19 July 2021

India: Shree Cement is on track to commission its 3.0Mt/yr cement grinding plant at Patas in Pune, Maharashtra in September 2021. The plant was originally scheduled for commissioning in late 2020 but this was delayed due to Covid-19 led-disruption. The unit has had an investment of around US$80m and it will source clinker from a group site in Karnataka. The plant is Shree Cement’s first in western India.

India: Larsen & Toubro says that it has won a contract to supply a 1.8Mt/yr grinding unit to a site belonging to a ‘leading cement producer’ at Dolvi in Maharashtra. The supplier said that the scope of the work includes civil and mechanical engineering and equipment installation.

JSW Cement operates a 2.2Mt/yr integrated cement plant in Dolvi. It upgraded the plant’s capacity from 1.2Mt/yr in 2019.

India: Anjani Portland Cement has agreed to acquire a further 3% in Bhavya Cements to bring its stake in the company to 92% from 89%. The group says that its aim is to further consolidate its shareholding. In early June 2021, Anjani Portland Cement completed its purchase of an 83% stake in Bhavya Cements to increase its shareholding to 89% from 6%.

Saudi Arabia: Yanbu Cement’s first-half sales were US$143m in 2021, up by 23% year-on-year from US$116m in the first half of 2020. Net profit fell by 11% to US$30.7m from US$34.5m. The company said that a local price drop and an increased cost of sales offset increased sales to yield the drop in profit.

Germany: Former HeidelbergCement executive director Rainer Nobis’ Illustrated History of Cement and Concrete is now available in hardback online. The book traces the development of artificially produced building materials over 12,000 years, describing both the technical sequence of events and the political and economic environments in which they took place.

An unnamed reviewer said "The book is outstanding and comes at the right time. It has never been more necessary to recall the positive contribution of cement and concrete to mankind or to make it explainable. [Nobis] has more than succeeded!"