19 October 2022

Syria/US: A US court has found Lafarge Cement Syria guilty of conspiring to provide material support to the terrorist organisations al-Nusrah Front (ANF) and ISIS in Northern Syria during 2013 and 2014. Lafarge Cement Syria and its parent company, France-based Lafarge, agreed in 2011 to pay the terrorists for Lafarge Cement Syria employees' 'protection' and the continuation of the Jalabiyeh cement plant's operations, as well as to gain an economic advantage over other Syrian competitors. During the duration of the agreement, Lafarge Cement Syria recorded US$70.3m in sales. Coalition forces fighting against ANF and ISIS damaged the plant in an airstrike 'to reduce the facility's military usefulness' on 16 October 2019.

The court ordered Lafarge Cement Syria to pay criminal fines and forfeiture totaling US$778m.

India: ACC recorded consolidated sales of US$1.56bn in the first nine months of 2022, up by 8.3% year-on-year from US$1.44bn in the first nine months of 2021. The producer's cement sales were US$1.44bn, up by 7.2% from US$1.35bn. A 24% cost increase, to US$1.49bn from US$1.2bn, caused ACC's profit for the period to fall to US$64.8m, down by 66% from US$191m in the first nine months of 2021.

ACC said that its power and fuel costs rose by 51% to US$443m, its freight costs rose by 8.5% to US$376m and its raw materials costs rose by 24% to US$243m.

Looking forward to the fourth quarter of 2022, chief executive offcier Sridhar Balakrishnan said “The post-monsoon quarter will see the traditional rebound for the sector. Recent cooling off in energy costs will impact us positively."

US: Bulk material handling equipment supplier MDG America says that it delivered four chain bucket elevators for Drake Cement's upgrade of its Paulden cement plant in Arizona. Drake Cement installed a new vertical mill grinding plant for cement, granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) and raw materials grinding at the 0.7Mt/yr integrated plant. The supplier says that two of the elevators will work in a pair, conveying material from a feeder belt, while a third will convey it to the new mill. The fourth elevator will then collect the material for further grinding and metal discharge.

Drake cement secured approval to mine pozzolan for use in the Paulden's plants cement production at Bill Williams Mountain earlier in October 2022. As part of minimising the future mine's impacts, Drake Cement has offered to help the US Forestry Service to thin local woodland as part of local anti-fire management efforts.

India: Prism Cement, part of Prism Johnson, has signed supply agreements with three cement producers in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Mayflex Cement Industries, RLJ Infracement and Rockhill Hi-Tech Cement will supply the cement producer and distributor with cement from their respective grinding plants, which have a total capacity of 820,000t/yr. Prism Cement said that the agreements will help it to improve local availability in the strategic markets of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Bihar contributed 19% of Prism Johnson's cement sales by volume in the 2022 financial year, and Uttar Pradesh 55%.

Mayflex Cement Industries reportedly commissioned its new 300,000t/yr Faizabad grinding plant in Uttar Pradesh earlier in 2022.

South Korea: SK Ecoplant is at the centre of an initiative in partnership with the city administration of Seoul to co-process 52,000t/yr of incineration ash and 110,000t/yr of sewage sludge from the city in local cement production. AJU News has reported that the waste management company expects to supply the raw materials to make 150,000t/yr of cement production under the initiative.

Seoul generates 113,000t/yr of incineration ash and 200,000t/yr of sewage sludge. Currently, recycled incineration ash is used in concrete block and paving slab production, which have a limited strength when using the material.

Brazil: Haver & Boecker Niagara has upgraded its plant in Pedro Leopoldo. The expansion allows the company to increase its screen media and parts production capacity by 15%. It can now move its rubber production in-house, allowing for an increased production capacity of its Ty-Dura screen media and premium rubber liners by 60% and improved quality control. The upgrade has also enabled the company to expand its research and development laboratory and testing centre. The company produces products for screening and pelletising for the cement, aggregate and mining sectors.