August 2025

Mexico: GCC’s results for the first half of 2019 have been negatively affected by poor weather in the US. Its net sales grew slightly by 1.3% to US$404m from US$399 in the same period in 2018. Sales fell in the US but they rose in Mexico. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 5% to US$109m from US$115m.

“While GCC’s US operations continued to be adversely impacted during the second quarter by an above average precipitation, below-average temperatures and construction labour shortages, the substantial backlog at our US operations underscores strong demand for our products. We’ve begun to reap the benefits early in the third quarter, as the US weather has finally cleared,” said Enrique Escalante, GCC’s chief executive officer (CEO). He added that the group had ‘successfully leveraged’ its new Trident plant in Montana and improved production levels at its Rapid City plant in South Dakota following a stabilisation process. Oil well cement shipments from its Chihuahua Plant to new terminal at Fort Stockton in Texas have also started.

UK: Breedon Group’s revenue grew by 18% year-on-year to Euro502m in the first half of 2019 from Euro424m in the same period in 2018. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 22.3% to Euro90.9m from Euro74.0m. Cement sales volumes increased by 11% to 1Mt and ready-mixed concrete sales fell by 6% to 1.5Mm³.

"The period began well, with benign weather in the first quarter and generally healthy demand for our products, particularly in England, Wales and the Republic of Ireland, somewhat offset by fewer large projects in Scotland. Our performance in the second quarter was adversely impacted by lower volumes in Great Britain due to a flat construction market, ongoing project delays and competitive trading conditions. However demand in Ireland remained robust,” said group chief executive Pat Ward. He added that July 2019 had started well and that the group expected a ‘strong’ second half of the year.

Zimbabwe: Kyle Wang, the general manager of Livetouch Investments, says that his company is considering plans to build a clinker plant. He said that the Chinese company was holding negotiations with South Africa’s PPC to invest up to US$50m into a joint venture, according to the Chronicle newspaper. Livetouch Investments owns the Diamond Cement grinding plant at Redcliff, which opened in 2017. It sources its clinker from PPC at present.

Senegal: Ousmane Mbaye, the Administrative and Financial Director of Dangote Cement Senegal, says that his company is not worried about potential plans by the government to cut tax exemptions to cement plants as part of its Plan for an Emerging Senegal (PES). He said that the company was ready to discuss the proposals with the authorities, according to the Le Quotidien newspaper. He also blamed distributors and a breakdown at the plant of a competitor for recent swings in the price of cement. Mbaye made the comments at a ceremony giving away tickets for a pilgrimage to Mecca and/or Rome.

Italy: Giampiero Pesenti, the former chairman of Italcementi, has died at the age of 88. The grandson of one the brothers who created the company in 1906, he took a degree in mechanical engineering from the Polytechnic University of Milan and then started working for Italcementi in 1958. He became chief operating officer and chief executive officer (CEO) before becoming its chairman, according to Reuters. He was known informally at Italcementi as ‘Engineer Giampiero.’ Notably, the Italian cement producer purchased Ciments Francais in 1992, under his leadership, greatly increasing its size. Italcementi was purchased by Germany’s HeidelbergCement in 2016.

India: Kumar Mangalam Birla has been elected as the chairman of Century Textiles and Industries. The appointment follows the death of his grandfather Basant Kumar Birla early in July 2019. Kumar Mangalam Birla is the head of Aditya Birla Group, the owner of UltraTech Cement amongst other subsidiaries.

Mexico: Williams Crusher has appointed Alfredo Martinez as sales representative for the Mexico region. He holds 20 years of experience with the Williams line of equipment and its markets in Mexico. Williams Patent Crusher & Pulverizer Company supplies equipment for the crushing and pulverising industry. Its headquarters is in St. Louis, Missouri.

Two new stories from Algeria this week highlight a changing industry. Firstly, Groupe Industriel des Ciments d’Algérie (GICA) started marketing cement from its new Sigus integrated plant. The unit was commissioned earlier in the year. Secondly, clinker export figures for the sector show 10-fold growth year-on-year to a value of US$30m for the first five months of 2019.

Graph 1: Cement production and capacity in Algeria, 2012 - 2018. Source: Algerian National Office of Statistics, United States Geological Survey, Global Cement Directory 2013 - 2019. Estimates supplied for 2017 and 2018.

Graph 1 above depicts the moment that lots of new production capacity started to be ordered and then commissioned in 2017. The Global Cement Directory lists new plant projects as they are announced so the trend from 2016 to 2017 may not be as pronounced as it seems but the general destination remains the same. A Ministry of Industry and Mining report estimated that production capacity would reach 40Mt/yr in 2020. Consumption was reported at 26Mt in 2016.

To cope with this the cement industry in Algeria has been moving towards an export model over the last few years. Industry and government figures started to warn of an end to imports in 2016. This quickly flipped to prognostications of production overcapacity in 2017. This then became a stream of news stories about export operations from the local industries to places like West Africa. One consequence of this were problems for foreign exporters in Tunisia and Spain, for example, as the Algerian market was shut off. Indeed, it must have been satisfying for state-producer and market leader GICA to announce that it was exporting cement to Europe in 2018!

Notably the local market has no cement grinding plants, yet this too has started to change. In May 2019 Algematco Steel ordered a modular Ready2Grind MVR vertical roller mill from Germany’s Gebr. Pfeiffer. Target markets for the exports identified by the Ministry of Industry and Mining included neighbouring Mali, Libya, Mauritania and Niger. However, only two of these countries are accessible by sea. Unfortunately, Libya’s resurgence in violence since April 2019 is unlikely to help the export market. The other countries share land borders with Algeria but no rail links. An overland export operation to Niger from a plant near Adrar was reported in early 2019 but feasibility on a large scale seems unlikely given the distances involved.

LafargeHolcim said in its 2018 financial report that its net sales were down in its Middle East and African region due to price pressure and lower volumes in oversupplied markets, particularly in Algeria, Iraq and Jordan. Bloomberg reported in February 2019 that LafargeHolcim was considering divesting assets in the region. However, LafargeHolcim’s exit from Southeast Asia may have since bought it some financial breathing room.

With Algeria facing a production capacity gap of at least 10Mt/yr it seems likely that foreign-backed producers like LafargeHolcim will suffer despite potential in the local economy. Nationally, the race is on to see if the industry can bring its cement to the sea and find new export markets.

UAE: Ahmed Abdullah Al Noman, the chairman of Sharjah Cement & Industrial, has died. He had been in the position since 1993, according to Bloomberg. He was also the chairman of the Bank of Sharjah. The company operates an integrated cement plant as well as paper sack and synthetic rope businesses.

Netherlands: Bulk Handling Systems (BHS) has appointed Remi Le Grand as Regional Sales Director for Max-AI. He will be responsible for the product sales team and business development in Europe. Previously, Le Grand spent six years in sales with BHS-subsidiary Nihot Recycling Technology based in Amsterdam.