Displaying items by tag: Lebanon

Lebanon: Cement deliveries increased by 49% year-on-year to 0.85Mt in the first four months of 2025, compared to 0.57Mt in the same period of 2024, according to Credit Libanais’ Economical Research Unit. Deliveries rose by 23% in April 2025 to 0.24Mt, up from 0.19Mt in March 2025. The rebound has been attributed to improved political and security conditions.

Pakistan: Lebanon's Pharaon Investment Group Limited is reportedly considering the sale of its 84% stake in Attock Cement Pakistan, according to Pakistan Today. The holding company recently announced that it was re-evaluating its long-term strategic options in Pakistan, which also include Attock Petroleum, Attock Oil Company and Attock Refinery.

Attock Cement has been 'battered' by low demand in the Pakistani cement industry in recent years, following a period of expansion in the early 2010s. It produced 0.31Mt of cement in the first quarter of the 2025 financial year (to 30 September 2024), an 11% year-on-year fall from 0.35Mt a year earlier.

Kuwait: ACICO Group has appointed Vassilis Mavridis as its Group Chief Operating Officer for Factories. He previously worked for Sibline as its Chief Operating Officer in Lebanon. Prior to this he worked for Titan Cement in Greece for around 18 years, eventually becoming the plant manager of the Thessaloniki Plant from 2003 to 20211 (2021 or 2011?). Mavridis holds a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and qualifications from Cranfield University in the UK and the Harvard Business School.

Lebanon: Cimenterie Nationale has announced that it will dispatch its last batch of cement for the foreseeable future on 6 March 2021. The L’Orient-Le Jour newspaper has reported the cause for the stoppage as the exhaustion of stocks of raw materials. The Lebanese government suspended access by cement producers to their quarries in October 2020. The nation’s three cement companies are permitted only to produce cement using clinker or limestone from existing stockpiles.

The company currently has 700 employees. It said that 3500 other jobs depend indirectly on its activities.

Lebanon: The Ministry of Industry has reversed a recent decision to allow cement imports into the country. Following a meeting with local cement producers, Minister Imad Hobballah declared that allowing imports would decrease official selling prices rapidly, according to the L'Orient-Le Jou newspaper. Local producers have reported low sales due to a strict coronavirus-related lockdown that started in January 2021. Cimenterie Nationale reportedly stopped production in early February 2021 due to a lack of raw materials.

Lebanon: Industry Minister Wael Abu Faour has revoked the license of the Al Arz Cement plant project. It follows protests by local residents, according to the Daily Star newspaper. A report by environmental non-government organisation (NGO) Green Globe ranked the region as the 11th most polluted area in the country due to quarrying and crusher activity. The cement plant project was launched in 2017 by entrepreneur Pierre Fattoush.

Lebanon: Residents of Ain Dara near Aley have protested at the Industry Ministry against the decision to grant a licence to the Al Arz Cement plant project. The protestors object on environmental grounds, according to the Daily Star newspaper. In a statement the ministry said that the plant would conform to environmental regulations. The project was launched in 2017 by entrepreneur Pierre Fattoush.

Lebanon: Residents in Koura district has demanded that nearby cement plants be closed and cement exports banned due to health fears. George Costantine al-Itani, the environmental committee coordinator for Kfar Hazir issues a list of demands, according to the Daily Star newspaper. The group wants local cement plants in the area to move out of residential areas, close down unauthorised quarries and replace petcoke usage with natural gas. In the longer term the group wants the government to plant trees on cement company land and decrease the cost of local cement. Local company Cimenterie Nationale and Switzerland’s LafargeHolcim operate cement plants in the region.