August 2025

Pakistan: Fauji Cement has reported that its net profit fell by 88% to US$3.53m for the first nine months of its 2020 fiscal year, a period that ended on 31 March 2020. The company reported that its sales plunged, having previously made a net profit of US$32m in the first nine months of its 2019 fiscal year. Analysts reported that the company’s revenue saw a 2% year-on-year decline in sales to 0.71Mt during the nine-month period. Lower sales prices, currency depreciation and higher coal prices all contributed to the weaker performance.

Kazakhstan: The acting Minister of Industry and Infrastructure Development of Kazakhstan has signed an order regarding the regulation of several types of cement. This includes the provision for a ban on the import of cement from countries not within the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) for six months from Monday 27 April 2020. Specifically the ban concerns cement clinkers, Portland cement, alumina cement and other forms of hydraulic cement.

US: Eagle Materials has sold its Western Aggregates and Mathews Ready Mix subsidiaries for a combined value of US$93.5m. Eagle’s President and chief executive officer (CEO), Michael Haack said that the transaction represented the sale of non-core assets on the heavy-side of the company that do not provide essential support to its primary cement plant network.

Qatar: The manufacturing sector of Qatar recorded a 2% month-on-month decrease in activity in February 2020 compared to January 2020. Cement and non-metallic mineral product production decreased by 1.6%.

Egypt: Cement sales have fallen by around 35 - 40% in Egypt. This is reported to be due a number of factors that has each taken a chunk out of demand, including coronavirus lockdown measures, the imminent onset of Ramadan and the start of the wheat harvest season. Cement sales prices are reported to have fallen as a result of the lower demand.

Japan: Taiheiyo Cement has partnered with JFE Steel and the Global Institute for Environmental Technology to develop a carbon capture and storage system. The system will use wet alkaline earth metals extracted from steel slag to produce carbonates from exhaust gases at cement and steel plants. The partners are investigating the possibility of using these carbonates, specifically calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate, as additives in cement production at Taiheiyo Cement’s plants. Taiheiyo Cement president Masafumi Shigehara said, “With the effects of climate change becoming apparent both in Japan and overseas, the importance of global warming counter-measures is increasing.”

Germany: Staff of HeidelbergCement in Germany will be employed on a ‘short-time’ basis, with hours reductions of up to 100%. HeidelbergCement says that it agreed upon the measure with employee representative bodies.

HeidelbergCement’s supervisory board and management board members have waived 20% of their fixed salaries in the second quarter of 2020 due to the financial impacts of the coronavirus outbreak.

Russia: Sibirskiy Cement produced 525,000t of cement at its three plants in the first quarter of 2020, up by 14% year-on-year from 460,000t in the corresponding period of 2019. The 3.7Mt/yr Topkinskiy Cement plant produced 388,000t, up by 21% year-on-year from 320,000t; the 1.1Mt/yr Krasnoyarsk Cement plant produced 97,600t, down by 17% year-on-year from 118,000t and the Timluy Cement plant produced 39,600t, up by 73% year-on-year from 22,9000t. Sibirskiy Cement’s first vice president Gennady Rasskazov said, “Cement consumption in Siberia, Buryatia and the Trans-Baikal Territory reached 845,000t in the first three months of 2020, up by 15% year-on-year from 735,000t.” He said that April 2020 has brought a ‘significant decrease in demand,’ and revised Sibirskiy Cement’s projected 2020 sales to an estimated decrease of 7-10% from 3-5% growth. Over a two-and-a-half-month period, Rasskazov predicted a 30-50% sales fall.

Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos has said that no employee will lose their job before July 2020 as a result of the coronavirus lockdown. It joins 3300 other employers across the country as part of the No Dismissals Movement. Votorantim Cimentos CEO Marcelo Castelli said, “Our goal is to reassure our employees and their families, and to help minimise the economic and social impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.”

Ghana: Diamond Cement Group has donated 250t of cement and US$17,500 to the government to support its efforts to curb the spread of coronavirus in Ghana. The Ghanaian Times newspaper has reported that the cement will be used for hospital repairs. Diamond Cement Group chair Mukesh Patel said, “It is crucial that we all work together to minimise the negative impact of the pandemic on economic activities.”