UK: Lafarge Cement is celebrating 50 years of production at its Cookstown plant in Northern Ireland. The plant opened in 1968 and today it employs almost 100 staff both in Cookstown and at a cement terminal in Belfast. Lafarge Cement was later acquired by Aggregate Industries in 2015 as part of the merger between Lafarge and Holcim that created LafargeHolcim.

“Fifty years is a significant milestone and follows the successful 60th anniversary celebrations that took place at our sister cement plant in Cauldon in 2017,” said plant manager Russell Larmour. “The success at Cookstown is testament to the many generations of people here in County Tyrone who have helped shape the business today. As we now look to the future, and many more years of production, we are committed to maintaining our position as a leading, sustainable business partner at the heart of the UK’s construction industry.”

US: Staff members from Ash Grove Cement, Argos USA and Lehigh Hanson have won awards at the Portland Cement Association’s (PCA) 2018 John P Gleason, Jr Leadership Awards. The awards recognise PCA members who have exhibited leadership in advancing industry programs and initiatives. The scheme is named after John ’Jay’ Gleason who served as PCA president from 1986 until his retirement in 2007.

Steve Minshall, Corporate Director, Safety and Health at Ash Grove Cement won the Business Continuity award. He has served on the PCA Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Committee for two decades, where the PCA say he has proven to be a strong safety leader in implementing many programs and initiatives to reduce workplace injuries. He has led efforts to better partnership with regulatory agencies in pursuit of the common goal of safety. Finalists in this category were Brett Lindsay, Environmental & Energy Manager at Salt River Materials Group, and Steve Wilcox, Cement Technical Director at Argos USA.

Lori Tiefenthaler, Senior Director of Marketing at Lehigh Hanson won the Market Development award. As chair of the American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA) in 2017, Tiefenthaler led efforts to better align the missions of allied cement and concrete associations, including an effort to launch PavementDesigner.org, which is a joint project between PCA, ACPA and National Ready Mixed Concrete Association. She has served on the executive board for the National Concrete Consortium, through which she has helped improve connections and outcomes for the cement and concrete industries with federal and state departments of transportation and academia. Finalists in this category were Bill Asselstine, Vice President Sustainability at St. Marys Cement/VCNA, and David Gray, Market Manager at GCC of America.

Gina Lotito, Vice President, Energy & Environmental, GCC of America won the Young Leaders award. She is an active member of the PCA Environment & Energy Committee, where she has been chair and vice chair of the Sustainable Manufacturing Subcommittee, and served on the Sustainable Development Committee. She has proven a leader in promoting the use of clean alternative fuels for cement production, and in federal advocacy efforts to lower regulatory barriers for using such fuels under the Non-Hazardous Secondary Materials Rule. Finalists in this category were Ed Griffith, Vice President Sales & Marketing, US at St. Marys Cement/VCNA and Adam Posly, Production Manager at LafargeHolcim US.

US: Illinois Cement has installed a Roll Gen System supplied by Martin Engineering at its La Salle plant in Illinois. The power station supplies energy to a remote conveyor location at the site. The patent-pending design uses the kinetic energy of the moving belt to generate enough electricity to drive an automated dust suppression system, a pneumatic belt cleaner tensioner and a series of air cannons, helping operators at the Illinois Cement Plant reduce dust and spillage, increase cargo flow efficiency and minimise labour costs for cleaning and maintenance.

The Martin Roll Gen System is designed to create a self-contained mini power station that allows operators to run electrical monitoring systems, safety devices and a variety of other components. Martin Engineering says that the device is considered a ‘significant’ step toward eliminating power production obstacles, as conveyors move into the next generation of ‘smart systems.’

“Running auxiliary power can be both complicated and costly, requiring expensive labour and oversized cables to accommodate the inevitable voltage drop over long runs, as well as transformers, conduit, junction boxes and other components,” said Andrew Timmerman, Product Development Engineer at Martin Engineering. “The entire project has been a success, particularly in how many man-hours we save in maintenance and upkeep. The tensioning system does a great job, and the Roll Gen puts out enough power that we’re considering adding an automated secondary cleaner and a vibrating dribble chute to capture even more carryback.”

Martin Engineering builds products for bulk materials handling. The company has it headquarters in Neponset, Illinois. It has offices in Brazil, China, France, Germany, Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Russia, South Africa, Turkey, India and the UK.

Malaysia: Lafarge Malaysia has allocated US$19.5m to spend on efficiency upgrades, including installing bag filters at its three plants. The project has started already with the commissioning of a new bag filter at its Kanthan plant for an investment of around US$5m. The upgrade to its Kanthan plant follows the installation of a vertical cement mill in 2016 at a cost of US$44m.

Uganda: Simba Cement has opened a new 1Mt/yr grinding plant in Tororo. The unit had an investment of US$45m, according to the Daily Monitor newspaper. The plant was built by Mepani Technical Services and construction started in early 2016. Simba Cement Uganda is a subsidiary of National Cement Kenya, which is part of Devki Group.

Rwanda: Construction work has started on Prime Cement’s new grinding plant in Musanze District. The subsidiary of Milbridge Group plans to complete the unit by mid-2019, according to the New Times newspaper. The plant is expected to have a cement production capacity of 0.7Mt/yr, with plans to expands this to 1.2Mt/yr. Denmark’s FLSmidth signed a deal with Prime Cement in 2017 to supply equipment for the plant. Once finished the plant is expected to create 600 jobs.

Tanzania: Charles Mwijage, the minister for Industry, Trade and Investment, has threatened to cancel the licences of so called cement ‘super-dealers’ if they fail to curb rising prices. Super-dealers are middlemen who acquire cement directly from the producers for sale to distributors, according to the Citizen newspaper. Mwijage made the comments on a tour of the Tanzania Portland Cement Company. He called on the management of the cement company to intervene in order to hold prices down for ends users. However, the cement company wants the government to take action itself against traders.

Ivory Coast: LafargeHolcim Ivory Coast has launched Bélier SuperBric. The 52.5N strength cement product is being marketed for its fast setting time, strength and economic advantages. The subsidiary of Switzerland’s LafargeHolcim is also using the product launch to promote its online sales platform, which offers delivery timing and tracking.

At the launch ceremony for the new product Felix Anoblé, the secretary of the state to the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Promotion of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises, said that local cement producers had invested US$130m on inreasing production capacity between 2015 and 2017. Production capacity rose to 7.2Mt/yr in 2018 from 2.9Mt/yr in 2015.

China: China National Building Material’s (CNBM) cement production volume fell by 5% year-on-year to 143Mt in the first half of 2018 from 150Mt in the same period in 2017. It has attributed this decrease to ‘flat’ demand, increased pressure on environmental protection and rising costs of fuel and raw materials. As part of its ‘Price – Cost – Profit’ (PCP) initiative the group has focused on reducing production capacity and output, implementing peak shifting production and eliminating old production facilities.

Despite the headwinds, the group’s sales revenue from its cement division rose by 22% to US$7.41bn from US$6.06bn. Its adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 38% to US$2.08bn from US$1.51bn. Average cement prices also rose year-on-year. External sales from its engineering companies increased by 13% to US$2.18bn from US$1.92bn. Overall, group sales revenue rose by 22% to US$14bn from US$11.5bn.

CNBM completed its merger with China National Materials Company (Sinoma) on 2 May 2018. Its cement producing subsidiaries include China Untied, South Cement, North Cement, Southwest Cement, Sinoma Cement, Tianshan Cement, Ningxia Building Materials and Qilianshan. Its engineering subsidiaries include Sinoma International, China Triumph and Sinoma Milling.

China: Huaxin Cement’s sales rose by 27% year-on-year to US$1.75bn in the first half of 2018 from US$1.38bn in the same period in 2017. Its net profit nearly tripled to US$304m from US$107m. Its cement and clinker sales volumes grew by 1.13% to 32.2Mt.

The cement producer said that it had been challenged by raw materials and fuel price rises and kiln suspensions due to government-mandated peak shifting production during the reporting period. However, measures such as higher alternative fuels co-processing rates and efficiency gains helped to bolster its financial performance. Its kiln waste processing volumes increased by 18.4% to 0.68Mt.

The company added that its Tibet Shannan 3rd Phase 3000t/day clinker production line was ‘proceeding smoothly’ and was scheduled to start operation by the end of August 2018. Its 4000t/day Yunnan Luquan clinker line and 2.85Mt/yr Huangshi clinker replacement line projects have started construction. In Nepal a 2800t/day clinker line is scheduled to start construction by the end of the year. It is also working on municipal solid waste (MSW) projects in Wuhan Changshankou and Lijiang.