August 2025

Russia: Eurocement has appointed Sergey Lobov as the manager of its Voronezh subsidiary and Vadim Shablitsky as the general director of its Neviansky cement plant. Yaroslav Stoupa, Vice-President of Eurocement Group for production and technical development, introduced the new appointments at a visit to each plant.

Lobov graduated from the Belgorod State Technological Academy of Building Materials with a degree in mechanical engineering. He has been working in the cement industry for 17 years, of which 14 have has been based at the Oskolcement enterprise, where he has advanced from being an equipment repairman to a deputy general director and technical director. From 2015, he worked as the general director of Neviansky Cementnik.

Shablitsky graduated from Belgorod State University of Technology with a degree in chemical engineering and an engineering qualification. He has been working in the cement industry for over 14 years. At the Belgorodsky Cement he worked in various positions from assistant cement mill driver to plant general director, and then he was deputy general director for production at Mordovcement.

Austria: RHI Magnesita has appointed Jacqueline Knox as EVP General Legal Counsel & Company Secretary. She will join the company on 1 December 2018 and will be part of its executive management team.

Knox was previously General Counsel and Company Secretary at Ophir Energy, a Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) listed upstream oil and gas business with a large portfolio of assets across Africa and Asia, which she helped to take from a private company to a London listing. She holds a dual degree in law and international relations (BA/LLB) from the University of Queensland and is a dual British / Australian citizen.

China: China National Building Material’s (CNBM) revenue rose by 21.5% year-on-year to US$22.5bn in the first nine months of 2018 from US$18.5bn in the same period in 2017. Its net profit nearly doubled to US$1.7bn from US$956m.

Vietnam: China has become the largest importer of clinker and cement from Vietnam in the first nine months of 2018. It imported 6.56Mt with a value of US$235m, according to the Việt Nam News newspaper. The Philippines, Bangladesh and Taiwan were the next largest importers with 4.75Mt, 5.64Mt and 1.23Mt respectively.

India: Jindal Steel & Power (JSP) plans to build a 2Mt/yr slag cement plant at Angul in Odisha. The US$68m unit will use ground granulated blast furnace slag sourced from a nearby steel plant operated by JSP, according to the Business Standard newspaper. A recent expansion at the steel plant to 6Mt/yr has allowed it to support a cement plant of this size. Land for the project has been acquired and the company hopes to obtain it from the state government by early 2019.

Pakistan: Lucky Cement’s sales volumes have been supported by exports in its first quarter. Local sales dropped by 9.1% year-on-year to 0.14Mt in the period to the end of September 2018 but exports rose by 85.1% to 0.23Mt. Despite this, its revenue rose by 2% to US$121m from US$118m. However, its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 19.7% to US$25m from US$31m. It said that its cost of sales had increased by 7.3% due to increases in coal, packaging and other fuel prices.

Nepal: Udayapur Cement Industry has resumed production at its integrated plant in Udayapur after a month-long upgrade period. The project cost around US$0.75m, according to the República newspaper. The state-owned cement producer used its own technical team for the maintenance although engineers from India were employed. Following the upgrade the unit has a production capacity of up to 900t/day.

Peru: Higher sales to the self-construction sector, medium-sized companies and the public sector have driven sales growth for Cementos Pacasmayo. Its sales grew by 3.1% year-on-year to US$274m in the first nine month of 2018 from US$266m in the same period in 2017. Its consolidated earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 5.1% to US$83m from US$79m.

Cement and clinker production grew by 2.4% to 1.69Mt and 14.7% to 1.30Mt respectively. The building materials producer also reported that quicklime production fell by 23.6% to 97,400t at its Pacasmayo plant due to reduced demand.

Ukraine: HeidelbergCement has signed a contract with Italy’s CTP Team to upgrade its Kryvyi Rih plant. The project includes replacing the existing filtering system and relevant dust handling for drying drum four. CTP Team will supply a new baghouse equipped with SWAP technology for the cleaning of bags with low-pressure compressed air. The new filter is intended to comply with new local environmental regulations. It will be designed specifically to fit with the existing electrostatic precipitator housing. No value for the deal has been disclosed.

Taiwan/Turkey: Taiwan Cement plans to spend up to US$1.1bn on setting up a new joint venture with Turkey’s OYAK Cement. Through a new subsidiary, Dutch TCC Holdings, it intends to create a new business that will be 60% owned by OYAK Cement and 40% by Taiwan Cement. It will hold talks with OYAK Cement and if an agreement is reached the new company will operate OYAK Cement’s business in Turkey giving Taiwan Cement its first presence outside of Asia.

OYAK Cement is owned by Ordu Yardimlasma Kurumu (OYAK), the pension fund of the Turkish Armed Forces. It operates 13 integrated cement plants in Turkey with a production capacity of around 12Mt/yr. It holds a 16% market share. The plans with Taiwan Cement follow OYAK Cement’s purchase of InterCement’s operations in Portugal and Cape Verde.

Taiwan Cement hopes to gain access to the local market and the wider Mediterranean region. It said that, although it holds a production capacity of 75Mt/yr in the Greater China Region, government peak production limits and market saturation had forced it to expand internationally.