India: Private equity company True North has purchased a 54% stake in Shree Digvijay for a reported US$17m from Brazil’s Votorantim Cementos. Other companies bought the rest of Votorantim’s 75% share in the business, according to Bloomberg. True North signed a deal to buy the cement producer in late 2018. Shree Digvijay operates an integrated cement plant at Jamnagr in Gujarat.

Pakistan: Maple Leaf Cement has commissioned a new 7300t/day production line at its Iskanderabad plant. The upgrade will increase the unit’s total production to 18,000t/day. The line was supplied by Denmark’s FLSmidth. The total cost of the project was US$184m. Commercial production on the new line is scheduled to start in late April 2019.

Iraq: Pakistan’s Attock Cement has commissioned its new grinding plant in Basra. Civil, mechanical and electrical construction work on the unit was finished in January 2019.

Saudi Arabia: Arabian Cement says that the National Electricity Transmission Company plans to complete an expansion to a high-voltage plant in Rabigh by the third quarter of 2021. The project has been delayed but the cement producer said that this will have no financial impact, according to Mubasher. Arabian Cement originally signed an agreement with the National Electricity Transmission Company to supply electricity to its Rabigh plant in 2015. In November 2018 it said that an upgrade to its cement mills was 80% complete.

Rwanda: Raymond Murenzi, the director general of the Rwanda Bureau of Standards (RBS), says that cement imported from Uganda in March 2019 was blocked because it did not meet minimum quality requirements. The imported product was found to be below the designated weight of 50kg, according to the New Times newspaper. Three trucks with 30t loads of cement from Hima Cement were prevented from crossing the border.

Previously, similar issues have occurred dating back to 2015 and the RBS has notified the supplier on each occasion. The company is then given 14 days to re-export the goods.

Poland: Data from the Cement Producers Association (SPC) shows that cement production grew by 12% year-on-year to 18.9Mt in 2019. Concrete production rose by 6.8% to 25.3Mm³. This was attributed to a growing construction sector, according to the Polish News Bulletin. Both cement and concrete production is expected to continue growing in 2019 to 19Mt and 26.2Mm³ respectively.

Netherlands: Ferus Smit has launched MV Shetland at its Westerbroek Yard. The 8000DWT vessel is the third dedicated cement carrier built for JT Cement, a joint venture between Sweden’s Erik Thun and Norway’s Jebsen Cement.

The ship is equipped with a liquefied natural gas (LNG) fuelled propulsion system to reduce its emissions. It incorporates a 200m³ pressurised LNG tank positioned in the foreship. The cement cargo system will consist of a fully automated cement loading and unloading system, based on fluidisation of cement by means of compressed air.

Tajikistan: The Ministry of Industry and New Technologies (MOINT) says that Tajik-Chinese joint ventures Chzhungtsai Mohir Cement, Huaxin Gayur Cement, and Huaxin Gayur Sughd Cement accounted for nearly 85% of local cement production in the first three months of 2019. Overall production grew by 9% year-on-year to 0.84Mt from 0.75Mt in the same period in 2018, according to the Asia-Plus News Agency. Around 36% of production was exported with more than 150,000t of cement to Uzbekistan, more than 140,000t of cement to Afghanistan and nearly 12,000t of cement to Kyrgyzstan. Tajikistan has 13 cement plants with a total production capacity of 4.7Mt/yr.

Kenya: Bamburi Cement’s profit before tax fell to US$6.73m in 2018 from US$40.7m in 2017. Its turnover rose by 4% to US$369m from US$356m. Its cement volumes grew by 5%. It blamed the drop in profits on increasing energy and raw material costs. The subsidiary of LafargeHolcim noted that the market delinked by 5% in Kenya, its primary market, and was ‘flat’ in Uganda. It also noted ‘increased competitive pressure’ due to cement grinding production capacity and the ‘shrinking’ market.

Kenya: Employees of the East African Portland Cement Company (EAPCC) have filed an application at the Court of Appeal to jail the company’s directors for not paying them. The workers argue that, despite both the labour and appellate courts having directed that they be paid, the company directors have failed to comply, according to the Business Daily newspaper. Over 400 workers were awarded nearly US$14m under a 2012 - 2015 collective bargaining agreement (CBA).