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The other big cement producer merger collapsed this week when PPC announced that it had terminated discussions with AfriSam. Details were scant due to a confidentiality agreement between the South African cement producers. However, the CEO of PPC, Darryll Castle, confirmed that neither party could agree the terms of the merger. PPC's shares rose by 5% on the news of the breakdown.

Financially the decision may have made sense. As an unlisted company AfriSam doesn't publish its financial results but PPC did report a revenue of US$742m in 2014. Comparing cement production capacity in South Africa gives PPC 4.75Mt/yr and Afrisam 3.50Mt/yr. Roughly this is a 58:42 split although this doesn't take into account both companies' aggregates, ready-mix concrete and other product concerns.

It's possible that disagreements over the value of the two companies caused the breakdown. At the time the merger was first proposed in December 2014 PPC was reeling from the resignation of its CEO Ketso Gordhan in September 2014. Some media commentators viewed the proposal as opportunistic on the part of AfriSam given all the internal problems PPC was coping with. Also, given that the combined companies would have held a 60% share of the market, it is likely that the Competition Commission of South Africa would have taken a keen interest.

The uneven ratio of sizes between the two companies considering merging is similar to the problems now facing Lafarge and Holcim. The European building materials companies started out trumpeting their merger of equals before Lafarge's relative poor financial performance and fluctuating currencies made a mockery of this parity. Once this became clear then major shareholders in Holcim started to question the merger.

Back to Africa, the question with PPC and AfriSam is whether they should have swallowed their differences in view of future growth. With Dangote expanding across the continent and Lafarge consolidating its local activity under the Lafarge Africa banner it seems like the time to merge resources and expand.

AfriSam has been saddled with debt since a buyout in 2007 when Holcim reduced its share from 85% to 15%. In 2011 it agreed to pay a penalty of US$16m, representing 3% of its 2010 cement annual turnover in the Southern African Customs Union, due to cartel activity. Then in 2013 investment holding company Pembani Group reduced AfriSam's debt for shares and a controlling say on its board. By contrast PPC has been expanding across Africa, in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Zimbabwe, Algeria and Mozambique, to boost foreign sales to 40% by 2017. The programme is anticipated to raise PPC's cement production capacity from 8Mt/yr to 12Mt/yr.

Domination at home in South Africa and firm plans for continental expansion suggest that this deal wasn't in PPC's interest, although its domestic cement sales have declined which may have also made the case for consolidation more tempting. Dangote's progress in west African must be both inspiring and troubling for South African cement producers.

Nigeria: Seven directors have resigned their appointments from the Board of Ashaka Cement with effect from 10 March 2015. Umaru Kwairanga (chairman), John William Stull (vice chairman), Sen. Muhammed A. Muhammed, Kolawole Babalola Jamodu, Abubakar Ali Gombe, Lamido Abba Tukur and Hamra Imam have all resigned.

The board has appointed Mallam Suleiman Yahyah as the new board chairman with effect from 12 March 2015. They also appointed three as non-executive directors, Anders Kristiansson, Edith Onwuchekwa and Rabiu Abdullahi Umar, with effect from 12 March 2015.

India: Vaishno Cement Company Ltd has appointed Sarita Agarwal as an independent non-executive director with effect from 27 March 2015.

US: FCT International, which has operations in Australia, the US, Europe, the Middle East and now Canada, has appointed Adriano Greco as its new US-based sales director. Greco has previously acted as managing director of Greco and as sales director for Gebr. Pfeiffer.

Pro Global Media - publishers of Global Cement Magazine and Global Gypsum Magazine - has had a viral hit with its 2015 April Fools' Day hoax.

In announcing a foray into a new sector - 'Global Cheese' - the hoax pushed the bounds of credibility and credulity. In launching an associated fully-functioning cheese-themed mobile-optimised responsive website - www.Global-Cheese.com (produced within 24 hours and created by web editor David Perilli), the hoax had real depth and led to further SEO triumphs. "Appearing at No. 1 in Google's news ranking (for 'Global cheese') is quite an accomplishment," said Robert McCaffrey, editorial director.

The list of cheeses on the news release - given below - spells out A-P-R-I-L - F-O-O-L as an acrostic, while the pictures of cheeses on the www.Global-Cheese.com web site also indicates the prank.

For the avoidance of doubt, Pro Global Media is not launching Global Cheese!

The original news story is as below. Enjoy!

UK: Pro Global Media Ltd, the publisher of Global Cement Magazine, Global Gypsum Magazine and organiser of the popular range of associated conferences, is proud to announce that it will shortly be launching into a new sector: Global Cheese.

While the synergies between the cheese and building materials sectors are not immediately apparent, Editorial Director Robert McCaffrey points out that the subject areas share more than they may appear to. "Some will say that cement and cheese have as much in common as chalk and cheese," says cheese-fan McCaffrey. "However, both sectors concern commodity products that have some differentiation between world regions and suppliers. Many of the equipment producers supply both the cement and cheese sectors and cheese can also be heated into a tasty fondue. Indeed, as an example of a synergistic cement-cheese crossover product, Ciment Fondu is a type of calcium-aluminate cement much favoured in France although, strictly, it does not contain any cheese."

"I was also keen to start working in this exciting area," adds Paul Brown, Commercial Director, "since cheese is a lot tastier than cement or gypsum, especially with a nice glass of red wine."

Visit www.Global-Cheese.com for more details.

Avonlea Clothbound Cheddar

Pembrokeshire Extra Mature Cheddar

Red Leicester

Isle of Man Cracked Peppercorn

Lincolnshire Poacher

Francis

Oak Smoked Wensleydale

Old Ford

Little Rydings

Kuwait: ACICO Cement has launched new production lines for interlock tiles and white cement in response to the increasing local market demand.

ACICO Cement's CEO Ahmad Al-Khaled announced that the step came within the strategic plan that aims to place ACICO in the leading position among various construction materials manufacturers. "The new production lines came in response to the great need for these products in the local market, for both public and private projects," said Al-Khaled.

Al-Khaled said that white cement now accounts for 25% of the company's total production. "There is a demand from the government and private sides, especially from the Ministry of Public Works and the Ministry of Housing," said Al-Khaled. "Despite the rise in diesel prices, which affected our transport costs by 60 – 70%, ACICO did not raise the prices of its products. We expect the government to continue subsidies on diesel," said Al-Khaled.

Germany: Haver & Boecker has announced that its newest generation INTEGRA® Form-Fill-Seal design system for filling tubular film bags with cement, building products, minerals, chemical products, food and feed stuffs, will be launched by the end of 2015. The largest system is designed for speeds of up to 3200bags/hr.

In addition to speed, the INTEGRA is also able to handle a broader range of fillable product types, weights and packaging types and materials. In addition to powders, granulates and micro-granulates, the system is also able to fill liquids and special products (such as flakes or products with pieces) into valve-type or plastic tubular film bags. Every type of packaging can be used independently of shape and material. The weight spectrum ranges from 1 – 50kg. 2000kg is possible with Big Bags.

"We can find a solution for almost every possible 'product – packaging – weight' combination, completely customised to suit customer wishes," said Robert Brüggemann, business unit manager of Haver Chemicals.

Nigeria: Lafarge Africa's Ashaka Cement's 2014 pre-tax profit rose by 84.5% year-on-year to US$26m. However, its revenue declined by 2.58% year-on-year to US$106m.

Kenya: Mauritian company Seruji has acquired a 60% stake in Athi River-based Savannah Cement following approval from the Competition Authority of Kenya (CA).

Seruji completed the buyout from China's Wan Ho International, which held 40% and Acme Wanji, which owned 20%. Savannah Heights has retained a minority stake in Savannah Cement. The shareholding shake-up makes Savannah Cement Kenya's first fully-owned cement producer, as both Seruji and Savannah are owned by Savannah Cement founder Benson Ndeta.

The buyout comes ahead of a planned US$250m clinker plant project in Athi River by Savannah Cement, which aims to reduce its operating costs by eliminating clinker imports. Cement demand has risen steeply over the past two years in tandem with a host of several large projects in both the public and private sectors. The US$1.88bn Lamu coal power plant and the US$3.23bn standard gauge railway are among the projects that have increased domestic cement demand.

Domestic cement consumption grew by nearly 20% to hit a record 5Mt in 2014, driven mainly by robust growth in property development. However, Kenya's cement producers have been producing more cement than the market can absorb. In 2014 production hit 5.7Mt, up from 5.05Mt in 2013. The Standard Investment Bank has forecast that production will rise to 6.3Mt in 2015 and 6.7Mt in 2016.

Europe: Two major Holcim shareholders remain displeased with the revised deal terms that were designed to placate them, according to Reuters.

Russian businessman Filaret Galchev, who owns a 10.8% in Holcim via Eurocement Holding AG, has rejected the new terms and is seeking further improvement to the exchange ratio, according to a Eurocement source. Additionally, Harris Associates, which owns 3.19% of Holcim, has said that it will not back the LafargeHolcim merger until it knows who will replace Lafont as head of the new company.

"Before we decide on the transaction, we first want to know who will be put forward for this post," said David Herro, chief investment officer for international equities at Harris, in an interview with Swiss newspaper Finanz und Wirtschaft.