August 2025

US: Titan America has appointed Bill Zarkalis as CEO for Titan America. Zarkalis joins from parent organisation Titan Cement SA, where he has served as CFO since 2010. Prior to that, Zarkalis was Titan Cement SA's executive director of business development and strategic planning.

"It was a great learning opportunity and a privilege to take a detour from a long career in business management roles and serve Titan as CFO and I'm now thrilled to be with Titan America," said Zarkalis. "The building materials and construction industry has faced a deep and prolonged crisis. Our company has successfully weathered economic storms on both sides of the Atlantic and I'm grateful for our dedicated employees and the character and leadership that it took to get through this difficult period. We'll continue to focus our efforts on restoring financial fitness while we build a healthier, more profitable Titan America. Our future looks strong and I'm confident about our continued growth and success."

Before joining Titan, Zarkalis served in a variety of executive positions with Dow Chemical, including global vice president of Dow Automotive, global business director of specialty plastics and elastomers and global business director of synthetic latex. He has represented Titan in the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), the European Round Table (ERT) and the Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI).

India: The director of JK Cement, Shri Jagendra Swarup, passed away on 30 July 2014. His replacement is expected to be announced shortly.

Regular readers of Global Cement will have become familiar with the tales of doom and gloom coming out of Titan Cement's various markets in recent years. With significant numbers of assets in Greece (economic turmoil), Egypt (political instability) and the USA (massive drop in cement consumption), Titan was hit hard by the economic downturn.

However, reading Titan's 2014 first half report was a nice surprise this week. Titan reported improvement in every single market that it operates in. Rewind by just 12 months, it is hard to imagine this kind of turnaround. The group reported a net profit, albeit just Euro2.9m, but this is a massive improvement on the Euro21.8m loss made in the first half of 2013. It reported its ninth successive quarter of revenue improvement in the second quarter of 2014.

Away from Titan's improved fortunes there have been other good announcements from an increasingly strong-sounding global cement industry. Other troubled multinationals, France's Vicat Group and Italy's Cementir Holding, have announced improved profits and regional producers Semen Indonesia and Tabuk Cement (Malaysia) have posted revenue improvements. There have been announcements of new integrated projects in Russia, Peru, Pakistan, Zambia, and the UK (yes... the UK!). There was also news of a joint Turkish-Ivorian grinding plant project in Ivory Coast.

The exceptions that highlight this recent positive trend were results from Siam Cement and HeidelbergCement. Siam Cement is being buffeted by continued instability in its native Thailand and its net profit was down accordingly. HeidelbergCement, slightly worryingly, followed last week's poor results from Lafarge and Holcim with a lower second-quarter profit. Cement sales, however, were up.

However, it looks like the worst could be behind Titan – and if it's behind Titan, could it be behind everyone else too? As Titan America's new CEO said this week, "Our company has successfully weathered economic storms on both sides of the Atlantic." Let's hope the seas are calm for the time being.

It has been another week of financial results from the global cement industry, with big hitters Lafarge and Holcim reporting what some might call 'concerning' numbers for the first half of the year. Both cement producers are, of course, making preparations ahead of their proposed merger, which could come to pass within 12 months, all being well. But are things well?

In the first half of 2014, Lafarge saw its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) decrease by 2%, with sales down by 5%. Lafarge noted that its shrinking size, this week highlighted by the sale of its Pakistani assets, and adverse exchange rate effects did not help matters. CEO Bruno Lafont was up-beat in asserting that North American and European markets would see improvements over the rest of 2014. Meanwhile, things are slightly better at Holcim, which reported an increased EBITDA (albeit just by 0.2%) as well as like-for-like sales that were up by 4.8% compared to the first half of 2013. However, its increased sales volumes and revenues could not prevent a fall in net income.

If one takes these results together, the first half of 2014 seems to been one of general stagnation for the future LafargeHolcim. It is important to remember that even more asset sales are inevitable, mainly from the weaker performer Lafarge. We are left to ponder how the new LafargeHolcim will perform in 12 months time.

At present, without serious improvement across all world economies, it is likely that LafargeHolcim (and other multinational producers) will continue to be on relatively shaky ground post-merger. The reality is that many of the promising markets that the company will serve are no longer rapidly-growing emerging economies, but are instead caught up in lower-than-expected growth (for example in Indonesia, India, China and Brazil), political disputes (for example in Algeria, Thailand, Eastern Ukraine and the Middle East) and other damaging events (for example the Ebola outbreak in West Africa). The global economy is certainly 'uneven,' as Holcim's CEO Bernard Fontana said in Holcim's results statement, but it also seems to be getting more uneven. Simple geographical and income groupings for countries, for example 'Far East = Profit,' are becoming increasingly out of date.

Navigating such a rapidly-changing world is, in one sense, less difficult for larger companies than smaller ones because risk can be spread over a much wider range of economies. However, larger companies are also slower to react to changes and the appropriateness of their responses may not be ideally tailored to individual markets. When LafargeHolcim comes to be, it will likely suffer also due to the inherent difficulties of merging two such large firms that may not see eye-to-eye on all issues. This will have to be done without some of its best assets and a lot of its 'run-time' will be dedicated to the merging process. In such an environment it is easier to be distracted from its main tasks: is it possible that this effect is already becoming apparent? As Lafarge and Holcim's latest results show, there is little room for deterioration in their results.

There is a key question: Is the LafargeHolcim first half EBITDA slide a sign of poor markets or related to preparations for the merger that shareholders will tolerate as they anticipate future riches? Will LafargeHolcim be profitable in the long-run?

India: JK Cement has appointed Sushila Devi Singhania as an additional director with effect from 26 July 2014.

The single most notable observation regarding the last seven days is that the cement industry news has been overwhelmingly positive. After many years of consolidations, buy-outs and financial losses, it seems the global cement industry is finally turning itself around, with reports citing numerous expansion projects and growing cement demand in most regions.

The Indian government is taking control of its coal shortage problem with the appointment of a new Inter-Ministerial Task Force (IMTF) to rationalise existing coal resources. India's Ultratech Cement reported a 12% increase in cement sales in the April - June 2014 period, while both Shree Cement and Maha Cement are investing heavily to increase production capacity for the Indian and nearby Sri Lankan markets. In Myanmar, Thailand's Siam Cement Group (SCG) plans to construct a new 1.8Mt/yr capacity cement plant, while China's Guangdong Province has cut another 3.23Mt/yr of cement production capacity to meet overcapacity issues and reduce harmful emissions.

Signs also point to an anticipated upswing in cement demand in Europe. The UK's Hope Construction Materials has invested in 36 new Mercedes-Benz trucks for cement dispatch, while in Croatia, Holcim has predicted a 15% revenue increase in 2015, having finally completed consolidation of its unprofitable operations. Eurocement plans to construct a new 2.4Mt/yr capacity cement plant at the site of its Akhangarancement plant in Uzbekistan, although the existing plant is currently under scrutiny by the State Competition Committee and the subject of a nationalisation attempt by the Uzbek authorities.

In the US, Eagle Materials has reported a 4% increase in cement sales volumes in the April – June 2014 period, while Holcim has broken ground on its Hagerstown, Maryland cement plant modernisation project. Similarly, cement demand in Latin and South America continues to grow. Cemex Latam Holdings reported a 6% year-on-year increase in cement sales for the first half of 2014, while Mexico's Cemex reported that net sales grew by 4% year-on-year during the second quarter of 2014. Cemento Andino is building a new line that will triple the cement production capacity of its Trujillo plant in Venezuela to 600,000t/yr.

In Africa, Tanga Cement Company Limited (TCCL) plans to increase its cement production capacity, having signed an agreement to double its power supply to 40MW. Tunisia's Carthage Cement has reported a 419% increase in turnover for the first six months of 2014, while in Egypt, Suez Cement reported a 1% increase in cement demand. Lafarge's Nigerian subsidiary, Ashaka Cement, is fast-tracking the expansion of its Gombe State plant to meet demand, while the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) is forging ahead to improve cement standards and consumer confidence. ARM Cement's revenues grew by 16% for the first half of 2014, including a 10% increase in Kenya and a 33% increase in Tanzania.

Finally, Lafarge and Holcim are moving forward with their mega-merger, officially notifying various competition authorities around the world. While the global cement industry will undergo some major changes as a result, the upheaval could prove positive for those players willing to seize the day.

France: Thierry Legrand has been appointed as senior vice president of transformation and acceleration at Lafarge's head office in Paris. Legrand has been the chief executive of Lafarge South Africa for five years. Kenneth MacLean, who is currently Lafarge group's senior vice president for performance aggregate, will replace him from 1 August 2014.

During his time in South Africa, Legrand integrated the company's local cement, aggregates, ready-mix concrete, gypsum and fly ash business lines into a country organisation and drove its ambition of contributing to building better cities. MacLean said that he was excited to be in South Africa and looked forward to the challenge.

US: Vecoplan, a provider of processing technologies and comprehensive systems for the production of alternative fuel from waste and biomass and fuels feeding systems, has appointed Uwe Eschenhorst as vice president of its cement business. Eschenhorst joined Vecoplan in 2012 as vice president of its alternative fuels and energy competency centre. Prior to that he was the environmental services manager at Polysius Corp USA, working with the cement and minerals industries. Eschenhorst brings more than 14 years of practical experience to his new position at Vecoplan.

"Uwe's impressive credentials and vast experience in this sector make him the perfect choice to head-up our Cement Business Unit here at Vecoplan," said Len Beusse, COO of Vecoplan. In his new position, Eschenhorst will be responsible for sales in the North American cement industry. He will also supervise all strategic aspects of large projects in this sector.

An update on the algae bioreactor project at Votorantim's St Marys cement plant in Canada this week provides a good opportunity to review this particular aspect of carbon sequestration. The project, run with Pond Biofuels, went live in 2009. It has now reached its third generation bioreactor at the site.

Little or no performance data has been released generally so we have no way at present of knowing how viable the process is commercially. Cement backers, Brazilian firm Votorantim, are certainly excited by the project even if only for the sustainability kudos it gives them. Director Edvaldo Araújo Rabello presented the project as one of the company's highlights at a keynote presentation at the 6°CBC Congresso do Cimento held in São Paulo, Brazil in May 2014.

One hurdle for the St Marys pilot is the relative lack of light, a required input for algae photosynthesis, even in Canada's most southerly state. Pond Biofuels have reportedly dodged this by using continuously flashing LEDs to simulate artificially short days that encourage growth. On paper or powerpoint a process that could potentially cut even a proportion of CO₂ emissions from a cement plant sounds enticing. Yet if it creates more CO₂ than it saves, through electricity requirements for example, than it isn't worth using.

This is probably what shelved Lafarge's Carbon Capture and Transformation project. It ran a pilot project at its Val d'Azergues plant in France in 2009 with Salata GmbH. The pilot worked but the researchers decided that new advances in processes and biotechnology were required to make the economic and environmental results better. Other companies have also had problems. Holcim started its Aurantia – GreenFuel project in late 2007 at its Jerez cement plant in Spain, backing it with an investment US$92m. This project stalled when GreenFuel shut in 2009 citing lack of funding as the recession hit.

ACC in India also reportedly started its own algae project in 2007, mentioning it in its sustainability report, but nothing more has been reported since. Since this burst of interest InterCement has invested US$2.5m towards algae research in 2013 working with the Federal University of São Carlos, the Federal University of Santa Maria and Algae Biotecnologia.

Algae-based carbon projects for cement plants may remain stuck in the research stage but the market for biofuels continues to grow. For example, this week we report that Ohorongo Cement in Namibia plans to increase its use of blackthorn as a biofuel to use as an alternative fuel in co-processing. The prospects of turning waste CO₂ into a valuable commodity remains uncertain, but the rewards are great. Let's wait and see what St Marys can do.

US: Vulcan Materials has announced that its board has named J Thomas Hill as the company's new CEO, succeeding Donald James in the role. James, who is 65 years old, will become the company's executive chairman. He has served as Vulcan's CEO since 1996 and as its chairman since 1997. Hill, who is 55, previously had acted as Vulcan's chief operating officer. Before that, he held several management positions in sales and operations since joining the company in 1979.

Vulcan also promoted its financial chief John McPherson to the position of chief financial and strategy officer, a role in which he will oversee strategy and human resources functions in addition to his existing duties.