September 2025

Mexico: Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC) recorded a 13.6% increase in sales in the first quarter of 2018, with US sales up by 11.9% and Mexican sales up by 18.0%. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 46.0%, while its net income rose by 554.6% to US$11.3m.

GGC said that the increases reflect strong cement demand and favourable cement pricing environments in both the United States and Mexico, increased ready-mix demand in Mexico, the effect of Mexican Peso appreciation compared to the US Dollar, and strict control of operating expenses.

Enrique Escalante, GCC's CEO, said, "Our US operations are catching the tailwind from the strong market in 2017 and the benefit of relatively mild winter weather in some of our markets. In Mexico, sales volumes were above our expectations. Our EBITDA margin in Mexico reached an all-time record of 42.7% and US margins were 16.6%, the highest for a first quarter since the 2009 financial crisis."

Mexico: Cemex has predicted that the cement sector in Mexico will grow by 2-3% during 2018. Fernando Gonzalez, CEO, explained that the growth would be due to an increase in residential and commercial construction. He noted that these segments would compensate for an expected reduction in infrastructure works.

China: Anhui Conch Cement’s sales revenue rose by 38% year-on-year to US$2.98bn in the first quarter of 2018 from US$2.16bn in the same period in 2017. Its net profit rose more than doubled to US$757m from US$341m, according to Dow Jones. The rise in sales and profits has been attributed to rising cement prices in smaller cities and demand from the Xiongan New Area project. The cement producer also said that it received a government subsidy of US$18m.

Colombia: The Superintendent of Industry and Commerce (SIC) has confirmed a US$73.5m fine issued against six top executives and cement companies for alleged market collusion. SIC says that Cementos Argos, Cemex and Holcim failed to provide an economically reasonable explanation for similar pricing, according to the El Colombiano newspaper. Cemex has accepted the decision and not filed an appeal. Cementos Argos and Holcim will take the case to the Dispute Tribunal.

Nigeria: Dangote Cement will use two vertical roller mills (VRM) from Germany’s Loesche for a new production line at its Obajana plant in Kogi State. The order comprises a six-roller mill for raw cement meal with a capacity of 580t/hr, the largest roller mill for raw material in the Loesche range, and a three-roller mill with a modular design featuring a drive power range of 1000kW for grinding hard coal and lignite with a throughput of up to 70t/hr.

The scope of delivery also includes a LDC classifier for the raw cement mill and a LSKS ZD classifier for the coal mill, which is characterised by individually adjustable grain size separation. The raw material mill is equipped with metal-matrix-compound (MMX) technology. The two mill gear units are equipped with state monitoring and remote access for remote monitoring. Loesche is also contributing to the design and planning of the entire plant as well as the engineering for the electrical measurement, control and regulation technology and complete automation. The delivery date is scheduled for the third quarter of 2018.

The contract partner for this project is China’s Sinoma International Engineering, which has previously installed a seven clinker and cement raw meal VRMs for the Obajana plant. The site has a cement production capacity of over 12Mt/yr and it is the largest cement plant in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Ghana: Diamond Cement has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) to build a port at Kedzi in the Keta Municipality of the Volta Region. The site is being developed to help the cement producer import raw materials, according to the Ghanaian Times. At present it uses the port of Lome in Togo.

Paraguay: Edgar Acosta, the general manager of Yguazu Cementos, has called for a law banning imports of clinker to be lifted. Acosta, the former president of Industria Nacional del Cemento (INC), argues that the legislation is ‘unfair competition’ as it was introduced in 2006 when INC was the only cement producer in the country, according to the ABC newspaper. However, at present INC imports large volumes of clinker despite owning large reserves of limestone in the country. Of the 550,000t of cement produced by INC in 2017, more than 50% was made with imported clinker. INC imports clinker from Uruguay, Spain and Greece.

India: Commissioning of the new 3000t/day production line at Tancem’s Ariyalur plant in Tamil Nadu is expected to take place in the second quarter of 2018. Construction work is reported as almost complete. Larsen & Toubro (L&T) is the lead contractor on the project with Denmark’s FLSmidth hired by L&T to provide the design, engineering, manufacturing and supply of all equipment. FLSmidth’s scope of supply includes providing key components for the line including raw material crushing equipment, limestone storage, raw and coal grinding, single-string ILC pyro processing system with cooler, cement grinding and packing and loading systems.

Algeria: LafargeHolcim Algeria has conducted its fourth cement export operation to West Africa. Nearly 8500t of Ordinary Portland Cement were despatched from the port of Arzew in Oran, according to the Algeria Press Service. It follows previous batches in December 2017, March 2018 and the start of April 2018.

The subsidiary of LafargeHolcim aims to increase its cement and clinker exports to West Africa to 5Mt by 2020. In Algeria the company runs two cement plants at M'Sila and Oggaz in Mascara. It also operates a plant at Biskra as a joint-venture with Souakri Group and it manages SCMI’s Meftah's plant in a partnership.

Philippines: Phinma Group plans to buy a cement plant in Mariveles in Bataan and use it as a terminal to discharges exports from Vietnam. President and chief executive officer Ramon del Rosario, Jr added that the site will be operational by May 2019, according to GMA News. The site will be used to import and process 2mt/yr of cement. A deep water port at Mariveles is anticipated to allow Panamax size ships to discharge cement.