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Cement producers in Bangladesh received a surprise at the start of June 2023 when the government budget proposed increasing the duty on imported clinker. The Bangladesh Cement Manufacturers Association (BCMA) reacted this week by calling for the duty on clinker to be reduced, while also calling for the same for a non-adjustable advance income tax (AIT) applied to associated imports and sales.

During a press conference, reported upon by the Financial Express newspaper and other media, BCMA president Alamgir Kabir said that the customs duty on key raw materials for the sector had previously been around 5% of the import value. However, he argued that the new suggested increased tariff was “disproportionate” because it placed the burden at 12 - 13%. He urged the government to treat the cement sector as a "priority sector" given that it was facing higher prices generally due to the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, the energy shocks from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and negative currency exchange effects.

The BCMA’s latest lobbying call may sound familiar because it follows a similar battle against import charges from late 2022. A supplementary duty was introduced in November 2022 when the National Board of Revenue (NBR) changed the way limestone was coded in response to a significant increase in imports from 2020. At the time, the price of limestone imports reportedly nearly doubled. The BCMA may have won this battle because in March 2023 the NBR withdrew its supplementary duty. It did require that importers submit to further scrutiny including an updated Import Registration Certificate and various tax related requirements.

The timing of the NBR’s decision to relax the limestone duty is telling given that the previous month or so six of the country’s seven publicly listed cement producers reported either falling profits or losses for the second half of 2022 or the year as a whole. Only LafargeHolcim Bangladesh bucked the trend with an increase year-on-year in its annual profit after tax in 2022, although it attributed this to 95% volume growth in its aggregates business.

As discussed previously a characteristic of the cement sector in Bangladesh is that the country has no domestic limestone reserves. It all has to be imported. Arusha Ahmed Khan, Shun Shing Group presented a summary of the national industry at the Global Slag Conference that took place in early June 2023 in Düsseldorf. The country has two integrated cement plants and 36 grinding mills operated by 31 companies with a total capacity of 84Mt/yr. At present around 14Mt/yr of new cement grinding production capacity is planned by UK Bangla Cement, MI Cement, Confidence Cement and Dubai Bangla with commissioning dates expected from mid-2023 to mid-2025. Khan revealed that the government switched from British to European standards in the early 2000s leading to a high level (95%) of blended cements on the market. Use of slag cements has grown as more producers commission vertical roller mills and more uptake of slag and other blended cements using secondary cementitious materials (SCM) is expected in the future.

A key vulnerability for a grinding-heavy cement sector, like the one in Bangladesh, is any burden on imports such as logistic costs, currency exchange effects and government tariffs. Sure enough each of these examples has been reported locally. The government says that its proposed higher import tariff on clinker is the first such change in a decade. Cement producers have reacted, predictably, in a negative manner. Whether the authorities go ahead with the planned increase and how well the cement sector could absorb it remains to be seen. There may never be a good time for a tax rise but the BCMA has been able to present the current period as being especially bad.

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Nigeria: Lafarge Africa has appointed Lolu Alade-Akinyemi as its group managing director and chief executive officer with effect from 1 July 2023. He succeeds Khaled El-Dokani, who has been in post since 2020. Following his resignation El-Dokani will continue to work as a non-executive director of the company.

Alade-Akinyemi previously worked as the chief financial officer and the supply chain director of Lafarge Africa. Before joining the cement producer in 2014, he was the finance director for PZ Cussons Nigeria. Prior to this he worked for Coca-Cola Company for 16 years with positions in finance, business development, supply chain and sales in the UK, Belgium, Ghana and Nigeria. Alade-Akinyemi started his career as a trainee at ExxonMobil. He is a certified accountant and holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Essex and a master’s degree in business administration (MBA) from the Edinburgh Business School in the UK.

UK: Carbon8 has appointed Paul Drennan-Durose as its chief executive officer (CEO). He succeeds John Pilkington, who becomes the non-executive chair.
Drennan-Durose holds experience in the sustainable energy sector with both public and private companies, including private equity and venture capital. He previously worked as the CEO of Ineo Partners, Powerhouse Energy Group and Heliex Power. Before this he was the managing director of Poole Process Equipment for seven years in the 2010s. Other roles of note include that of Group Commercial Director - Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific for SMP Europe and the managing director of PLW and Fiamm Energy Technology.

Carbon8 is a UK-based company that supplies carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) equipment. Its main investors include EDF Pulse Ventures and Vicat. Notable corporate achievements include deploying its technology at Vicat’s Montalieu-Vercieu cement plant in France, at an EFW plant in the Netherlands and establishing business partnerships with FLSmidth and Return Carbon.

Ireland: Ecocem has appointed Jaouad Nadah as its Innovation Project Manager. He will be responsible for the coordination of the company’s ACT technology as it scales up development. This will include supporting a range of partnerships under development by Ecocem across Europe and beyond. Nadah previously worked for CRH-subsidiary Eqiom and Holcim, with a focus on innovation in the low carbon cement market. Ecocem launched ACT in late 2022. It says it is an alternative materials-based cement ingredient capable of reducing the CO₂ emissions of cement production by up to 70%.

India: JK Lakshmi Cement says that it will invest US$201m in its on-going upgrade to its Udaipur cement plant. When commissioned before April 2024, the upgraded plant will have an integrated capacity of 1.5Mt/yr, and an additional grinding capacity of 1Mt/yr. The Hindu BusinessLine newspaper has reported that the project will help to raise JK Lakshmi’s capacity to 18Mt/yr.

Over the six-year period up to the end of the 2030 financial year on 31 March 2030, JK Lakshmi Cement plans to invest US$972m in growth. This will include both capital expenditure (CAPEX) and acquisitions of new capacity. Planned CAPEX projects include the construction of two new plants, at Kutch in Gujarat and Nagaur in Rajasthan. The producer said that the planned plants will strengthen its position in the West India market. As a result of its investments, JK Lakshmi says that it will become a top-10 Indian cement producer by 2030.

Qatar: Qatar National Cement Company has invited offers to acquire Plant 1 at it Umm Bab cement plant complex. Reuters reported the launch of the public auction on 13 June 2023.

South Korea: A strike forced Korea Cement to suspend production at its integrated Jangseong cement plant from 8am on 13 June 2023. Investing News has reported the cause of the strike as a dispute over collective bargaining between the company and workers at the plant.

Korea Cement said “If the production suspension continues for more than six months, the company may be subject to delisting review by the Korea Exchange."

Italy: Buzzi Unicem has announced a change of its name to Buzzi from 1 June 2023. The company has retained its blue U-shaped logo with the Buzzi name at its centre. Subsidiaries’ names will continue to appear in text alongside the logo. The group said that this enables each company to capitalise on its assets, while reaffirming the vision of a common identity.

Colombia: Cemex says that its Santa Rosa cement grinding plant is the first unit in its South, Central America and the Caribbean (SCAC) region to attain water self-sufficiency. The plant independently meets its water requirements using a 9000m³ reservoir, constantly replenished thanks to rainwater, runoff, and water circulation devices. The move aligns with the company's Water Management Roadmap, part of its Future in Action program. The achievement takes Cemex closer to its 2030 target of reducing freshwater consumption in its cement operations by 20%.

French Guiana: 27 of 30 workers at Ciments Guyainais’ Rémire-Montjoly grinding plant in Cayenne went on strike on 12 June 2023. The strikers advised management that they launched strike action because the current direction of the company is ‘disastrous.’ They have requested that senior representatives of parent company Grupo Argos attend a meeting with them.

Portail des Outre-mer News has reported that Ciments Guyainais holds a 100% market share in French Guiana. It supplied 107,000t of cement to customers in 2022, up by 8.6% year-on-year from 98,500t in 2021.