Peru: Chile’s Cementos Bío Bío plans to build a US$20m grinding plant at the Port of Matarani near Arequipa. The cement producer has all the necessary permits in place and it intends to open the unit in the first half of 2020, according to the Diario Financiero newspaper. Spain’s Cemengal will supply a Plug & Grind mill for the project. The plant will have a production capacity of 0.2Mt/yr, although there are plans to double this if the market supports it.

Peru: UNACEM’s sales rose by 5.7% year-on-year to US$586m in 2018 from US$555m in 2017. Its cement sales despatches grew by 1.3% to 5.06Mt from 4.99Mt. Its operating profit fell by 13% to US$184m from US$211m. It blamed the fall in profit on reduced dividends from a subsidiary in Ecuador and other businesses. During the year the cement producer made upgrades to its Atocongo Thermal Plant and to dusting system for the coolers on kilns 2 and 3 at its Condorcocha cement plant.

Chile: Spain’s Cemengal has been confirmed as the supplier of a mill for Cementos Melón’s grinding plant at Punta Arenas. The unit will use a Plug & Grind Xtreme modular grinding plant. The contract includes all the mechanical, electrical and automation equipment required for a 0.3Mt/yr modular ball mill and a classifier. Cemengal will deliver the mill by the end of 2019 to allow first cement and commissioning of the plant in the first quarter of 2020.

Chile: Cementos Polpaico has blamed a loss of US$3.2m in 2018 on changing an electricity supply contract. Changing the contract to move to a new supplier, Colbún, led to a negative financial impact of around US$12.5m. Its sales rose by 23% year-on-year to US$249m in 2018 from US$202m in 2017. Its sales volumes of cement grew by 10% to 1.35Mt from 1.23Mt. Despite the overall loss its earnings before interest taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 51% to US$18.7m from US$12.4m.

Rwanda: Uganda’s Hima Cement is considering building a new cement plant. It has been conducting discussions with local agencies about the project, according to KT Press. The cement producer operates offices at Nyacyonga in Gasabo district. It also runs a warehouse and a ready-mix concrete batching plant.

Philippines: Church and non-government organisations (NGO) have filed a document with the local government expressing their opposition against several San Miguel projects, including a new 2Mt/yr cement plant at Pagbilao in Quezon. They allege that no public hearing was given for local communities to comment on the projects among other complaints, according to the Business Mirror newspaper. San Miguel is planning to build a group of projects at the site in Ibabang Polo including a coal power plant, a logistics hub and a quarry.

Greece: Titan Group’s share exchange offer between its subsidiaries has failed. It blamed this on a lack of ordinary shares being tendered despite the support of Titan’s core shareholders and its board of directors. The voluntary share offer was intended to help list its shares at exchanges in Brussels and Paris. The group said that its strategy remained focused on international growth. It added that broadening sources of funding and improving access to international capital and credit markets was an important priority.

Germany: HeidelbergCement has been awarded ‘A-‘ in the climate change category of CDP’s Climate A List. It also received the same score in the water security category. The result marked it as the highest-scoring cement company on the list beating other major international producers such as LafargeHolcim, Cemex and CRH. Notably, these other cement companies each received ‘F’ for water security due to a lack of sufficient information available. CDP analyses data from over 6800 large companies around the world.

“This is a strong confirmation that we are on the right track with our Sustainability Commitments 2030. The excellent result encourages us to further reduce our ecological footprint across all business lines and on a global level,” said Bernd Scheifele, chairman of the managing board of HeidelbergCement.

Philippines: LafargeHolcim is considering selling its subsidiary Holcim Philippines. Sources quoted by Bloomberg said that the multinational building materials producer was trying to find the ‘right’ price for the business. Holcim Philippines has been valued at around US$2.5bn. It operates integrated cement plants at La Union, Bulacan, Misamis Oriental and Davao. As part part of its ongoing portfolio assessment scheme, LafargeHolcim announced that it was selling its business in Indonesia to Semen Indonesia for US$1.75bn in November 2018.

Philippines: The Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) says it will consider a new tariff on imported cement as part of its investigation into alleged anti-competitive behaviour. In early January 2019 The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said it would impose a provisional safeguard duty of US$0.16/bag on imported cement, according to the Philippine Star newspaper. The PCC started its latest investigation into the cement industry in 2017. Previously it said it planned to complete the study in 2019.