August 2025

Guyana: Concrete manufacturer KSM is taking legal action against the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) for over valuing the cost of cement imports. It alleges that the GRA charged it US$16.6m too much for five shipments between January and March 2019, according to the Stabroek News newspaper.

It grew its imports from 2015 to 2018 and it imported 24,480t of cement from Domicem in the Dominican Republic in 2018. However, KSM says that the GRA increased the declared value of cement by over 40% in the second half of 2018 without offering any ‘reasonable or justifiable grounds’ for so doing. KSM says it imported its shipments in 2019 at the lower rate and this was approved by customs. The GRA then demanded the shortfall from KSM in May 2019.

Algeria/Iraq: Dal Machinery & Design (DMD), part of Turkey’s Dal Engineering Group, has been awarded a contract to supply a kiln shell to LafargeHolcim Algeria’s Oggaz cement plant. The shell has an internal diameter of 5mm. The shell will be manufactured from a single part, with one single welding in the axial direction. It is expected to be delivered by September 2019. No value for the order has been disclosed.

Other recent orders for DMD include the supply of two kiln shells for LafargeHolcim’s Bazian cement plant at Sulaimani in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. The kiln shells were manufactured with a diameter of 5.2m. Delivery was made at the beginning of March 2019. DMD’s other kiln shell clients in Iraq included the Gasin cement plant in 2018. It also supplied a mill tunnion to LafargeHolcim’s Kerbala cement plant.

Mexico: According to figures from INEGI, Mexico’s national institute of statistics, sales of cement were worth US$1.21bn during the first quarter of 2019. This figure was 7% lower than during the first quarter of 2018. In volume terms sales fell from 11.89Mt to 10.91Mt, a fall of 8.1% year-on-year.

Market leader Cemex reported a sales fall of 15% in the analysed period despite a price increase of 4%. Cementos Fortaleza, owned by Elementia, posted a sales growth of 1% in terms of value, thanks to rising prices.

Swiss firm LafargeHolcim, through its subsidiary Holcim Apasco, saw total sales shrink by 7.4% in Latin America, with sales of cement falling by 2.6% as a consequence of the demand drop in Mexico and Argentina. Only Cementos Chihuahua registered significant growth, with sales increasing by 8% in during the quarter due to the construction of new industrial buildings and mining projects in the north of the country.

India: UltraTech Cement has received approval from the environment ministry for a US$360m project in Andhra Pradesh, in which it will set up a 6Mt/yr integrated cement plant at Petnikote village in Kurnool district. The plant will have a 60MW captive power plant and a 15MW waste heat recovery-based power unit.

The company has already acquired 432 hectares of land for the project, which UltraTech says will generate employment for 900 people. The company still has to get 'consent to establish and operate' from the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board.

Dominica: Argos, Grupo Argos’ subsidiary in Dominica, has opened a new packing plant to allow a more reliable and timely supply of cement. The plant's packer has three nozzles and a capacity of more than 1000bags/hr. The scope of the project includes structural and ergonomic improvements and the replacement of the system's dust collector, which will allow for cleaner and more environmentally-friendly processes.

Puerto Rico: Total cement sales in Puerto Rico fell by 11.1% year-on-year in May 2019, to stand at 1.21 million 42.5kg bags (51,425t). Cement sales have been contracting since February 2019, after 13 consecutive increases. Meanwhile, domestic cement production plunged by 33.1% year-on-year, to stand at 1 million bags, representing the fourth consecutive fall.

Brazil: According to data from SNIC, the Brazilian national cement industry union, 4.6Mt of cement was sold in Brazil during May 2019. The figure is 27.6% higher compared to May 2018, with the large percentage increase due to the low base resulting from a truck drivers’ strike in May 2018. The first five months of 2019 recorded sales of 21.6Mt, a 5.6% year-on-year rise.

Argentina: Cement sales rose by 4.7% to 0.97Mt in Argentina in May 2019, compared to May 2018, according to data from AFCP. Sales totalled 4.65Mt in the first five months of 2019, a 5.4% drop from 4.91Mt in the year-earlier period. Out of the volume sold in May 2019, 942,762t of cement was sold domestically, with just 8891t exported.

Philippines: The Cement Manufacturers Association of the Philippines (CEMAP) says it is confident that the Tariff Commission will increase the duty on imported cement on a permanent basis. In a statement Cirilo M Pestaño II, CEMAP’s executive director, noted that the commission had observed a rise in import volumes since 2016, according to the Manila Bulletin newspaper. He said that the association was confident that the commission would issue a, “ruling consistent with the national interest.” The association added that imports might be good for consumers in the short-term but they were bad for everyone beyond this due to lost economic earnings and reduced industrial production capacity.

France: The government is preparing to approve an extension to the quarry at Ciments Calcia’s Gargenville plant. The extension will cover an area of 74 hectares near the communes of Guitrancourt and Brueil-en-Vexin, according to the Le Parisien newspaper. Local environmental activists are preparing to contest the decision.