August 2025

Tanzania: Twiga Cement’s revenue rose by 30% year-on-year to US$151m in 2018 from US$116m in 2017. Its net profit grew by 60% to US$24.6m from US$15.4m. Its cement sales volumes increased by 9%. The subsidiary of Germany’s HeidelbergCement said that the local cement market saw continued growth in 2018 and that, despite production overcapacity, it maintained its ‘market leadership.’

Moldova: The Rybnitsky Cement plant has significantly cut its production costs due to a cheap gas deal. According to Radio Chișinău and the Infotag News Agency, the cement producer is paying four times less for its gas than its local competitor, the LafargeHolcim-owned Rezinsky Cement plant. In 2018 the Moldovan government held off renewing a supply contract with Russia’s Gazprom to see if cheaper options were available elsewhere.

UK: Construction work has started on a new flood embankment west of the Cemex’s South Ferriby cement plant in North Lincolnshire. New brick-clad walls will also be built around Ferriby Sluice. The project, led by the Environment Agency, has an investment of around Euro14m. The scheme is scheduled for completion by 2021.

“We are delighted to be contributing building materials to construct the new flood defences. In December 2013 floods damaged the plant putting it out of production for over 12 months and causing immense damage to local homes and businesses. It was estimated that over Euro55m worth of damage was caused,” said Piotr Klepak, Cemex Plant Director.

US: Timken has acquired the Diamond Chain Company from Amsted Industries for an undisclosed sum. The US-based chain manufacturer supplies a range of industrial markets, which include material handling, mining and aggregates.

"The acquisition of the Diamond Chain Company adds another strong industrial brand with a reputation for quality, reliability and performance to Timken's growing power transmission portfolio," said Richard G Kyle, Timken president and chief executive officer. He added that the purchase was an ‘excellent strategic fit’ with Timken’s drives chain business and that it would aid its manufacturing presence in Asia.

The Diamond Chain Company was founded in 1890 and it has its headquarters in Indianapolis, Indiana. It has manufacturing operations in the US and China. It employs approximately 370 people.

Germany: Siemens is presenting new products from its Digital Enterprise portfolio for process industries at the Hannover Messe trade fair. These include new versions of its Comos computer-aided engineering (CAE), XHQ Operations Intelligence and its PCS 7 Plant Automation Accelerator software products. The latest version of Comos includes a portal to help users choose components from a range of manufacturers. The new version of XHQ Operations Intelligence includes better access to remote data and simplified integration of engineering data. The update to PCS 7 Plant Automation Accelerator includes increased system openness based on GSDML and NE150 standards.

China/France: Song Zhi Ping, president of China National Building Material Company (CNBM), and Frédéric Sanchez, chairman of Fives, have signed strategic agreement towards climate change and cooperation in third countries. This agreement develops the collaboration plans drawn up in January 2019 between cement plant manufacturer CNBM the engineering group Fives. It forecasts a volume of business of at least Euro600m over three years, and forms part of CNBM’s stated strategy of developing in partnership with western companies. The agreement was signed at the Elysée Palace in Paris during a state visit to France by China’s President Xi Jinping.

The agreement focuses on upgrading CNBM’s cement plants in China, building new plants outside of China and creating a Joint Engineering Centre to implement these projects and share information. The Joint Engineering Centre was inaugurated on 28 February 2019 in Shanghai. With regards to modernising its cement production lines in China, Fives said that its technologies, in grinding in particular, would ‘significantly’ improve performance and return on investment with regards to modernising CNBM’s domestic cement production lines. Fives said that the agreement is in full alignment with the Paris Agreement. It added that the agreement also shows the ‘mutual trust’ between the two companies with respect to intellectual property.

Philippines: Holcim Philippines has ordered power monitoring equipment from CMR Philippines for its 2.3Mt/yr Lugait cement plant in Misamis Oriental. It includes the development, delivery, installation, testing and networking of the electrical installation at the unit. Current and voltage transformers are to be supplied as part of a package of engineering support that also sees CMR completing the integration and connection of plant wide power monitoring to Siemens PCS 7 process control technology.

“Winning the Holcim contract reflects the expertise we can bring to successfully delivering complex and technologically advanced industrial projects,” said Rojel Rivera, general manager at CMR Philippines.

CMR Philippines is part of the CMR Group, which designs, manufactures and commissions automation, control system and turnkey project solutions for global industrial and renewable energy sectors, alongside specialist instrumentation for high power diesel engines.

Nepal: IME Group plans to build a US$90m cement plant at Chormara of Nawalparasi. The unit is scheduled to be commissioned in early 2024, according to the Kathmandu Post newspaper. This will follow one year of preliminary work, one year for fund raising and the next two years for construction. The plant will mine limestone from a quarry in the Madanpur and Sisdi Rural Municipalities of Palpa district. The quarry will be 25km from the designated plant site. The mine has 18.7Mt of limestone according to a report by Investment Board Nepal.

Nepal: Dhruba Raj Thapa, president of Cement Manufacturer Association of Nepal (CMAN), has warned that the industry is worried about new investments in cement production given that the country has become self sufficient in the commodity. Clinker imports have stopped due to increased domestic production, according to the Republica newspaper. He added that cement produced locally is sufficient to meet local demand until 2029. He then warned that if investment in the sector continues producers might have to reduce their production capacity by half.

Data from the Department of Industries shows that 114 cement factories, both government-owned and private, have been registered so far with an estimated investment of over US$1.8bn. However, Tara Prasad Pokharel, the general secretary of CMAN, said that only 68 registered industries are currently in operation.

India: Penna Cement has signed a five years freight tariff deal with South Central Railway (SCR). As part of the agreement the rate will remain fixed for one year, according to the New Indian Express newspaper. The contract also offers incentives including discounts if the freight volume exceeds the previous year’s amount. Penna Cement is the eighth company to sign such an agreement with the SCR.