Displaying items by tag: Supply

Burundi: The government of Burundi says that it is ready to sign a credit letter with Dangote Cement for the establishment of a cement plant in the country. In this way, the government hopes to provide a long-term solution to the on-going national cement shortage. In the meantime, the government urged Dangote Cement to devise ‘modalities for the supply of construction materials’ into the country.

Burundian delegates at a meeting with Dangote Cement on 8 July 2022 said that Northwest Burundi is endowed with abundant limestone reserves.

Saudi Arabia: Arabian Cement says that the Jeddah Commercial Court has ruled in its favour in a lawsuit it filed against Emaar, the Economic City Company, to claim outstanding quantities of limestone it was due in an agreement the companies signed in 2012. The court has ordered Emaar to give Arabian Cement around 4.6Mt of limestone. As part of the deal, from 2012 to 2018, Emaar agreed to provide the cement company with 44.7Mt of limestone. However, Arabian Cement maintains that it did not receive 5.3Mt of the total.

Arabian Cement previously gave land to Emaar in return for a limestone supply deal. Emmar company has been developing the King Abdullah Economic City.

South Korea: Korea Cement Association (KCA) members’ cement shipments fell by 90% over two days to 13,000t on 8 June 2022 from 180,000t/day prior to a truck driver strike which began on 7 June 2022. The association claimed that producers lost US$23m-worth of sales in the first two days of the strike, which also affects other industries. 17 ready-mix concrete batching plants in the Seoul area have suspended operations. The Korea Herald newspaper has reported that the association representing the construction industry has also voiced concerns about the supply situation.

India: State-owned coal supplier Coal India has recorded a 17% year-on-year decline in deliveries of coal to cement plants in May 2022. Its coal supply to captive power plants also dropped in the month, by 40% year-on-year.

Coal India is the leading coal mining company globally. Its main customers are energy, cement and steel companies.

Zimbabwe: Lafarge Zimbabwe’s cement volumes fell by 55% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2022. The company restarted grinding units at its Manresa grinding plant in February 2022 following a roof collapse in October 2021. In a trading update, Lafarge Zimbabwe said that the disruption impacted its profit in the quarter. The producer took the opportunity to decommission one of its ball mills for replacement with a new vertical roller mill in mid-2022.

Chief executive officer Geoffrey Ndugwa said “The company is confident that volumes will recover and grow as the availability of cement stabilises, especially after the new vertical roller mill start-up in the second quarter of 2022.”

India: The Indian government has established a special panel to examine an array of possible measures to lower high cement prices in parts of the country. The Hindu newspaper has reported that the panel will consider plans, including increasing cement shipping from South Indian plants currently operating under capacity to areas affected by shortages. The national government is in talks with the South India Cement Manufacturers' Association (SICMA) about the possibility of increasing members' cement sales in future.

Cameroon: The government has enacted a ban on the export of cement, along with other commodities including oil and grain, from East Region. The Journal du Cameroun newspaper has reported that the impacts of the Russian invasion of Ukraine have exacerbated a difficult supply situation of the basic commodities in the region, dating to the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak in the country in March 2020.

The East Region borders the Central African Republic and Congo. It has no cement plants of its own.

US: Concrete companies have reported an on-going shortage of cement as a contributor to increased costs in the construction industry. Local press has reported that the shortage is the result of high demand, most notably from commercial projects. A lack of cement truck drivers has reportedly exacerbated the supply situation.

North Carolina-based ready-mix concrete producer Metrocon president Dan Crosby said that his company’s facilities are currently operating at 60% capacity due to the shortage.

India: ACC’s Chaibasa cement plant in Jharkhand has received its first instalment of fly ash for use in cement production from Vedanta Aluminium subsidiary Vedanta Jharsuguda. Global Cement News previously reported that Vedanta Aluminium had been seeking a cement industry fly ash and bauxite residue buyer for a long-term collaborative partnership in July 2021.

In the 2022 financial year, Vedanta Aluminium supplied 190,000t of fly ash to Indian cement producers.

US: Cementos Argos subsidiary Argos Florida Cement has won the Slag Cement Association (SCA)’s Durability and Infrastructure awards at its 2022 Sustainable Concrete Project of the Year Awards. The producer won the awards for its supply of slag cement to two projects in Florida in 2021. Its involvement in the American Bridge Company’s SR 679 Pinellas Bayway Bridge – Structure E replacement won it the Durability award, while its involvement in Superior Paving’s State Road 52 realignment. Argos Florida Cement congratulated its customers, who also received the awards.