05 June 2023

India: Shree Cement has won an auction for the Chandrapur limestone mine in Maharashtra. The mine has reserves of 50Mt of limestone, and is equipped to meet the raw materials consumption of a 1.5Mt/yr integrated cement plant. The mine occupies a 105 hectare site close to the Chandrapur and Warora railheads, 200km from Nagpur. Shree Cement will reportedly consider building new sidings to connect the quarry to the national rail network.

The Economic Times newspaper has reported that Shree Cement bid to pay taxes of 27% of the value of limestone extracted from the quarry, in addition to mining royalties. The local price of cement-grade limestone was US$5.76/t in May 2023.

Egypt: Heidelberg Materials subsidiary Suez Cement has invested US$16m in upgrading its operations towards increased alternative fuel (AF) use since 2010. The producer uses AF in the burners and kilns of all three of its cement plants, at Helwan, Kattameya and Suez. Meanwhile, Suez Cement has invested US$60m in dust control measures over the same period. Other on-going investments include US$25m in the construction of a waste heat recovery (WHR) plant at the Helwan cement plant. The company is committed to reaching a 24% reduction in its CO₂ emissions between 2019 and 2030.

Technical director Omar Khorshid said “We are committed to pursue initiatives to broaden our range of innovative and eco-friendly building solutions, advance operational efficiency through digitalisation and strengthen customer engagement for better business results and more positive impact."

Bolivia: Bolivia produced 915,000t of cement during the first quarter of 2023, up by 3.2% year-on-year from 886,000t in the first quarter of 2022. Domestic consumption rose by 1.9% to 871,000t in the period under review. The National Institute of Statistics has recorded total national cement imports worth US$35m, up by 45% from US$24.1m.

Fiji: The Construction Industry Council of Fiji (CIC) has named cement among possible 'questionable' building materials being imported that are below Fijian quality standards. The Fiji Times newspaper has reported that CIC president Gordon Jenkins called on authorities to implement better quality checks at points of entry. Jenkins named South Korea as a current source of low-price cement, which he said buyers do not know is 'good or not.'

India: Local people have launched a protest outside Wonder Cement's Kherwas grinding plant in Madhya Pradesh. The Free Press Journal has reported that the protestors are requesting that the company provide more jobs to people from the plant's host community. They stated their intent in memoranda submitted to the plant management and the local government. Local rules require companies operating plants in the area to appoint applicants from the local community to 75% of plant jobs.

Wonder Cement is a subsidiary of Rajasthan-based RK Group.