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A group of news stories from Central Asia and Azerbaijan this week present a good opportunity to look at the cement industry in this part of the world.

Uzbekistan

Eurocement has announced that it plans to build a 2.4Mt/yr cement plant near to Tashkent. Chinese contractors have been signed for the work in line with the Russia-based cement producer's other plant builds in 2014. Eurocement also operate a subsidiary in the country, the 1.6Mt/yr Akhangarancement cement plant, that reported a criminal investigation and financial audit following various misdemeanours in April 2014.

Also in April 2014 the Almalyk Mining-Metallurgical Combine (AMMC) proposed building a 1.5Mt/yr cement plant in the south of the country and then commissioning of a white cement plant in the central Jizzakh Province. Both the Eurocement and AMMC projects show that organisations are investing in the local market of the region's most populous country at around 30m.

Turkmenistan

In neighbouring Turkmenistan the TurkmenCement Production Association has issued a tender this week for the construction of a 1Mt/yr clinker plant in the central-south of the country in the Baharly District of the Akhal Region. If realised, the new plant will raise Turkemistan's cement production capacity to 4Mt/yr. Currently the country has three state-operated plants. The most recent, the 1.4Mt/yr Garlyk plant, was commissioned in February 2013.

Kazakhstan

An investor has stepped forward to finance the completion of the delayed Khantau cement plant in Zhambyl region in southern Kazakhstan. The 0.5Mt/yr plant was originally started in 2007 before being mothballed part-way through construction.

The reignition of this project follows a couple of stories from Kazakhstan including a report on testing at the HeidelbergCement Caspi cement plant in Mangistau region and the start of operation on Line 5 of Steppe Cement's Karaganda Cement. Kazakhstan has more western international cement producers, unlike the generally state-run companies in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. HeidelbergCement will join plants run by Italcementi and Vicat.

Azerbaijan

Finally, on the other side of the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijani local media has reported that cement production for the first half of 2014 has risen by 40% year-on-year to 1.1Mt. Following the opening of the Gazakh cement plant in mid-2013 the country has three cement plants with a combined cement production capacity of nearly 5Mt/yr.

Germany: Dirk Hoke took over as CEO of the Large Drives Business Unit of the Siemens Drive Technologies Division on 1 July 2014. Large Drives develops, manufactures and markets products, systems, solutions and services for drive engineering in industrial and infrastructure applications as well as sectors such as marine engineering, mining, cement, pulp and paper.

Hoke, a 45 year-old graduate engineer, joined Siemens in 1996 and started his career at the Transportation Systems Division. Subsequently Hoke held management posts in rail electrification, traction technology, and power supplies at Siemens locations in Germany and other countries. After serving for several years as CEO of Siemens' Cluster Africa and Siemens Morocco, in 2011 he took over leadership of the Industry Solutions Division before being appointed to head the Siemens Division Customer Services in October 2011.

India: UltraTech Cement has announced that M Damodaran, the company's Independent Director, has resigned from the board with effect from 20 June 2014. Damodaran has cited increasing work load and time commitments as well as the need to reduce his board level engagements as the reasons for stepping down.

Vietnam: Vietnam produced 29.5Mt/yr of cement in the first half of 2014, a year-on-year rise of 7%, according to the General Statistics Office. Notably in June 2014 cement production rose by 19% to 5.4Mt. In 2013, Vietnam's cement output hit 56.8Mt/yr.

Azerbaijan: Cement production has risen by 40% year-on-year to 1.1Mt for the first half of 2014. The rise has been attributed to the operations of the new market players in the country according to local media.

Cement imports into Azerbaijan by value have fallen by 19% to US$50m compared to a rise of 46% to US$61.5m of clinker and cement in the first five months of 2013. Imports are now expected to fall by 20% in 2014 and 2015.

In the whole of 2013 some 2Mt of cement was produced locally and 2.6Mt of clinker and cement was imported. Azerbaijan's three main cement producers, Holcim, Qazax Sement Zavodu and Norm, are planning to manufacture 4.5Mt in 2015. In addition there are approximately ten small producing companies in Azerbaijan.

Fiji/Vanuatu: Pacific Cement Limited, a Fijian Holding Group company that was formerly known as Fiji Industries Limited, has labelled its branded cement project a success. For the past 12 months Pacific Cement has been making cement for home brands, whereby customers select the brand. The company's original brand, Pacific Cement, has been on the market for more than 40 years. However, the emerging market trend is that distributors wish to have their own cement brand.

"We started with our distributor in Port Vila, Vanuatu," said Pacific Cement Limited's acting general manager, Sonni Dutt. "The distributor requested cement under his own brand and we supplied it. After 12 months, the response has been extremely good and exports from Fiji under the new brand have increased. The biggest advantage under this business model is that we don't need to do any marketing."

Pacific Cement has also commenced the same process in Fiji, with two key distributors requesting cement under their own brand. "We are trying to get more customers and we are in fact expecting a few more to come on board," said Dutt. "So that has become a loyalty between the supplier and the customer and presents a win-win situation for both parties."

Kazakhstan: Yug Cement Stroi LLP has emerged as a new investor to help finish the previously mothballed 0.5Mt/yr Khantau cement plant in Zhambyl Region. The company, acting as a strategic partner, has borrowed US$29m for seven years from Bank RBK to finance the completion of the plant's construction. It is intended that the plant will reach full cement production capacity in the autumn of 2014.

The Khantau cement plant has a design capacity of 0.36Mt/yr of clinker and 0.5Mt/yr of Portland cement with grades M400 and M500. The Hengyuan International Engineering Group has supplied technology for the plant. Its raw materials are extracted from the Khantau limestone deposit, Khantau sand and gravel deposit and the Ulkensai clay deposit located near the plant.

In 2007, ACIG borrowed US$30m from the Development Bank of Kazakhstan for the construction of this cement plant. At the time the plant was 85% complete and mothballed due to the shortage of funds. In 2013, the project was transferred from the Development Bank to the Investment Fund of Kazakhstan.

Sweden/Colombia: Swedish engineering firm SKF has signed a three-year deal with Cementos Argos to provide engineering products and services for its operations in Colombia. SKF will provide everything from bearings, housings and seals to training and application engineering, to support Argos' operations in 10 plants throughout the country. Argos has expanded the scope of the agreement to include seals and more bearing products than SKF had supplied previously.

"SKF has an extensive partnership to support Argos in maximising the utilisation and reliability of its assets, thereby achieving its business objectives," said Vartan Vartanian, President, SKF Industrial Market, Regional Sales and Service. The deal expands SKF's existing contract for maintenance services, mechanical services, reliability engineering services and condition monitoring solutions for conveyors, gearboxes and mills at four of Cementos Argos' plants in Colombia.

India: Fosroc Chemicals has set up a new US$1m plant in Uluberia, Howrah district in West Bengal. The plant is intended initially to manufacture 20,000t/yr of cement and concrete additives.

"The plant, constructed on 5261m² of privately owned land on lease, will initially produce cement and concrete reinforcing liquid chemicals. Within a year, we will add powder chemicals manufacturing with another US$1m investment," said R Sai Krishnan, Vice-President, Fosroc Chemicals (India).

The Fosroc Indian arm of the international construction chemicals company wants to increase its turnover to US$67m in 2014. Cement, concrete and grouting chemicals are its main sales drivers in the country. In India it has a 15% market share in construction and industrial chemicals. Around 70% of its turnover comes from business projects solutions and the rest from retail.

Chile/US: Cemento Melón has hired River Logic to implement its Integrated Business Planning (IBP) solution, a business analytics platform. The IBP solution is intended to aid the Chilean cement producer to dynamically integrate finance with the sales and operations planning process, optimising demand, supply, production, distribution and investment capital decisions. The implementation will be led by River Logic Chile, a partner company to US-firm River Logic.

"We are convinced that the IBP solution will enable us to accurately model the business, including the financial and operational complexities and through the application of prescriptive analytics will provide us with the superior decision-making ability required in modern management," said Antonio Lira, Strategy Lead at Cemento Melón. "

"Given the complexity of the cement market, low return on assets and strong price competition, we believe IBP's unique ability to supporting tactical and strategic planning processes will be a fundamental contributor to achieving a sustainable competitive advantage for Melon" said Raimundo Veloso, partner at River Logic Chile.