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A recent BBC television documentary explained the rise of low-cost airlines in the UK in the early 1990s. With news of an independent cement grinding plant in western France doing the rounds this week, we ask could the same revolution happen in the cement industry?

Back in the early 1990s following deregulation in the European aviation industry, smaller airlines took the opportunity to try a different model to the larger national carriers. Taking cost-cutting ideas from the US-based Southwest Airlines (deregulation had occurred earlier in the US) new companies like Ryanair and EasyJet burst into the short haul market, seizing market share and changing people's attitudes to air travel. For example, low to medium income males going on a 'British Gentlemen' stag (bachelor) party to a European destination such as Ayia Napa or Riga would have been unthinkable before the mid-1990s.

Flying passengers around Europe and producing cement are clearly radically different businesses. However, Kercim Cements' objective to produce 600,000t of cement and take a 10% share of the local market near Saint-Nazaire in Loire-Atlantique department of France stands out. With the European cement industry in decline and endless stories about cement exporting nations flooding developing markets, taking a grinding-led business model suddenly sounds considerably more competitive.

In addition, an independent company importing clinker from non-EU countries might also benefit from not being subject to quota allocations of CO₂. This issue was raised from a different angle earlier in 2013, when Irish company Ecocem complained about large cement producers making profits from the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) despite reduced production.

Thinking around grinding as the model for an industry step-change, one of the presenters at the Global CemTrader conference in May 2013 was Moisés Nunez of Cemengal. He spoke about 'Plug&Grind', his company's low-cost modular grinding plant technology. Essentially, the Spanish company can fit a grinding station into 15 shipping containers and assemble the grinding unit wherever the client can transport it to. Once again, this sounds perfect for a global cement industry that is making too much clinker.

As this column has reported previously, Africa is the ideal target for a low-cost grinding-led business model given its overall high level of demand for cement. Any cement business near the coast has been under intense competition from imports. So much so, that former PPC (Portland Pretoria Cement) head Paul Stuiver stated that any African facility built within 200km of a port was at risk. Could French and other EU-based coastal cement plants also be at risk? With the cost of production and transport on the rise, the low-cost grinding model may even work in Europe. The beauty of the Cemengal system is that it is mobile so that it can follow market opportunity.

As the Economist recently pointed out in a review of the global cement industry, it is an industry dominated by a small number of companies. High cost of entry, high transport costs by road and other factors mean that this is unlikely to change anytime soon. Yet, exports by sea provide some level of increased competition. Both of the grinding projects mentioned above rely on this fact. Let's wait and see what happens.

Ireland: Donald A McGovern, Jr will join the board of CRH as a non-executive director effective from 1 July 2013.

McGovern, a US national aged 62 years, is currently Vice Chairman for Global Assurance at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), a position he has held since July 2008. McGovern will retire from PwC on 30 June 2013, following a 39 year career with the firm, during which time he directed the US firm's services for a number of large public company clients. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and holds a Master's Degree in Business.

Germany: Minister Eveline Lemke has presented a medal for outstanding commitment to the economy in Rhineland-Palatinate to Irene Scheidweiler, one of the joint founders of Vecoplan. Lemke described Scheidweiler as a model for younger generations.

Scheidweiler founded the recycling technology firm based in Bad Merienberg in 1969, when she was aged 22. In 1995 Vecoplan AG became a subsidiary of MAX Automation AG of Dusseldorf. Today the company employs more than 400 staff at locations in Germany, the US, UK, Austria and Spain.

Dominican Republic: The Dominican Association of Cement Producers (Adocem) swore in Carlos Gonzalez as its president for 2013 – 2014. Gonzalez, who is also president of Cemex in the country, joins Gabriel Ballestas of Cementos Argos as treasurer and Jose Caceres of Cementos Cibao as secretary.

Germany: Haver & Boecker has successfully completed the first international orders for its new stocking and conveying subsidiary, Haver Intra Logistics Systems (Haver ILS). The subsidiary company, based in Bad Oldesloe in northern Germany, was created earlier in 2013.

Previously Haver produced chain conveyors, roll conveyors, rotary tables, pallet magazines, lifts and other intra-logistical system solutions via Feige Filling, another Haver subsidiary for filling liquid and pasty products. The development, engineering and production areas of all the group members were recently centralised so that the new company could operate as a full-liner within the entire group. The entire conveyor technology for empty and filled package units – including buckets, canisters, drums sacks and empty or full pallets with palletised products – is now supplied by Haver ILS.

Russia: The State Corporation Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs (Vnesheconombank) has agreed with HSBC Bank to extend additional credit facilities worth up to Euro25.2m for the construction of a cement plant in the Kaluga region by the Kaluga Cement Plant company. Credit facilities are to be extended for a total period of up to eight and a half years against insurance coverage of Denmark's Export Insurance Agency, EksportKreditFonden. This project will help to develop production facilities and create new jobs.

Uzbekistan: A new cement plant build in the Jizakh region of Uzbekistan plans to install its mill by early 2013. The plant will have a production capacity of 0.35Mt/yr of white cement and 0.76Mt/yr of grey OPC.

The project was initiated in July 2012 when Almalyk Mining and Metallurgical Complex (AMMC) and Turkey's Dal Teknik Makina signed a contract worth US$114m. Finance came from a US$74.2m loan from the Fund for Reconstruction and Development of Uzbekistan and AMMC contributed of US$40m. In June 2013 Dal Teknik Makina placed an order with Gebr. Pfeiffer SE for a Pfeiffer MPS 3350 B vertical roller mill.

China: Sinoma has announced that its subsidiary Ningxia Building Materials has agreed to acquire a 55% equity interest in Wuhai Xishui Cement held by Xishui Strong Year for a cash consideration of US$43m. Wuhai Xishui Cement is currently owned by Ningxia Building Materials (45%) and Xishui Strong Year (55%).

Nepal: Ghorahi Cement has launched its Sagarmatha brand cement. Director Aditya Sanghai said, "By manufacturing high grade cement in the country, we aim to substitute imports from India and China. Our goal is to substitute imports of cement and clinker worth more than US$100m/yr."

India: Sagar Cements has prepared a US$20m plan to build a 7km-long railway line connecting its cement plant at Matampally in the Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh. Executive Director Sreekanth Reddy said that the proposed line is expected to be complete by 2015 and dispatches by rail are expected to rise by 20% subsequently.

In Sagar Cement's last financial year, which ended on 31 March 2013, it dispatched 1.55Mt of which 39,500t were transported by rail. Sales of Sagar's products outside Andhra Pradesh have been steadily increasing and accounted for 46% of total sales in the last financial year, according to an official spokesperson.