Iran: Cement producers in Iran reported growth of 22% year-on-year in exports of cement and clinker over the eight months between 21 March 2019 and 21 November 2019 to 11.4Mt from 9.34Mt. The Financial Tribune newspaper has reported that 37 countries received Iranian cement or clinker over the period. The leading importers of cement were Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Kazakhstan and Russia. Clinker markets included Iraq, the UAE and China.

Namibia: China-based West China Cement concluded a sale and purchase agreement for Germany-based Schwenk Zement subsidiary Schwenk Namibia for US$104m on 3 January 2020. The Nambian newspaper has reported that the deal is awaiting clearance from authorities. Schwenk Namibia holds a 70% stake in Ohorongo Cement. Singaporean authorities stopped the sale of Schwenk Namibia to Singaporean-based International Cement Group (ICG) in September 2019 due to the latter’s inability to cover the losses of the Namibian company.

Bolivia: Empresa Minera Industrial’s 0.1Mt/yr integrated cement plant has resumed operations across both dry lines following a fuel shortage. Tinformas has reported that a natural gas shortage caused the suspension of operations in November 2019 following an attack on a pipeline.

India: Market researcher Fortune Business Insights has forecasted market growth of 5.2% in the cement industry to US$463bn in 2026 from US$313bn in 2019. It conjectured that global improvements in road quality and investments in high-grade products will drive growing demand. The industry will meet this demand through advances in cement production and a reduction in the number of companies consolidating operations.

In India, the government’s ‘Housing for All by 2020’ scheme is set to kick-start consumption.

Fortune Business Insights' report is available here.

South Korea: South Korea’s leading ready-mix concrete producer Eugene Concrete is exploring the possibilities artificial intelligence (AI) offers to its vertical supply chain. Singaporean construction and logistics technology specialist Pan-United says it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Eugene Concrete, allowing the latter to evaluate the possibility of integrating Pan-United’s AiR scalable digital system into its existing operations. The aim is to accelerate digital transformations in areas including the replenishment of raw materials, management of customer orders and e-billing and quality control checks at batching plants. Chung Jinhak, Eugene Group CEO, said, “Through this partnership with Pan-United, we seek to digitalise our entire end-to-end operations.”

Oman: Alsahawa Cement Company (ACC), the newly-founded Oman Cement Company (OCC) subsidiary, will operate the group’s upcoming Duqm cement plant, for which an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract tender has been issued. Bidding is due to close on 27 February 2020.

The new facility will include a coal-fired power plant and waste heat recovery (WHR) power plant. OCC Chief Executive Officer Salim Abdullah Al Hajiri described the commissioning of the 1.7Mt/yr integrated plant as a ‘reverse integration’ process, whereby the plant will initially grind clinker produced at other OCC cement plants beginning in September 2021 before upgrading to fully integrated cement production in March 2022.

Pakistan: Producers increased second-half cement volumes in 2019 by 6.5% year-on-year to 24.8Mt from 23.2Mt between 1 July and 31 December 2018. Domestic consumption grew by just 3.5% between the two periods under comparison to 20.4Mt from 19.7Mt, causing exports to rise by 22% year-on-year to 4.38Mt in 2019’s second half from 3.56Mt one year previously. The Nation newspaper projected Pakistan’s total volumes in the financial year ending 30 June 2020 of 47Mt/yr against an installed capacity of 60Mt/yr.

China: Three cement plants in Dali, Yunnan province with a combined capacity of 5.0Mt/yr and belonging to Dali Cement (Group), Dali Hongshan Yunnan Cement and Hongta Dianxi Cement have ceased all functions except the packaging of existing cement in order to stop polluting the area of Erhai Lake. The shutdown was mandated by the City of Dali and Dali Economic Development Zone authorities in mid-2017. Xinhua Net newspaper has reported that the removal of kilns is underway and that demolition on all three sites will have been completed by 31 May 2020. The companies will be permitted to construct plants of corresponding capacities at allotted sites elsewhere.

Kenya: East Africa Portland Cement Company (EAPCC) has defaulted on contractual loan repayments to KCB Bank after auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers reported that the Kenyan company made a loss of US$28.0m in the twelve months to 30 June 2019, over which time it produced 0.3Mt of cement against an installed capacity of 1.3Mt/yr.

India: Emami Group has indicated that it will receive bids for its cement division Emami Cement from mid-January 2020. Business Standard newspaper has reported that Aditya Birla’s UltraTech Cement is likely to submit an offer in the region of US$0.94bn for the company – over 20% lower than Emami Group’s previously projected evaluation of US$1.18bn for Emami Cement. It also reported the possible involvement of Switzerland-based LafargeHolcim’s Ambuja Cements in the upcoming auction.