September 2025

Portugal: Turkey’s Oyak Cement has completed it acquisition of Cimpor. The completion of the transaction follows the approval of the European Commission in mid-January 2019, according to the Expresso newspaper. The purchase includes three integrated cement plants, two grinding plants, 20 quarries and 46 ready-mix concrete plants in Portugal and Cape Verde.

Iraq: Pakistan’s Attock Cement has completed civil, mechanical and electrical construction work on its grinding plant at Basra. The unit is now ready for commissioning. The company is currently obtaining permission to import clinker. Once granted the company will start importing clinker and commence trial production at the plant. The producer first announced its intention to build the plant in 2013.

Bangladesh: MI Cement plans to install a sixth line at its grinding plant at West Mukterpur in Munshiganj. It will add a new 8400t/day grinding unit bringing the site total production capacity to 19,400t/day. The project cost will be around US$70m. Commercial production at the new unit is scheduled to start in January 2021.

China: Sinoma International Engineering’s new order intake fell by 14% year-on-year to US$4.56bn in 2018. No reason for the decrease was given but orders from its construction business segment fell by 10% to US$3.43bn. By region, local Chinese orders rose by 34% to US$1.3bn but foreign orders dropped by 24% to US$3.26bn.

Laos: Cement imports rose to a value of US$47.8m in the first 10 months of 2018 compared to US$47.6 for the entirety of 2017. In 2016 the country exported US$0.2m worth of cement, according to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and the Vientiane Times newspaper.

The price of cement in the country reportedly fell when the Vientiane Hongshi Xaythirath Factory in Phabong village, Hinheup district opened in 2016. The unit was built using Chinese investment of US$300m and it has a cement production capacity of 5000t/day. The country has 16 cement plants in operation or under construction. It has a total production capacity of 6.76Mt/yr.

Philippines: The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has issued supplemental guidelines for the certification of cement. The regulations require producers or importers to follow conditions set by the Bureau of Philippine Standards (BPS), according to the Manila Times newspaper. The new rules require producers or importers to post a bond ahead of trading. Non-compliance with the certification rules can then lead to a forfeit of some or all of the bond. Not following the regulations can also lead to a producer or importer being prevented from supplying, distributing, selling or displaying their products. The new rules specify that an importer should apply for a statement of confirmation (SOC) on a per product, per shipment, per bill of lading basis prior to its distribution in the market.

Morocco: Data from the Ministry of Housing shows that cement sales fell by 3.6% year-on-year to 13.3Mt in 2018. This is the lowest level of consumption since 2007, according to Médias 24. Cement sales fell by 0.7% in 2016 and by 2.54% in 2017.

Germany: Spenner has ordered a grinding plant from Christian Pfeiffer to be built at its main site in Erwitte. The unit will include a Ø 4.4 m x 14.0 m ball mill and a QDK 187-Z cross-flow rotating cage separator. In addition to the grinding plant, the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) project also includes the planning of steel and concrete constructions as well as electrical switchgears.

Christian Pfeiffer is also responsible for the manufacture, delivery and optimum coordination of all associated components such as filter systems, bucket elevator, fans, chutes, samplers, reject transport and additional silos for additives. Staff training and performance test procedures carried out by the Christian Pfeiffer employees on site are also part of the commissioning of the plant.

Indonesia: Indocement has opened its Lampung terminal and packing plant following its successful commissioning. The unit can process 1000t/day of cement and pack 1500t/day. The new terminal is intended to strengthen the company’s market position in Sumatra.

India: Adani Group plans to build an integrated cement plant at Lakhpat in Gujarat as part of a US$7.7bn investment in multiple projects in the state. Other projects include the world’s largest solar park and a lithium battery plant, according to the Press Trust of India. Adani Group is an integrated infrastructure conglomerate with interests in resources, logistics, energy, agriculture, real estate, public transport infrastructure, consumer finance and defence sectors.