South Korea: Sungshin Cement will become the new owner of bigger rival Halla Encom Corporation, a ready-mixed concrete (RMC) manufacturer from Halla Corporation, by purchasing an 85% stake in it for US$49.3m.

Sungshin said that it had signed a share purchase agreement by forming a consortium with BCH Peregrine Investment, a private equity fund, to take over Halla Encom. It said that that the purpose of the sale was to improve its financial soundness and raise funds for new businesses.

Halla Encom ranked seventh among South Korea’s eight RMC producers in 2017, producing 3.44Mm^₃ of concrete. Sungshin Cement was eigth, with shipments of 1.91Mm³. The combined entity is expected to become the third largest producer of RMC in South Korea, larger than Ssangyong Remicon (5.34Mm³) Sampyo Industry (7.59Mm³) and Eugene Corporation (7.5Mm³).

Kenya: East Africa Portland Cement Company (EAPCC) properties are set to be auctioned to recover US$13.9m owed to workers following the firm’s failure to fully implement a collective bargaining agreement (CBA).

The Kenya Chemical and Allied Workers Union (KCAWU) has already obtained the services of an auctioneer, who will start auctioning EAPCC property upon expiry of the notice. The auctioneer will be seeking to recover the money for more than 400 workers covered in the 2013–2015 CBA.

The said CBA was the subject of a dispute before the Labour Court and the Court of Appeal. EAPCC was aggrieved that the court had directed it to increase wages for contract employees.

Court of Appeal judges GBM Kariuki, Fatuma Sichale and Sankale ole Kantai, held that upon the contract staff who were not part of management becoming members of KCAWU on payment of union dues, they were entitled to benefit from the negotiated CBA.

Turkey: Shanghai Triumph Energy Conservation Engineering Co Ltd has won a waste heat recovery (WHR) project at Bartin Çimento from Turkey’s Sanko Holding, which operates the plant. It will have a recovery capacity of 5MW from the 3700t/day facility. The project will be carried out on an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) basis.

Shanghai Triumph plans to install two boilers and one power generation system. It will use two boilers from Mitsubishi Corporation, with the power generator likely to be sourced from Kubota Corporation.

France: LafargeHolcim has announced a Euro3.5m investment in a new mixer for its clinker and slag mill located on the port of Dunkirk. The new equipment is intended to further increase the site's production, which has been steadily increasing since it was commissioned in 2012. The mill will manufacture of cement with 40% clinker and 60% ground iron slag. Commissioning is scheduled for January 2019.

Uzbekistan: Uzbekistan imported cement worth a total of US$79.8m during the first half of 2018, six times more than in the same period of 2017, according to the State Statistics Committee of Uzbekistan. It was reported earlier that Uzbek cement production had decreased from 4.2Mt in the first half of 2017 to 3.9Mt in the first half of 2018.

Egypt: Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi inaugurated a cement and marble production complex worth US$1.1bn to the south of Cairo on 15 August 2018. The 500-hectare industrial complex is located 12km north of the Upper Egyptian governorate of Beni Suef.

It took 21 months to complete the complex, which includes three cement plants with a combined annual production capacity of 12Mt/yr. Egypt, through the Armed Forces Engineering Authority, worked together with 20 local and international companies on the project.
During the unveiling ceremony, Sisi said that such industrial projects would help reduce imports, while saving foreign currency and offering thousands of job opportunities to local people.

Mexico: Elementia has said that it will install a new cement grinding plant in Yucatán. It will invest US$30m and will start at a capacity of 0.25Mt/yr. Commercial operation is expected within the first half of 2019.

UK: The Times has reported on preliminary tests at Lancaster University, Lancashire, UK, which indicate that adding nanoplatelets from carrots and/or sugar beets to concrete significantly enhances its strength.

Including nanoplatelets is reported to increase the concentration of calcium silicate hydrate, leading directly to stronger cement. The researcher reported that, when platelets are added, 40kg less cement is required to make a cubic metre of concrete with the same strength as a sample that does not contain nanoplatelets. This leads to lower CO₂ emissions.

The team added that nanoplatelets performed better than other additives, such as graphene. The concrete made also had a denser microstructure, which helps to prevent corrosion, extending concrete life.

Costa Rica: Mexico’s Cemex has introduced its Cemex Go platform to the Costa Rican market. The new platform will enable customers to place orders, make payments, manage invoices and track deliveries in one place online. The new platform is available for mobile phones, tablets and computers. It has already been launched in nine countries and has over 13,000 users worldwide.

Indonesia: A Chinese company, in cooperation with PT Banggai Citra Lestari, has announced that it will build a cement factory in the district of Banggai, Central Sulawesi. It will be the first cement factory in the Province.

"We already carried out a survey for a location in the sub-district of Balantak and we already have the mining license," said Budi Kurniadi, CEO of PT Banggai Citra Lestari at a meeting with Central Sulawesi Governor Longki Djanggola. He was speaking alongside the project manager Wang Yong.

Kurniadi announced that his company and the unnamed Chinese partner would build a factory with a production capacity of 9.0Mt/yr of cement. Governor Longki Djanggola said he appreciated the plan and pledged to facilitate implementation of the project.