Germany: HeidelbergCement expects increasing sales volumes for its cement, aggregate and ready-mix concrete products in 2019. It plans to raise its prices to regain margins it lost in 2018. The building materials producer also intends to continue the cost cutting programme it started in November 2018. It said that energy cost inflation, improvements in Indonesia, Europe and North America, and new state infrastructure projects should result in a ‘solid result improvement.’

“In view of our strong positioning in raw material reserves and production sites in attractive locations, the unique vertical integration, our excellent product portfolio, and our industry-leading margin management, we believe we are well equipped for the opportunities and challenges of 2019,” said Bernd Scheifele, chairman of the managing board of HeidelbergCement. He added that the group will continue the digitalisation process of its entire value chain in order to further improve operational excellence.

Kuwait: Saudi Arabia’s Qassim Cement has signed a contract with the Al-Aradah Building Materials Company to export cement to Kuwait. It has agreed to transport 120,000t of cement until the end of 2019. The financial impact of the deal will be disclosed in the cement producer’s financial results later in the year.

Mexico/US: Cemex has entered into a global agreement with Petuum to implement its Industrial AI Autopilot software products for autonomous cement plant operations at its plants around the world. The products for cement plant operations are being deployed at select Cemex USA and Mexico plants and will continue to be rolled out in 2019.

"We expect our yield improvements and energy savings to be up to 7%, from the connected AI-based autopilots, which is game-changing for our industry,” said Rodrigo Quintero, Operations Digital Technologies Manager at Cemex.

Petuum says that its Industrial AI Autopilot suite of products can deliver real-time forecasts for key process variables, prescriptions for critical control variables and supervised autosteer aligned with business objectives for all cement plant operations including clinker cooler, preheater, rotary kiln, pyro-process, ball mill and vertical mill processes to achieve lowered energy consumption, optimised fuel mix and increased throughput while maintaining stable operation and product quality. The products are integrated with plant control systems and OSIsoft PI data infrastructure for scalable and standardised deployments across multiple lines and plants globally.

The joint Cemex and Petuum teams achieved a cruise-control-like supervised ‘autosteer mode,’ where the AI Autopilot could run operations with full engage-disengage control available to the operator.

To find out more about Pettum visit: https://petuum.com/

Poland: Lafarge Poland delivered over 0.2Mm³ of ready-mix concrete (RMX) in 2018 for use in various infrastructure initiatives including road expansion projects. In 2019 the company plans to produce 0.32Mm² of concrete surfacing for a motorway extension. The subsidiary of LafargeHolcim set up its LH Engineering business in 2017 to help implement infrastructure projects. It offers engineering services and the delivery of building materials, including RMX, aggregates and other products.

Germany: Cemex has received certification from the Concrete Sustainability Council (CSC) certification for five of its ready-mix concrete (RMX) plants in Berlin and Potsdam. The CSC acts as a certification system, grading building materials facilities on environmental, social and governance practices throughout supply chains. The auditing was conducted by Kiwa Deutschland, an independent certification body recognised by the CSC.

US: The Portland Cement Association (PCA) forecasts that cement consumption will grow by 2.3% year-on-year in 2019. It is a slight drop from the rate of 2.6% it previously forecast in November 2018.

“While there are several phenomena that confront the economy in the next two years, the PCA believes the economy is strong,” said Ed Sullivan, PCA Senior Vice President and Chief Economist. He added that rising interest rates are expected to drag on economic growth, leading to a slowdown in private construction. Cement consumption is expected to slow as a result.

The PCA also said in its Spring Forecast that rising state deficits had forced many states to adjust budgets, reduce costs, and re-prioritise spending. Infrastructure spending had been falling in priority as a consequence. In the medium term the PCA expects cement consumption growth to soften until 2021. It then thinks that President Donald Trump’s supplemental infrastructure initiative will arrive in 2022 leading back to increased cement consumption.

Italy: The Legislative Assembly of Umbria has approved a motion to preserve Cemitaly’s Spoleto cement plant. Guidelines presented by various political parties have also called on the Ministry of Economic Development to help cordinate the relaunch of the plant, according to the La Nazione newspaper. HeidelbergCement’s subsidiary Italcementi acquired Cementir and the Spoleto plant in 2017. In February 2019 unions at the unit were told that the cement producer was selling the plant to the newly created company Spoleto Cementir.

Germany: Cemex has reached a binding agreement to sell its aggregates and ready-mix concrete assets in the north and northwest regions of Germany to GP Günter Papenburg for around Euro87m. It expects to sign the final agreement in April 2019 and close the divestment during the second quarter of 2019.

The assets in Germany being divested consist of four aggregates quarries and four ready-mix concrete (RMX) plants in north Germany, and nine aggregates quarries and fourteen RMX plants in northwest Germany.

The proceeds expected to be obtained from this divestment will be used mainly for debt reduction and for general corporate purposes. The transaction is subject to standard regulatory approval.

Kenya: The Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) has approved the acquisition of Cemtech by Simba Cement. CAK said that, as Cemtech had been dormant for a decade, its purchase would revive the company, create jobs and improve the economy in West Pokot County.

Simba Cement is a subsidiary of Devki Group and it trades under the National Cement brand. Cemtech is a subsidiary of India’s Sanghi Group. It has been attempting to build a cement plant in West Pokot since 2010. The acquisition includes Cemtech’s land, business intellectual property, business records, equipment, goodwill, licenses, stock and third party rights.

Data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics used by CAK showed the leading companies in the country’s cement sector by market share were: Bamburi Cement (33%), Mombasa Cement (16%), East African Portland Cement (15%), Savannah Cement (15%), National Cement (8%) and Athi River Mining Africa (13%).

Niger: President Issoufou Mahamadou has inaugurated Malbaza Cement Company’s plant at Malbaza. The US$83m plant has a production capacity of 0.65Mt/yr, according to the Le Sahel newspaper. It produced its first cement in late December 2018. It has 347 employees.