26 June 2024

UAE: India-based UltraTech Cement has revised its former offer to acquire a 32% stake in RAK White Cement.The group told investors on 25 June 2024 that it is now seeking to acquire a 25% stake. The acceptance period for its previous offer elapsed on 24 June 2024.

Türkiye: Çimsa has secured a US$26.7m loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The bank says that the loans will finance decarbonisation projects, including the establishment of waste heat recovery (WHR) and solar power units.

Çimsa CEO Umut Zenar said, "We are determined to advance our sustainability goals and take important steps in our energy efficiency and decarbonisation efforts. This collaboration with the EBRD represents a significant milestone in our journey towards a greener future. We are proud to be the first cement company in Türkiye to receive this type of financing from the EBRD, reflecting our commitment to leading the industry in sustainability initiatives.”

The EBRD expects Türkiye to require US$10bn worth of investments up to 2030 to be on track for its target of net zero CO₂ emissions by 2053.

US: A team at the University of Princeton has developed a new alternative cement using oyster shells. The team says that the oyster shells provide calcium carbonate in the form of aragonite, along with biopolymers. Together, these raise the resulting cement’s crack resistance by 19% and its ductility by 17% compared with ordinary Portland cement (OPC).

Team leader Reza Moini said “Our bio-inspired approach is not to simply mimic nature’s microstructure, but to learn from the underlying principles and use that to inform the engineering of human-made materials. One of the key mechanisms that makes a nacreous shell tough is the sliding of the tablet at the nanometer level. Here, we focus on the mechanism of tablet sliding by engineering the built-in tabulated structure of cement paste in balance with the properties of the polymer and the interface between them. In other words, we intentionally engineer defects in the brittle materials as a way to make them stronger by design.“

India: JK Cement has inaugurated its 2Mt/yr Prayagraj grinding plant in Uttar Pradesh. The Economic Times newspaper has reported that the plant raises JK Cement’s cement production capacity by 9% to 24Mt/yr.

India: Ambuja Cements and Ravi Sanghi plan to launch an offer for sale of a stake in Sanghi Industries. The Times of India newspaper has reported that Ambuja Cements will offer 2.4% of shares and Ravi Sanghi will offer 1.2%, giving a total offer of 3.6%. Following the completion of the intended sale, the companies’ combined stake in Sanghi Industries will drop to 75%, in line with shareholding rules for promoters.