August 2025

Belgium/France: LafargeHolcim has appointed François Petry as the chief executive officer (CEO) of LafargeHolcim France and Head of France - Belgium. He succeeds Bénédicte de Bonnechose, who has decided to leave the group.

Petry has been the managing director of Aggregate Industries, a subsidiary of LafargeHolcim in the UK, since 2015. Prior to this he was the CEO of LafargeHolcim Romania since 2014 and the general manager for Aggregates in Holcim France since 2008. Before that, he held senior positions across the infrastructure, construction and waste industries in France.

He holds degree in Engineering from the École Nationale Superieure D’Arts et Metiers, ParisTech, as well as an executive MBA from the École des Hautes Etudes Commerciales de Paris.

India: The Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA) has elected Mahendra Singhi, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Dalmia Cement (Bharat), as its new president. He succeeds Shailendra Chouksey, according to the Press Trust of India. Singhi was previously the president of the Rajasthan Manufacturers Association. He also ran Shree Cement before leading Dalmia Bharat group.

US: The Portland Cement Association (PCA) has elected Tom Beck, president of Continental Cement Company, as the chairman of the PCA board of directors in 2019. Ron Henley, president of GCC of America, was elected vice chairman at a PCA board meeting in late October 2018. Beck takes over the PCA board chairmanship role from Allen Hamblen, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of CalPortland Company.

A past chairman of the American Concrete Pavement Association, Beck served as Senior Vice President at Continental Cement from 1996 to 2013, and held a variety of positions with Holnam from 1987 to 1996. Prior to joining GCC of America, Henley was President of Boral Construction Materials. He is also a board member of the Denver Scholarship Fund.

Germany: Gerold Keune has resigned as the chairman of the management board of KHD. He cited personal reasons. His resignation takes immediate effect. 

He will be succeeded by Yizhen ‘Mario’ Zhu. He will hold the post until the end of December 2019. In addition, Tao Xing has been appointed as an additional member of the management board. Zhu already served on KHD’s Management Board from 2011 to 2017. Xing served as member of KHD’s Supervisory Board in 2015 and as member of the Management Board in 2016.

Australia: Nick Miller plans to start working as the new chief executive officer (CEO) of Adelaide Brighton on 30 January 2019. He succeeds Martin Brydon, who is retiring. Miller was previously announced in the role in October 2018 but his start date was yet to be confirmed.

Philippines: The European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP) has elected Nabil Francis as its new president. Francis is currently the head of Republic Cement and has been in post since mid-2017. He has worked for a variety of cement producers since 1998 including Ciments Calcia in Europe, Italcementi in Sri Lanka, India and Bulgaria, and HeidelbergCement in Morocco. The ECCP is a bilateral foreign chamber that promotes European interests in the Philippines and vice versa.

Zambia: China’s Sinoma International has signed a US$480m deal to build a 5000t/day clinker production line for Central African Cement. Sinoma will supply a cement plant with a 7.5MW waste heat recovery unit, two 25MW captive thermal power plants and cement mills with a capacity of 2Mt/yr. The project is a joint venture between Sinoma and ZCCM-Investment Holding, an investment company owned by the Zambian government. Sinoma will own a 51% stake in the project.

Paraguay: The Paraguayan Chamber of Construction says that there is a shortage of cement. The builder’s forum has attributed this to a downturn in the economy following the institution of the new government in the summer of 2018, according to the Hoy newspaper.

India: Ambuja Cement has introduced a comprehensive Group Personal Accident Insurance (GPA) policy for truck drivers. The new policy has a policy cover of around US$7m. It is set to benefit nearly 12,000 drivers, who are third-party employees, in case of accidental death or permanent disability. The subsidiary of Switzerland’s LafargeHolcim says it is the first cement company in the local sector to start such as a plan.

“Road safety has been a big challenge as we have little control beyond our plants’ premises. Introduction of Group Personal Accident Insurance policy for the truck drivers – who operate for round-the-clock dispatches – is yet another step by Ambuja Cement to exhibit how much we value them and their work,” said Ajay Kapur, the managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) of Ambuja Cement.

UK: QPA Northern Ireland (QPANI) will change its name to MPA Northern Ireland (MPANI) in 2019. QPANI is the trade association for the mineral products sector in Northern Ireland with 87 members employing just over 5000 people. It has been an affiliate of the Mineral Products Association (MPA) since 2009.

“Our move from QPANI to MPANI was endorsed by our members as they believe the time is right to take this important step. The reference to minerals in our new title recognises the fact that our membership base is wide and varied across our Industry in Northern Ireland representing the extraction and processing of hard rock, sand, salt, lime and chalk into products that support and sustain our quality of life,” said Gordon Best, director of QPANI. He added that the association had
an ‘excellent’ working relationship with the MPA, other MPA regions in the UK and with the Irish Mining and Quarries Society (IMQS) in the Republic of Ireland.