US: Argonaut Private Equity has acquired a well cement business following the bankruptcy of Texas-based BJ Services. The purchase retains 260 employees and procures company assets and equipment, including bulk plants and technical labs located in the field. No fracturing assets were acquired in the acquisition. It has rebranded the business as American Cementing.

“The addition of American Cementing to the Argonaut Private Equity portfolio combines our expertise in efficient operations management with our experience in the oil and gas industry,” said Steve Mitchell, Argonaut’s chief executive officer (CEO).

American Cementing services include laboratory testing, blending at the bulk plant and mixing and pumping operations at the wellsite. Additionally, the company offers acidising services and products that are intended to enhance production and remove well-bore damage to preserve well lifetime.

Pakistan: Cement dispatches increased by 5% year-on-year to 3.52Mt in August 2020 from 3.35Mt in August 2019. Domestic sales rose by 4.8% to 2.79Mt from 2.67Mt, while exports rose by 5.8% to 0.73Mt from 0.69Mt. Plants in northern Pakistan produced 2.49Mt of cement (52% of total production), while those in the South produced 2.35Mt (48%).

Egypt: HeidelbergCement subsidiary Egyptian Tourah Portland Cement recorded a second-quarter loss of Euro4.65m in 2020, down by 79% year-on-year from Euro21.9m in 2019. The company made sales worth Euro1.81m over the period, down by 81% Euro9.74m, according to Reuters. In line with its position regarding future losses at 31 December 2019, the company called a shareholder’s meeting to decide on its continuity.

Algeria/Belarus: Belarus-based automobiles producer Belaz says that it has received an order for twelve dump trucks from Groupe des Ciments d'Algérie (GICA), Algeria’s leading cement producer with 13.5Mt/yr installed cement production capacity. Business World Magazine News has reported that the company will use the trucks for conveying raw materials in its Saoura quarry in Adrar Province. It previously bought twelve 60t-capacity Belaz-7555I trucks and nine front-loaders in mid-2020. The latest order is due for arrival in September 2020.

Belaz produces the 450t-capacity Belaz-75710, the largest-capacity dump truck in the world.

India: Ramco Cement has increased its stake in Lynks Logistics to 69% following its acquisition of a 23% stake in the company for US$273,000. The group previously invested US$700 in a 46% stake on 27 January 2020.

Mexico: Cemex has announced the awarding by its Scholarship Council of the Marcelo Zambrano Scholarship to architect Gonzalo Mendoza. The group says that the funding will support Mendoza through his post-graduate study abroad at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, UK.

Cemex said Scholarship Council member Jimena Hogrebe said, "Choosing a profile like Gonzalo's, due to his experience and interests, is important today because we are facing global situations in which it seems essential to have critical professionals who dare to propose new possibilities for architecture."

Mexico: Cemex has announced that its chief executive officer (CEO), Fernando González, will host a ‘virtual conversation,’ in which he will discuss aspects of the group’s financial and business strategy and its operation resilience post-Covid-19 performance enhancement programme, on 10 September 2020. The company says that chief financial officer (CFO) Maher Al-Haffar and strategic planning and business development executive vice president José González will also be on hand to answer questions.

India: The Odisha State Level Single Window Clearance Authority (SLSWCA) has approved two cement and slag grinding plant projects in Odisha. It has granted JSW Cement permission for an upgrade to its upcoming 1.2Mt/yr Kalinga Nagar, Odisha slag cement grinding plant that will increase the finished plant’s capacity to 2.4Mt/yr at an additional investment cost of US$359,000. JSW Cement restarted work on the facility, which will grind Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) and granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS), in September 2018 after suspending the project due to leasing issues in 2016.

Sagar Cements subsidiary Jajpur Cements has also received clearance from the SLSWCA for the construction of a 1.5Mt/yr grinding plant on the site of the existing 0.5Mt/yr Jajpur Cements grinding plant in the Kalinga Nagar Industrial Complex in Jajpur District, Odisha. The project, valued by the company at US$44m, is scheduled for completion in March 2021. Sagar Cements acquired Jajpur Cements on 7 May 2019 for US$16m.

Colombia: Argos has supplied 220,000t of cement and 765,000m³ of ready-mixed concrete to the site of the 8500m-long Túnel de La Línea road tunnel in Quindío and Tolima Departments.

Colombia regional vice president Tomás Restrepo said, “We are proud to have participated as allies in the construction of this mega-work that represents a great milestone for the infrastructure of our country and Latin America. This was a project that represented great logistical and technical challenges that Argos has faced with commitment. We are sure that this strategic work of interconnection will contribute enormously to the progress of Colombia and its people. This reflects our high purpose to continue contributing to the construction of dreams that drive development and transform lives"

Czech Republic: Domestic cement production was 4.57Mt in 2019, up by 3.2% year-on-year from 4.43Mt in 2018. CTK Business News has reported a corresponding increase in domestic sales, up by 1.5% to 3.84Mt from 3.78Mt, and exports, up by 1.9% to 761,000t from 747,000t. Slovakia received 380,000t (50%), Germany received 221,000t (29%), Austria received 114,000t (15%) and Poland received 68,500t (9%). Imports fell by 15% to 490,000t, of which Slovakia supplied 245,000t (50%), Poland supplied 122,000t (25%), Germany supplied 98,000t (20%) and Austria supplied 39,200t (8%).