China: Wu Xu has been appointed as the chairman of Taiyuan Lionhead Cement. The 54-year old Chinese national is a graduate from the Chongqing Construction Workers College, he holds a master's degree in business administration from Chongqing University and he has attended the China Europe International Business School. From 1982 to 1991 Xu was the chief engineer of Chongqing Building Management Station and was the executive vice general manager of China Chongqing International for Economy & Technology Cooperation in the early 1990s. In 1994 he founded Sincere Group and has since been its chairman and president.

Ukraine: Vitaly Gorgoliuk has been appointed as the new chief executive officer (CEO) of Eurocement Group Ukraine. He succeeds Denis Galchev. Eurocement Group Ukraine is a subsidiary of Russia’s Eurocement Group.

Iran: Cement exports from Iran registered growth of 32% during the first four months of the country’s current fiscal year (20 March 2018 – 22 July 2018), according to the Islamic Republic’s Customs Administration data.

The country exported US$107m worth of cement during the period. The volume rose to 2.7Mt, 24% more than in the comparable period of the previous fiscal year. The country also exported 2.2Mt of clinker worth US$60m in the same period of time.

Iran exported cement to 27 countries across the world in the period, including Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, with exports to Oman and Kuwait growing strongly.

The latest data of the Iranian Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade says that the country’s total cement output amounted to 13.36Mt during the same first quarter period, a year-on-year fall of 5.7%.

Algeria: Egypt’s Qalaa Holdings has announced that its subsidiary ASEC Cement is looking to exit from Algeria-based Zahana Cement Factory. ASEC holds around a 35% stake in the Algerian facility and has so far invested US$62m in the plant, taking its capacity to 0.75Mt/yr. A new 1.6Mt/yr production line is currently being constructed at the plant, with commissioning expected in early 2020.

Ukraine: Production of cement in Ukraine fell by 4.7% to 0.96Mt in July 2018 compared to the same month in 2017, according to the State Statistics Service. Production was also 6.1% less than in June 2018.

In the first seven months of 2018, cement production fell by 3.7% to 4.97Mt. Cement production was 9.31Mt for the whole of 2017.

UK: Breedon Group has reported its first half results for 2018, which showed a 16% year-on-year increase in revenue to Euro419.3m and a 3% fall in profit before tax to Euro33.7m. The group completed the acquisition of Ireland-based Lagan Group during the period under review, as well as other companies in the UK.

Peter Tom CBE, Executive Chairman, commented, “This was one of the busiest periods in the Group’s history, with four acquisitions completed by 1 July 2018, including our first outside Great Britain, coupled with continued organic investment in a number of key projects. We had anticipated a challenging 2018 and so it proved in the first half, with testing trading conditions exacerbated by the severe weather in the first quarter and rising input costs throughout the period. Despite these headwinds, we delivered a resilient performance.”

“We continue to view the medium- to long-term outlook in Great Britain positively, with infrastructure spending forecast to increase steadily over the next three years and government strategies to address our chronic housing shortage expected to fuel continued growth in the residential sector. Market conditions in Ireland are expected to be even healthier, with construction output in the Republic forecast to grow by approximately 28% in the three years to 2020 and Northern Ireland expected to sustain construction output at approximately Euro3.33bn/yr from 2018 to 2022.”

Bolivia: Transport firms in Chuquisaca in Bolivia are reported to be ‘in state of emergency’ after they decided to stop carrying cement on behalf of local producer Fancesa. The cement producer recently decided to lower the fare it pays for trips from its plant to Santa Cruz to US$1.88/bag (50kg) from US$2.18/bag, a fall of 13.7%.

Dominican Republic: Colombia’s Cementos Argos has announced that it recorded positive results in the Dominican Republic during the first half of 2018. In this period, the company saw overall revenues experience a year-on-year increase of 7%, while net profits expanded by 23%. These positive results helped the company to report a good performance in its Caribbean-Central American regional operations, which recorded earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of US$99m and revenues of US$299m in the period under review, marking increases of 3.9% and 2.6%, respectively.

Nepal: A consortium of Nepal’s five commercial banks has approved credit worth US$140.5m to Hongshi Shivam Cement Private Limited, a Nepal-China joint venture company, in one of the largest ever finance pledges by Nepali commercial banks to any industry or infrastructure project. Company officials said that they would use the loan pledged by the commercial banks to start commercial production of cement at Hongshi Shivam’s 6000t/day plant.

The consortium led by Nepal’s NMB Bank, co-led by Nepal Investment Bank and participated in by Prabhu Bank, Everest Bank and Nepal SBI Bank, pledged the loan to the cement company, which has been conducting trial production of cement since May 2018.

The joint venture said that the loan was sought from Nepali banks to conclude financial closure of the cement plant. It has already received approval to inject Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) worth US$86m from Investment Board of Nepal and the central bank. The Chinese joint-venture partner has pledged to inject total FDI of US$360m, making it the largest FDI ever in the country’s cement industry.

UK: The Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) reports that it continues to grow, with the addition of several new member companies from Europe, South America and Asia. In August 2018 there were six new members: Buzzi Unicem, Cementos Argos, Cementos Pacasmayo, Çimsa Çimento, SCG Cement and Titan Cement. The GCCA also welcomed the US Portland Cement Association (PCA) as an Affiliate.

Albert Manifold, GCCA President (and CEO of CRH) said, “We are delighted to welcome further cement and concrete companies and like-minded organisations to the GCCA. The GCCA was set up to provide the authoratitive global voice for this essential sector. With every new member, the voice becomes even stronger.”

The new members and affiliates join 10 existing member companies: Cemex, CNBM, CRH, Dangote Cement, Eurocement, HeidelbergCement, LafargeHolcim, Taiheiyo Cement, UltraTech Cement and Votorantim. Further applications for member and affiliate status have been received and are being processed.