28 February 2020

Ireland: CRH recorded sales of Euro28.3bn in 2019, up by 6% year-on-year from Euro26.7bn in 2018. Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 25% year-on-year to Euro4.20bn from Euro3.36bn. The company said that the results were supported by a positive demand backdrop in the Americas and in key regions in Europe. It also set out a new CO₂ emissions roadmap with target of 520kg/t of cement by 2030, a 33% reduction compared to 1990 levels.

China: Hong Kong construction companies have laid off 50,000 workers and reduced the hours of a further 80,000 because of a shortage of cement, with production still suspended in China due to the coronavirus epidemic. New World Construction co-managing director David Kwok Chun-wai said the company’s supply chain had been disrupted, adding, “It is still too early to predict the impact.”

The Hong Kong Construction Industry Employees General Union chairman Wong Ping said, “Workers can nail boards, however without cement, they cannot proceed to laying floors.”

Poland: Belarusian Cement Company (BCC) says that it has responded to ‘increased demand for Belarusian cement in Central Europe in 2019’ by opening an office in Warsaw, Poland. Belarus Daily News has reported that one purported aim of the office is to court supply contracts with ‘European, Polish, German and other partners.’

Both Krichevtsementnoshifer and Krasnoselskstrojmaterialy, the remaining two of Belarus’s three cement producers, have reportedly concluded preliminary agreements for export of their cement to Poland in 2020.

India: The state government of Odisha has leased an area of limestone-bearing land that includes the Asura Vihara Gumphas, a first century BC Jain religious centre with significance in local mythology. The Blink newspaper reported that the site, consisting of three caves, is ‘covered by thick vegetation’ and in need of ‘proper conservation and preservation.’ Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) Odisha state curator Anil Tripathy said, ‘the caves should be retrieved from the company and the allotment of the site cancelled.’ Toshali Cements is reportedly carrying out limestone surveys on an area, including the caves.

INTACH is in the process of conducting a comprehensive survey of the Mahandi Valley, in which the land lies, and has identified over 1000 monuments of ‘tangible heritage.’

Cyprus: Vassiliko Cement has bagged the Environmental Protector gold award for the second consecutive year at the Pancyprian Environmental Awards for Organizations and Businesses 2019. The event was held at the Cypriot Presidential Palace by the Cyprus Centre for Environmental Research and Education (CyCERE), the Environment Commissioner’s Office, the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT) Agricultural Faculty, the Employers and Industrialists Federation (OEB), the Association of Cyprus Tourist Enterprises (ACTE), the Business and Professional Women of Limassol (BPW) and the volunteers’ network Together Cyprus. The company said that its “key aim is to promote environmental practices across all aspects of its activities, in order to protect the communities where it operates, achieving sustainable development.”