Philippines: Cemex’s subsidiary APO has stopped operations at its Barangay Tina-An cement plant in Naga during morning and afternoon/evening rush-hour to ease the city’s traffic congestion problem. The Philippine Star has reported that lorries dispatching cement from the 4.0Mt/yr integrated plant were a cause of traffic build-up on the Pan-Philippine Highway. Ignacio Mijares, President of Cemex Holdings Philippines, agreed to the restriction following a meeting with Gwendolen Garcia, Governor of Cebu Province. Representatives of Cemex and regional government will meet next week to discuss the working of the solution.

The disruption to production follows the introduction of tariffs of US$4.81/t on imported cement.

Kenya: East Africa Portland Cement Company (EAPCC) has declared an intention to sell two parcels of idle land in Machakos County totalling an area of 2000 acres. Business Daily reports that the 40-day leniency period in which for the company to clear its debts expires on 11 September 2019. Shareholders will vote at an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on 27 September 2019 on whether to sell the land. To sell the land, EAPCC must first evict 14,300 resident squatters.

Dominican Republic: The national total yield of cement rose to 2.81Mt in the six months to 30 June 2019 from 2.73Mt in the same period of 2018, an increase of 2.7% year-on-year. Data from the national cement industry association Adocem shows that 0.50Mt was exported over the period, 17.8% of the Dominican Republic’s production. The remaining cement boosted domestic sales by 5.2% to 2.31Mt from 2.19Mt in the first half of 2018, corresponding to a revenue of US$223m, up by 14.6% from US$195m in the half to 30 June 2018, on the back of rising demand from construction projects.

Brazil: Repsol Sinopec Brazil, Ouro Negro and the Mechanical Engineering Department of the Centre of Science and Technology at Rio de Janiero’s Pontifical Catholic University (PUC-Rio) are working together on a through tubing logging profile tool to assess cement quality in lined wells. Arbolas has reported that, where current technologies allow only for observation of anomalies located directly around the tool, the sought-after solution will facilitate detailed recording of the integrity of the adjacent layer. Ouro Negro Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Eduardo Costa has described the proposal to incorporate its TTilt technology into the Wellrobot, yielding continuous data feedback and thus reducing well interventions. The companies say that the prospect of reliable seal integrity testing for plugging and abandonment operations on fluid-bearing formations is of enormous economic and environmental import to numerous industries.

UK: Cemex has installed Patol’s Firesense linear heat detection cable (LHDC) at its 1.8Mt/yr integrated cement plant in Rugby. The installation uses a digital interface to monitor a zonal length of LHDC which will detect any overheating in the plant’s lubrication systems.

Australia: A general labourer and rigger who worked for Macweld Industries, contracted by Adelaide Brighton at its Birkenhead cement plant, is suing the cement company. The Advertiser has reported that the man is seeking damages for Adelaide Brighton’s ‘failure to take reasonable action to minimise risk of injury,’ which allegedly led to the man falling through a hole during upgrade works on the plant in 2016. The man previously received an unspecified sum in worker’s compensation benefits from his erstwhile employer.

Philippines: The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has introduced a customs duty on imported cement of US$4.81/t. The Manila Times reports that the measure is subject to annual review and will be in place for three years, decreasing by US$0.48/yr.

The government previously imposed a provisional tariff of US$4.02/t, in spite of protests from Vietnam that any executive action would be in contravention of World Trade Organisation rules. Philippine law allows for the imposition of such measures where an appointed advisory body has determined that increased imports ‘threaten to substantially cause injury to the domestic industry.’

The advisory body in question is the Tariff Commission, who in August 2019 recommended a tariff of US$5.68/t. Secretary of Trade and Industry Ramón López stated that the figure aims to address the threat with minimal impact on buyers. Cement prices in the country hit a low in early January 2019 of US$98.6/t, rising to US$108.25/t after the imposition of the provisional tariff.

Vietnamese producers will be the hardest hit by the price hike, with 75% of the Philippines’ imported cement originating in Vietnam. Asian Review reports that a further 18% comes from neighbouring China and 8% from Thailand.

Oman: Raysut Cement is planning the construction of a 1Mt/yr grinding plant in the port town of Duqm. The project has a cost of US$30m, with work set to begin on 19 September 2019. Oman Cement has been building a 1.8Mt/yr integrated cement production plant at Duqm since December 2018. The new grinding plant is Raysut Cement’s first development project since it received US$50.7m in funding from the Omani Bank Nizwa.

Argentina: Loma Negra has converted its 0.2Mt/yr San Juan integrated cement plant to grinding and bagging only. 14 people have resultantly lost their jobs, five of whom have accepted relocation to the company’s Catamarca plant. Catamarca is the largest of Loma Negra’s seven production facilities in Argentina, with a cement production capacity of 1.8Mt/yr.

Kenya: Rai Group must pay a guarantee of US$62.6m to forestall the sale of Athi River Mining (ARM) Cement. The Kenyan financial services company, owned by Jaswant Rai, is backing a claim by Pradeep Paunrana against PricewaterhouseCoopers over its administration of the sale of the publically-owned ARM Cement. Paunrana, erstwhile majority shareholder and managing director of ARM Cement, is contesting the cement company’s sale in May 2019 to Nairobi Cement, a subsidiary of Devki Group, for US$48.2m including a deposit of US$9.62m. Paunrana argues that the sale was unfair because ARM Cement was misvalued, having missed opportunities to sell its fertiliser and mineral production businesses due to pressures from potential buyers. Business Daily has reported that Paunrana previously submitted an unsuccessful bid in consortium with Rai Group to buy back the company for US$62.6m, also May 2019.