cement producers around US$37m for price fixing. The companies were found to have broken local competition law following an investigation by GAC. They are now each liable for a US$2.7m penalty. The producers concerned are: Al-Safwa Cement; Al-Madina Cement; Umm Al-Qura Cement; Al-Jawf Cement Company; Qassim Cement; Najran Cement; Southern Province Cement; United Industrial Cement; Yamama Cement; Riyadh Cement (Saudi White Cement); Arabian Cement; Saudi Cement; Yanbu Cement; and Hail Cement.

Congo: Antoine Thomas Nicéphore Fylla Saint Eudes, the Minister of Industrial Development and Private Sector Promotion, has visited the construction site of the Tao-Tao cement plant in Niari department. Accompanying the minister were the local prefect of the region and a representative of the Indian embassy, according to Les Dépêches de Brazzaville newspaper. The unit is a joint-project between the local and Indian-governments. A loan for the project with the Export-Import Bank of India was signed in 2015.

The plant will have a production capacity of 0.6Mt/yr once complete. Operation is currently planned to start in 2014. Promac is reportedly carrying out the construction work. The Republic of the Congo currently has two operational integrated cement plants, run by Dangote Cement and Société Nouvelle de Ciment du Congo (SONOCC) respectively, and a grinding plant managed by Ciments de l'Afrique (CIMAF).