August 2025

US: Nano Graphene has launched a concrete admixture. OG Concrete Admix improves concrete’s water resistance by a factor of four and more than doubles the strength, while significantly reducing cracking.

In GrapheneCA’s promotional material, it mentions a lowered carbon footprint amongst the benefits of its admixture for concrete producers, with less cement being required in the production of concrete using OG Concrete Admix.

Malaysia: Cahya Mata Sarawak (CMS)’s cement division has reported a net profit of US$19.5m in the six months to 30 June 2019, down by 37.1% from US$31.0m in the same period of 2018. The company’s total first half revenue rose by 8.9% to US$194m from US$178m in 2018.

In its financial statement, CMS blamed the cement profit slump on rising clinker import prices and the cost of fuel for its coal-fired cement plants. CEO Datuk Isaac Lugun has expressed hope for the group’s longer-term prospects due to its competitive power pricing and strong global presence.

Vietnam: Vietnam’s August 2019 cement output has been estimated at 7.9Mt, up by 8.7% from August 2018. This would give an eight-month figure of 63.1Mt, up by 7.6% year-on-year. Data from government’s General Statistics Office placed the country’s 2018 output at 90.2Mt, a figure likely to be exceeded by early December 2019.

In the first half of 2019, Vietnam exported 31.3% of its cement, supplying 68% of China’s imports of cement and clinker over that period. Global Cement has previously reported that Vietnamese companies were seven of the top ten importers of cement to the Philippines from 2013 to 2018.

South Africa: PPC has reported an increase in it earnings before interest, tax, and depreciation (EBITDA) of 5 - 10% for the four-month period to 30 July 2019 compared to a year ago.

Against a backdrop of subdued domestic demand and competitive pricing by importers (whose imports increased 22.0% year-on-year to 0.64Mt in the first half of 2019), the group has held gross debt at a similar level to that reported in March 2019, implementing its US$4.56/t saving initiative and a focus on its most profitable market segments, with sales reduced by 10-15% in the four months to 30 July 2019 compared with 2018.

PPC’s financial report states that South African cement producers have engaged the relevant authorities for a cement standards check.

Pakistan: Fauji Cement has installed a 12.5MW solar power plant at its Jhang Bahtar plant, near Islamabad. Business Recorder reports that Fauji’s is the world’s largest solar power station devoted to a cement plant, with 37,905 panels delivering an estimated annual total of 19,750MWh of energy.

Fauji has additionally installed two waste heat recovery plants of 12 and 9MW and two large reservoirs for water recycling and rainwater harvesting. Fauji is leading Pakistans’s Clean and Green initiative, having planted 25,000 trees and donated a further 40,000 plants to local government and nearby villages.

US: LafargeHolcim’s plans for a solar power station for its Hagerstown cement plant have stalled, after Washington County denied its contractor Greenbacker Renewable Energy Corp the expected tax break for the project.

A break from personal property tax levied on equipment, of the sort granted to other solar energy projects, would have resulted in taxes of approximately US$1.6m instead of US$2.9m over its 25 years in effect, CommsMEA has reported. The County’s decision hinged on debates over the number of long-term jobs created by the project. Greenbacker previously argued that the long-term job security of LafargeHolcim’s 108 Hagerstown employees was embellished by the move towards improved sustainability and the stabilisation of energy costs.

The motion, proposed by Commissioner Randy Wagner, failed for lack of a second. This followed after a commissioner recused himself from proceedings because, as a financial advisor, he stood to benefit from the project through the investments of his clients.

Nigeria: A laden Dangote Cement lorry suffered a brake failure and ran head-on into a bus in Ikorodu, Lagos State on 27 August 2019, killing the bus driver, a trainee bus driver and one passenger. All 69 other passengers were injured.

The Punch has reported that the Dangote vehicle was carrying 45t, significantly over its rated capacity. The company has commenced an investigation of the incident.

Zimbabwe: A blast at Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe’s Sternblick quarry on 15 August 2019 has killed one person and injured another.

Agence Ecofin has reported that two women were at home on Pangoula Farm, Harare, when debris from the quarry entered through the roof, striking 36-year-old Shupikai Chatsina, who lost her life instantly, on the head. She leaves behind a husband and five children. The second woman, Ms Chatsina’s aunt, is recovering in hospital.

LafargeHolcim’s contractor Afri Mining did not follow established blasting procedures. The disaster is under police investigation.

The publication of CNBM’s financial results presents a good opportunity to take stock of the Chinese cement industry in the first half of 2019. Looking at the big picture first, cement sales rose by 5% year-on-year to 1.03Bnt in the first half of 2019 from 0.98Bnt in the same period in 2018. Graph 1 below shows the sales over the last five years since 2014. Generally, sales are decreasing each year but there has been some variation in the half-year periods.

Graph 1: Cement sales in China, 2014 – 2019. Source: National Bureau of Statistics of China.

As the China Cement Association (CCA) pointed out in its summary for the first half of 2019, the cement industry ‘swelled in volume and price’ as industry efficiency grew but that the growth rate dropped ‘significantly’ compared in 2018. By region, as Graph 2 shows, variation can be seen between the south-east of the country where growth was slow or even fell compared to stronger performance elsewhere. Cement production increased by above 20% in Jilin, Shanxi, Shandong, Tibet and Heilongjiang and by over 10% in Hebei, Gansu, Tianjin, and Liaoning. However, it fell in Hainan, Beijing, Qinghai, Guizhou, Guangxi, Hunan, Guangdong and Ningxia. Most of these changes were attributed to either rising or falling demand for cement, except for Jilin where reduced imports from neighbouring provinces pushed up its demand. In most of these latter regions it attribute the decline to falling demand for cement.

Graph 2: Cement production growth by province in first half of 2019. Source: China Cement Association.

Other points of note from the CCA include the surge in imports to China. Imports of cement and clinker rose by 149% year-on-year to 8.97Mt in the five months from January to May 2019. Vietnam supplied 68% of this followed by 11% from Thailand. On the production side, 10 new production lines with a total capacity of 15.5Mt/yr were commissioned in the period. These were fairly scattered across nine provinces, in Shanxi, Anhui, Hubei, Fujian, Guangxi, Hunan, Guizhou, Gansu and Yunnan respectively.

Sales and profits were supported by growing demand and prices on the corporate side. CNBM’s operating income for its cement businesses grew by 16% to US$8.14bn from US$7.04bn. Its adjusted profit increased by 40% to US$2.76bn from US$1.98bn. Anhui Conch’s sales rose by 17.9% to US$2.15bn from US$2.11bn. It blamed poorer profits in the south of the country on adverse weather leading to weakened demand.

The weaker sales in the south could be seen in China Resources Cement’s (CRC) results with its turnover down by 6% to US$2.22bn from US$2.36bn. Likewise, its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) dropped by 8.5% to US$820m from US$896m. The majority of its cement plants are based in Guangxi, Guangdong and Fujian. Jidong Cement was also reported as having received US$30m in subsidies from the government during the first half of 2019 in relation to its ‘daily activities.’

As is usual for these kinds of roundups the dynamic in China is between government industrial policies, like peak shifting and pollution mitigation, and local demand and price trends. One of the latest spins on peak shifting, for example, is a rating system that is being considered to decide which companies should be subject to production limits and for how long. General cement sales are slowly falling each year but the rise of imports into the word’s biggest cement producing nation (!) mark an interesting trend. Also, it may not be connected, but lots of those provinces with falling demand so far in 2019 are those on the south coast facing the heavy clinker exporting nations of South-East Asia. Given the decisiveness with which the Chinese government dispensed with imports of waste materials under its National Sword initiative since 2017, those countries importing cement to China should beware. It could change very quickly. The Chinese cement market is never dull.

Mexico: LafargeHolcim has appointed Jaime Hill Tinoco as the new chief executive officer (CEO) of Holcim Mexico.

Hill, aged 50 years, was born in El Salvador. He holds a degree in Business Administration from the University of Georgetown in Washington DC. He joined LafargeHolcim in El Salvador in 1996, at first in marketing and sales. He was appointed Commercial Director in 2004 and then held the same position in Colombia. In 2015 he became CEO of Holcim Colombia.