Mexico: Cemex recorded sales of US$4.04bn in the first quarter of 2023, up by 8% year-on-year from US$3.73bn a year earlier. The producer recorded operating earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of US$733m, up by 7% year-on-year from US$685m. This was despite a 9% year-on-year decline in group cement sales volumes to 14.4Mt from 15.8Mt. First-quarter 2023 cement volumes fell by 3% in Mexico, by 19% in the US, by 10% in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia and by 8% in South, Central America and the Caribbean.

Cemex retained its guidance of a low single-digit year-on-year increase in operating EBITDA in 2023. It also expects its energy cost per tonne of cement produced to rise by 10%.

France: Vicat's first-quarter sales were Euro899m in 2023, up by 14% year-on-year from US$789m during the first quarter of 2022. In France sales rose by 9.6% to Euro297m. In the Americas sales rose by 9% to Euro198m. In the Mediterranean region sales rose by 94% to Euro104m and in Africa sales rose by 21% to Euro108m. Meanwhile, sales remained roughly level year-on-year in Asia and Europe (excluding France), at Euro112m and Euro81m respectively.

Chair and CEO Guy Sidos said “Vicat’s first-quarter performance demonstrates the strong resilience of demand in its main markets, which translated into a sharp increase in its consolidated sales when compared to very good first-quarter 2022 figures. Amid changeable winter weather conditions, especially in California, the group has pushed ahead with the ramp-up in its new installation in Alabama and accelerated its strategy of improving its manufacturing performance and shifting away from fossil fuels to achieve its operational, environmental and social objectives.”

US: Eagle Materials has completed its acquisition of Martin Marietta's cement import and distribution business in Northern California. The business is centred on the Stockton cement terminal in San Joaquin County. Eagle Materials hopes that the new business will enable it to extend and strengthen its reach across its heartland US cement sales network.

President and chief executive officer Michael Haack said "Our Nevada Cement operations have long-standing customer relationships in Northern California, and this acquisition will uniquely position us to better serve these and new customers with complementary imported product. Our entire cement system is currently 'sold out,' and this acquisition will enable us to more actively participate in the strong US demand environment."

Vietnam: Vietnam National Cement Association (VNCA) members produced 40Mt of cement during the first four months of 2023. The volume corresponds to a 4.8% drop from four-month 2022 levels.

Vietnam produced 116Mt of cement in 2022, up by 5.8% year-on-year from 2021 levels.

Mexico: Switzerland-based building materials group Holcim concluded a deal to acquire the Mexican roofing producer PASA on 3 May 2023. PASA employs 250 people, and generated sales of US$38m throughout 2022.

Holcim said that the deal will help to expand its products and solutions business, an area in which it has now made five acquisitions to date in 2023. Chief executive officer Jan Jenisch expects the group to acquire 30 companies throughout 2023, of which it already acquired 12 during the first quarter of the year.

Pakistan: Lucky Cement’s sales totalled US$1.2bn during the first nine months of the 2023 financial year, a rise of 28% year-on-year from US$941m during the corresponding period in the 2022 financial year. The Balochistan Times newspaper has reported that Lucky Cement attributed the growth to the commencement of operations of its new subsidiary, utilities provider Lucky Electric Power. The company increased its profit after tax by 83%, to US$172m.

Lucky Cement commissioned its Pezu cement plant’s new Line 2 at the end of the second quarter of the 2023 financial year. This increased the company’s installed production capacity by 26% to 15.3Mt/yr. The producer also inaugurated a new 34MW solar power plant, and completed negotiations for another, 25MW, solar power plant at its Karachi cement plant. The latest solar power plant is scheduled for commissioning later in 2023.

India: Ambuja Cement’s sales rose by 8.4% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2023, to US$520m, from US$483m in the first quarter of 2022. The company’s earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) declined marginally to US$96.4m. Costs rose by 12% to US$453m from US$404m.

During the quarter under review, Ambuja Cement made a milestone payment on an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract under its planned capacity expansion strategy. It subsequently foreclosed the contract, recovering its US$222m advance, ‘in cognisance’ of on-going investigations into its parent company Adani Group.

Ambuja Cement’s chief executive officer Ajay Kapur said "We are pleased to report another strong performance of Ambuja Cement, which has been driven by our strategic initiatives on business excellence, operational efficiencies and synergies. Our focus on operational excellence and cost optimisation measures has yielded improved profitability. We have been able to maintain our growth trajectory and further strengthen our position in the market. With the rise in construction activities across our markets, we see the continuation of the elevated demand and strong volumes in the coming quarters as well.”

India: The state government of Assam has issued Purbanchal Cement with a notice to vacate illegally occupied land in Saraturi. The Sentinel newspaper has reported that the cement producer reportedly used a ‘duplicate registration paper’ to occupy 100 hectares of land in the South Kamrup Tribal Belt.

The All Assam Tribal Sangha (AATS) welcomed the authorities’ action, and called for the closure of Purbanchal Cement’s ‘main plant,’ in order to ‘free’ the tribal belt.

India: Ramco Cements will despatch 300t of its cement from Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port in Kolkata, Bengal, on 4 May 2023. The shipment is destined for the Northeast Indian state of Mizoram. Press Trust of India News has reported that the delivery will dock at Sittwe Port, Myanmar, before re-entering India by road at the Zorinpui border crossing.

The shipment is a trial of a new route to connect the main part of India to Northeast India.

Afghanistan: State-owned Jabal al-Saraj Cement has served eviction notices to 40 families living in company accommodation. Hasht e Subh News has reported that the occupants are the families of former Jabal al-Saraj Cement employees who worked at the company’s cement plant for a minimum of 30 years, as per a pre-existing agreement between the cement producer and employees.

Cement production at the Jabal al-Saraj cement plant has been suspended since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in mid-2021.