Displaying items by tag: International Cement

Nepal: The Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology (NBSM) has revoked the licences of two cement producers. It reported that International Cement and Reliance Supertek Cement had both sold cement below domestic commercial standards and continued to trade after receiving an order to halt sales. NBSM’s Bishwo Babu Pudasaini said, “We have intensified checks and collected samples from about a dozen cement plants for laboratory tests. These dangerous products undercut Nepal’s transition to cement self-reliance.”

Namibia: Singapore’s International Cement Group (ICG)’s intended purchase of Schwenk Namibia for US$104m has fallen through. The company stated that it will not buy the subsidiary of Germany’s Schwenk Zement, whose 1.0Mt/yr total integrated capacity consists of Ohorongo Cement’s Walvis Bay plant, over four months ahead of the deal’s long stop date of 31 January 2020. The deal’s deadline had previously been extended from 30 June 2019 following the Singapore Exchange forestalled the deal due to ICG’s inability to pay for the unprofitable company.

Namibia: The Development Bank of Namibia (DBN) says it will consult the government about its minority stake in Ohorongo Cement following the purchase of a majority share in the cement producer by Singapore’s International Cement Group. International Cement Group acquired a 69.8% share in Ohorongo Cement from Germany’s Schwenk Namibia in March 2019, according to the Namibian newspaper. The DBN said that it originally invested in Ohorongo Cement to promote economic development in Namibia.

Singapore: International Cement Group is planning to build new cement plants in Central Asia, Africa and South-east Asia to complement China’s Belt and Road Initiative. The company, formerly known as Compact Metal Industries, has held a ceremony to mark its listing at the Singapore Stock Exchange, according to the Business Times Singapore newspaper.

The company holds a 65% stake in a 1.2Mt/yr cement plant in Tajikistan. This unit’s production capacity was recently upgraded to 1.35Mt/yr. In mid-2018 it said it was building a new plant in Kazakhstan. This project is scheduled for commissioning by the end of 2019. In late 2018 the group said it had failed to buy a majority stake in a partially-built cement plant at Salamanga in Mozambique. In March 2019 the group agreed to buy a majority stake in Namibia’s Ohorongo Cement from Schwenk Namibia for US$104m.

Namibia: Singapore’s International Cement Group has acquired a 100% stake in Schwenk Namibia for US$104m. Schwenk Namibia owns a 69.8% share of Ohorongo Cement and a 100% share of alternative fuel supplier EFF, according to the Business Times newspaper. The deal is subject to shareholder and regulatory approval. Previously, a subsidiary of International Cement agreed to build a cement plant Almaty, Kazakhstan as part of a joint venture.

Nepal: The Nepal Bureau of Standards & Metrology (NBSM) has closed two cement plants, Butwal Cement Mills and Shubha Shree Jagadamba, for manufacturing and selling substandard products. It has also threatened to remove 16 other cement plants from the market for not acquiring the Nepal Standard (NS) mark.

"We initiated action against these factories after their products failed to meet the standard," said NBSM Director General Ram Aadhar Sah. The NBSM standard requires that cement should have a strength of 16MPa within three days of setting, 22MPa within seven days and 33MPa within 28 days. Products from Butwal Cement Mills and Shubha Shree Jagadamba were found to have strengths below these levels.

The 16 factories facing the threat of a ban include CG Cement, Rolpa Cement, Arniko Cement, Ghorahi Cement, MJP Cement, Maruti Cement, Kailash Cement, Star Cement, Krishna Cement, KP Cement, Shree Cement, Om Cement, Eastern Cosmos Cement, International Cement and others.