07 August 2024

Saudi Arabia: Eastern Province Cement Company raised its sales by 29% year-on-year to US$156m in the first half of 2024. Its net profit grew to US$34.1m, up by 20% year-on-year.

Lithuania: Akmenės Cementas has completed a €30m upgrade to its Akmenės cement plant. BNS News has reported that the upgrade will enable the plant to raise its alternative fuels (AF) substitution rate to 90%. The work included the construction of supporting infrastructure, including a storage facility. The Lithuanian Environmental Project Management Agency granted the project €4.3m under its Climate Change Programme.

Akmenės Cementas sold 1.1Mt of cement in 2023, 74% of it on the local Lithuanian market, with the remainder exported to other EU markets.

Saudi Arabia: Southern Province Cement's sales dropped to US$124m in the first half of 2024, down by 2.5% year-on-year. Nonetheless, the company grew its net profit by 36%, to US$24.5m.

Tunisia: Les Ciments de Bizerte continues to face disruptions due to a financial crisis, limiting its operations to grinding imported clinker and managing petcoke shipments for third parties, African Manager News reports. Clinker production has been suspended throughout the second quarter of 2024, due to a lack of petcoke.

Cement production plummeted by 70% to 33,282t in the second quarter of 2024 from 109,855t during the same period in 2023. Lime production also declined by 37% due to reduced national demand. Local sales in the first half of 2024 decreased by 60% from US$16.3m in 2023 to US$6.6m in 2024, with exports completely halted during the first half of 2024. The company is in the process of paying off its debts.

Taiwan: Taiwan will initiate an anti-dumping investigation into cement and clinker imports from Vietnam in August 2024, according to the Trade Remedies Authority of Vietnam (TRAV) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade. The TRAV has advised the Vietnam Cement Association to inform its members and coordinate with Taiwanese importers for market monitoring, reports the Vietnam News Brief Service. Companies must provide export data from 2021 to mid-2024 by 12 August 2024.

Vietnamese cement and clinker exports have seen a decline in recent years. In 2023, exports fell to 31.3Mt, valued at US$1.32bn, down by 1.2% year-on-year. From January to July 2024, exports decreased further to 18.3Mt, worth US$705m, a decline of 1% compared to the same period in 2023. The VNCA forecast continued challenges for cement and clinker exports due to China’s stagnant real estate market and surplus cement production.

Kyrgyzstan: Amidst a nationwide construction boom, Kyrgyzstan faces a cement shortage in its northern regions, Central Asia News reports. The current production in northern plants is insufficient, leading to imports from Kazakhstan which do not meet demand.

Nurdan Oruntaev, Head of State Construction Agency, said “I think the problem will be resolved with the launch of two new cement plants, which are under construction. Prices can then be regulated."