August 2025

Malaysia: YTL Cement has increased its shareholding in Lafarge Malaysia to 76.98% following the conclusion of a mandatory general offer (MGO). In a bourse filing, Maybank Investment Bank said the MGO had been concluded at the close of business on 14 June 2019, with YTL Cement acquiring an additional 220.72 million shares, or 25.98% of Lafarge Malaysia, for US$198m.

On 6 May 2019 YTL concluded its purchase of 51% of Lafarge Malaysia from Associated International Cement Ltd (AICL). It paid US$390m on that occasion.

Saudi Arabia: Saudi Cement’s revenue for the first quarter of 2019 rose 18% higher year-on-year to US$103.9m, driven by higher export sales volume of cement and clinker. It said that its prices had risen, but that the price rise was not as great as that achieved by some other producers. Its profit for the quarter was US$35.2m, a 7% fall year-on-year. However its profit was 6% higher compared to the fourth quarter of 2018.

Saudi Cement’s cement export volumes increased to 0.25Mt for the quarter, while clinker sales volumes (mainly exports) jumped to 0.41Mt. In contrast, local cement sales volumes declined by 16.5% year-on-year to 1.19Mt. Going forward, the company says it will continue to focus on exports in light of weak domestic demand.

Turkey: Batıçim Çimento, part of Bati Anadolu Group, is considering selling up to a 75% stake in its subsidiary Batısöke Çimento. A source quoted by Reuters says that financial services group Unlu&Co has been hired to handle the sale. A document seen by Reuters indicates that due diligence for any potential offers is scheduled to be completed by September 2019. Batisöke Çimento operates one integrated and one grinding plant in Turkey.

In 2018 Turkish conglomerate Sabancı Group mandated Unlu&Co to sell cement producers Kayseri Çimento, Nigde Çimento and Ladik Çimento.

US: Colombia’s Grupo Argos is in talks with US-based Summit Materials about a potential merger. Sources quoted by Reuters said that the Colombian company would like to combine Cementos Argos with Summit Materials to gain economies of scale.

Summit Materials owns Continental Cement, a cement producer that runs two integrated cement plants at Hannibal, Missouri and Davenport, Iowa. It operates cement terminals at Minneapolis in Minnesota, St Paul in Minnesota, LaCrosse in Wisconsin, Bettendorf in Iowa, West Des Moines in Iowa, St Louis in Missouri, Memphis in Tennessee, Convent in Louisiana and New Orleans in Louisiana. Summit Materials also owns a number of building material companies in the aggregates, ready-mixed concrete and asphalt industries.

Brazil: CSN Cimentos is planning to spend around US$390m on building a new 3Mt/yr cement plant in Paraná. Eduardo Bekin, president of the Paraná State Development Agency, said that the company already had the authorisation to conduct economic viability studies and should confirm the plant by late August 2019, according to the Valor Econômico newspaper. CSN is also considering building the plant in Sergipe state, where it operates a limestone mine. The final decision will depend on the best tax environment for the cement producer.

France: Cem'In'Eu plans to raise Euro55m by the end of 2019 to support building new cement grinding plants in Europe. It opened its first 0.25Mt/yr grinding plant at Tonneins, Lot et Garonne in 2018, according to Les Echos newspaper. Construction of a new plant at Portes-lès-Valence, Drôme is scheduled to start in mid-2019. Construction of a larger 0.5Mt/yr plant at Montreuil-Bellay, Maine-et-Loire is anticipated to start in September 2019 for a commissioning date of February 2021. This project will cost Euro35m. Other projects are planned for Chalon-sur-Saône, Saône et Loire and Ottmarsheim.

International projects include a plant at Ottmarsheim, Haut-Rhin in Switzerland and Thamesport in the UK. The former is expected to gather all the necessary permits by September 2019 with construction to follow by the end of the year. An additional project is being planned at the port of Gdynia in Poland.

Nigeria: Lafarge Africa has delayed publication of its annual results for 2018. It blamed the delay on ‘pending actions required for the resolution of key matters relating to the closure of its annual financial statement. It says it will release its audited financial statement by the end of June 2019. The subsidiary of LafargeHolcim reported a net loss of US$28.8m for the first nine months of 2019 compared to an income of US$2.61m in the same period in 2017, although it managed to grow its revenue on a year-on-year basis.

Trinidad & Tobago: The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) is continuing to hear arguments about whether Rock Hard Cement should be exempt from higher taxes applicable to third party goods. Both the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) and the World Customs Organisation (WCO) previously ruled that Rock Hard Cement imports from Turkey and Portugal were correctly classified as ‘other hydraulic cement,’ according to Barbados Today. However, lawyers on behalf of Trinidad and Tobago and Trinidad Cement have dismissed this classification of the imports, insisting that the classification of the World Customs Organization (WCO) and COTED were ‘unsafe, unreliable and incorrect.’ As such the imports should be classified as ‘building cement grey’ and liable to a tariff of 15% instead of 5%. The case continues.

US: Trabits Group and Brookhaven National Laboratory have been selected to present joint research papers at two scientific geothermal forums on the self-repair ability of the FlexCem Lightweight Variable Density well cement product. The first presentation will be at the September 2019 meeting of the Geothermal Resources Council (GRC), which will be held in Palm Springs, California, US. The second presentation will be at the World Geothermal Congress (WGC), which will be held in Reykjavik, Iceland in April 2020.

FlexCem well cement was developed by Trabits Group following completion of a research grant from the Department of Energy Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO). It is a composite cement using Type I/II cement clinker and Ferrierite zeolite, interground in proprietary ratios.

Austria: Mondi has launched ‘myMondi’ a web-based platform. It says it is the first all-in-one digital customer platform available in the paper sack industry worldwide. The sales product is intended to enable customers to view live product and stock information, place orders and track order status.