South Africa: PPC has reported that it has invested US$548,000 in the construction and installation of a pneumatic offloading facility including a 250t silo at its George Depot cement terminal in the Western Cape. The company said that this ‘allows the business to receive cement by rail, improving its turnaround to customers without compromising quality.’

Zimbabwe: Work has begun on a 43,000t/yr dry mortar production line at Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe’s 0.5Mt/yr Manresa plant in Harare. The plant, supplied by Turkey-based Varlik Industries, will increase the company’s mortar production capacity by 710% to 50,000t/yr from 7000t/yr. Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe chair Kumbirai Katsande said “The expansion project is three-pronged and will include doubling of cement capacity and tripling agricultural lime capacity as well as automation of the dry mortars plant.”

India: Cement Corporation of India has signed a memorandum of understanding with power supplier NHPC Limited in order to ‘address the cement requirement’ for the Dibang Multipurpose Project in Lower Dibang Valley district, Arunachal Pradesh. The project is aimed at the construction of a 2880MW hydroelectric power plant and gravity dam for flood control in the Dibang Valley.

Germany: Easyfairs Deutschland has announced that its Solids & Recycling-Technik Dortmund trade fair will not be taking place on 1 – 2 April 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. It has postponed the event to 24 – 25 June 2020, pursuant to a ‘general decree by the authorities,’ namely the City of Dortmund and the Ministry of Health of North Rhine Westphalia.

Easyfairs event director Sandrina Schempp told attendees, “Our team will actively contact you by telephone in the coming days regarding further procedures.”

Russia: Italy-based Buzzi UniCem subsidiary SLK Cement has concluded an environmental agreement with the Sverdlovsk Oblast Ministry of Energy and Housing and Communal Services for the co-processing of solid municipal waste at its 1.0Mt/yr Sukholozhskcement plant. AMF Online News has reported that the transition, part of a nationwide government initiative called simply ‘Ecology,’ entails a modernisation of the kiln line, which the company says will be commissioned in 2023 or 2024. SLK Cement general director Andrei Immoreev said that alternative fuels use will not only increase production efficiency, but will also contribute to solving the environmental problems of the region.”

Algeria: Fives has reported that it has installed and produced a batch of clinker with a new 6000t/day FCB kiln line at Entreprise des Ciments et Dérivés d'El Chellif (ECDE)’s integrated 1.0Mt/yr Chlef cement plant. When commissioned, the line will bring the plant’s capacity to 3.2Mt/yr.

Argentina: Loma Negra’s total comprehensive income in 2019 was US$61.8m, up by 3.7% year-on-year from US$59.6m in 2018. Its revenue fell by 15% to US$147m from US$173m in 2018. The company said that this was due to decreased demand in Argentina, where its cement, masonry and lime sales declined by 11% year-on-year to 1.28Mt of products from 1.44Mt in 2018, with bulk sales falling further than bagged. Profit growth was hampered by non-recurrent costs from cost-control and streamlining initiatives.

Loma Negra CEO Sergio Faifman said, “Argentina's business suffered more in 2019 than previously expected, however we were able to thrive and present results that we can feel proud of.” He lobbied the new government to adopt policies to ‘re-establish financial stability and economic growth.’

An expansion to Loma Negra’s 1.7Mt/yr integrated L’Amali plant is set to bring the plant’s capacity to 2.4Mt/yr when commissioned in mid-2020.

Vietnam: Cement producers in Vietnam are reported to be facing a ‘double whammy’ due to falling domestic demand from a slowdown in the domestic property and infrastructure sectors, as well as a marked decline in exports due to the ongoing Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic.

However, Nguyen Quang Cung, chairman of the Vietnam Cement Association (VNCA) said that demand is expected to remain high throughout 2020 as a whole. The Ministry of Construction (MoC) currently stands by its autumn 2019 forecast that Vietnam will produce 103Mt of cement during 2020. It expects domestic consumption to be around 70Mt, with exports of 33Mt.

To help firms overcome the current difficulties, Cung proposed that the government, the State Bank of Vietnam and other parties offer support to manufacturers in the form of tax cuts and lower interest rates.

Global Cement is sceptical that Vietnam’s cement producers will meet the MoC’s 2020 forecast. In January and February 2020 the country’s domestic sales were 40% lower year-on-year compared to 2019, while exports fell by 49% year-on-year.

France: Hoffman Green Cement Technologies, a pioneer in low-carbon cement production, has announced the publication of its Life Cycle Inventories (LCI) in the INIES database, France’s national reference database for environmental and health performance in the construction sector.

The LCI published by Hoffmann Green summarises all incoming and outgoing flows of raw materials and energy resources used to manufacture its H-UKR and H-EVA cements to allow an assessment of the environmental impacts. They will serve as input data for the software that carries out the life cycle analysis of a construction product, often comprising several materials.

H-UKR is a binder that is based on alkali-activated blast furnace slag, which is sold into the precast concrete, ready-mix concrete and bagged cement markets. H-EVA is a high ettringite binder that is used in the mortar, coatings, road binder and ready-mixed concrete markets.

Julien Blanchard and David Hoffmann, the company’s founder’s stated, "The publication of the LCI of our cements is a first in France and is part of our determined ambition to decarbonise the construction sector and be fully transparent vis-à-vis all our stakeholders. It also illustrates our commitment in the face of the climate change emergency and the need to reconcile cement and the environment.”

Panama: Guatemala-based Cemento Progreso, which acquired Cemento Interoceanico on 21 November 2019, has shared plans to expand its 0.25Mt/yr La Chorrera plant to 0.3Mt/yr production capacity. Noticias Financieras News has reported that the company will also establish three new concrete plants, in David, Chiriquí province, Columbus, Columbus province, and Tocumen, Panama province. Through these it hopes to serve major infrastructure projects such as the construction of a fourth Panama canal bridge and to increase its cement market share from 10%.