Nigeria: China’s CBMI and LafargeHolcim have held a signing ceremony for a 5000t/day cement plant upgrade project near Ewekoro. The deal follows previous collaborations between the companies in the country, including work at Ewekoro and Unicem.

India: Anjani Portland Cement plans to build a new clinker production line at its Chintalapalem plant at Gudimalkapuram in Telangana. The plant has a production capacity of 1.16Mt/yr and this will rise to 2.31Mt/yr once the upgrade is complete. The project is expected to cost US$61m. It is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2019.

India: A public hearing for a proposed cement plant to be built by Shree Cement at Ghantikhal in Odisha has caused concern among local residents. According to a report in the Pioneer newspaper, no local people were allowed to speak at the event. The hearing was held to obtain permission from the Odisha State Pollution Control Board for the project.

Belarus: A worker has been killed in an accident at the Krasnaselskbudmateryyaly cement plant in Vawkavysk. The 32 year old contractor was cleaning a heat exchanger in a storage facility when a layer of cement fell on him and a co-worker, according to the Belarusian Private News Agency. The man died at the scene from asphyxia. His colleague was taken to hospital with injuries. An investigation into the incident has started.

Syria: An investigation by the Agence France Presse has found that one local employee of Lafarge in Syria was killed and another has been missing for five years. According to the news agency, Syrian mechanic Yassin Ismail, who was employed at Lafarge's plant at Jalabiya, was kidnapped by jihadist fighters in 2013. He was subsequently executed, according to relatives and former work colleagues. Another mechanic Abdul al-Homada, was disappeared in Aleppo in 2013 while attempting to collect his salary.

LafargeHolcim is being investigated in France over claims that Lafarge Syria had paid extremist groups to keep its Jalabiya cement plant operational after the outbreak of war in Syria. Six former Lafarge executives have been charged with financing a terrorist organisation. Those managers could also face prosecution for endangering the lives of their local Syrian employees after 11 of them filed their own lawsuit alleging that Lafarge put financial profit before their personal safety.

Turkey: Germany’s KHD Humboldt Wedag plans to increase its field staff at its office in Istanbul. They will primarily work on site in supervision for assembly and commissioning. The engineering company added that it intends to continue to increase its workforce in the country and that ‘experienced and well-trained cement experts’ should apply proactively.

Thailand: Golden Lime, a subsidiary of Carmeuse and GP Group, has acquired a 99.9% stake in Thailand’s fourth largest lime company Saraburi Quicklime. Carmeuse says that this is the first acquisition among lime producers in the country. With the commissioning of a new production site early in 2018 and the acquisition of Saraburi Quicklime, Golden Lime’s production capacity has grown to 0.5Mt/yr from 0.33Mt/yr. No value for the deal has been disclosed.

Nigeria: Dangote Cement’s sales revenue rose in 2017 but its sales volumes of cement fell. Its revenue rose by 31% year-on-year to US$2.23bn in 2017 from US$1.70bn in 2016. However, sales volumes of cement in Nigeria fell by 15.9% to 12.7Mt from 15.1Mt. Altogether, its sales volumes rose by 8.4% to 9.37Mt in the rest of Africa and fell by 7% to 21.9Mt in total. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 50.9% to US$1.08bn from US$713m.

“Although Nigerian volumes were lower in 2017, our Pan-African operations increased volumes by 8.4% and now make up 42% of the Group’s total cement sales, demonstrating the robust diversification of our business,” said Joe Makoju, Acting Group Chief Executive Officer of Dangote Cement. He added that the cement producer had increased its footprint from eight countries to 10 during the reporting period with the opening of new facilities in the Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone, while its operations in Cameroon, Senegal and Ethiopia achieved ‘strong’ sales growth during the year.

Regionally, Dangote Cement said that its estimate for the total Nigerian cement market fell by 18% to 18.6Mt in 2017 due to a recession in the first half of the year and higher prices. It also noted that its Gboko plant in Benue State was mothballed for ‘most of the year.’ Elsewhere, it said that it exported 174,000t of cement from Nigeria to Ghana. In Senegal it introduced 32.5R cement to its product range. In Sierra Leone it opened a 0.5Mt/yr terminal and bagging plant in Freetown in early 2017. In Tanzania it said that its plant at Mtwara had lost earnings due to its reliance on temporary diesel generators. Gas turbines are scheduled to start operation in March 2018.

China: Dongwu Cement has forecast that its sales revenue will rise by 60% year-on-year to US$56.4m in 2017 from US$35.2m in 2016. It has attributed the boost to increased sales volumes and the price of cement, according to ET News. Its profit is forecast to more than double to US$10.7m from US$2.37m. The cement producer will release its full annual results later in March 2018.

Indonesia: Indocement has inaugurated a 0.5Mt/yr at Palembang in South Sumatra. The terminal has two cement silos and a packaging plant, according to Warta Ekonomi magazine. The new unit will allow the cement producer to sell bulk cement and it is expected to increase its presence in Sumatra.