August 2025

India: A welder has died at UltraTech Cement’s Reddipalayam plant in Tamil Nadu. The contract worker died following a fall from a height of 8m, according to the New Indian Express newspaper. Relatives and local residents staged a protest following the incident.

Iceland: Cement carrier Fjordvik has run aground near the port of Helguvík harbour in Keflavík. It ran aground whilst being piloting into the harbour, according to state broadcaster RÚV. The hull of the vessel has been breached. The crew were evacuated by helicopter. The ship was travelling from Aalborg in Denmark.

UK: RHI Magnesita’s cement and lime business has been held back by reduced production in China. It also said that its on-going focus on pricing and quality, ‘against more commoditised competitors,’ had reduced its division’s performance in the third quarter of 2018. Overall the refractory products producer said that its had seen ‘good’ trading performance in the third quarter of 2018 following positive trends seen in the first half of the year.

China: China Resources Cement plans to divest three companies it owns in Shanxi province. It intends to dispose of its majority stake and shareholder loans in Shanxi China Resources Fulong Cement, China Resources Cement (Changzhi) and China Resources Concrete (Lucheng). The subsidiaries will be sold in a public tender conducted through the Shanghai United Assets and Equity Exchange.

Shanxi China Resources Fulong Cement is based in Lvliang City and it operates a 4Mt/yr plant with two integrated production lines and four grinding lines. China Resources Cement (Changzhi) is based in Changzhi City and it operates a 2Mt/yr plant with one integrated line and two grinding lines. China Resources Concrete (Lucheng) operates a concrete batching plant.

India: Penna Cement has filed for a US$211m initial public offering (IPO) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). It plans to use the funds for expansion and to reduce its debts, according to the Economic Times newspaper. the cement producer is planning to increase its production capacity to 16.5Mt/yr by 2020 with projects in Odisha and Kolkata. At present it holds a capacity of 10Mt/yr in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra.

Kyrgyzstan: President Sooronbai Jeenbekov has opened a cement plant in Aravan as part of a trip to the Osh region, according to the 24 Kg News Agency. The US$88m project was previously reported as having a cement production capacity of 2500t/day.

Uzbekistan: 80% of local cement sales were made through the Uzbek Commodity Exchange in the first nine months of 2018. Local sales fell by 4.7% year-on-year to 5.6Mt from 5.9Mt, according to the Trend News Agency. 4.5Mt of this total was sold through the commodity exchange. Falling sales have been blamed on rising natural gas and electricity prices. Tariffs for gas and electricity have increased by at least 60% during 2018 for industrial users in the construction industry, including cement producers.

Jordan: Jordan Cement Company is in a legal dispute with local landowners over land ‘illegally’ acquired near its Fuheis plant. The plaintiffs argue that forgery was used by the company in acquiring land, according to Roya TV. The subsidiary of Switzerland’s LafargeHolcim operates two integrated plants, at Fuheis and Rashadiyah.

Uzbekistan: An event marking the laying of the foundation stone at the Angren cement plant has taken place. Construction work is scheduled to be completed by November 2019. The project is a joint venture between Russia’s Eurocement Group and UzQurilishMateriallari.

Myanmar: The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation (MNREC) is seeking expressions of interest from foreign and local investors to run a feasibility project ahead of building a new cement plant at Hakha Township in Chin State. Early studies suggest that the area has sufficient limestone reserves to support a 5000t/day plant, according to the Myanmar Times newspaper. A new unit in the region is expected to boost the local economy as Chin State has no cement plants.