US: Eagle Materials has announced the appointment of Michael Haack as chief operating officer (COO), reporting to Steve Rowley, president and CEO. The COO position is a newly-created one in response to the company's significant growth and continued strategic expansion in construction and energy-related markets.

Michael joins Eagle from Halliburton Energy Services, where he enjoyed a 17 year career with successively important operating positions, most recently with the management of Global Operations for Sperry Drilling, a company in the drilling and evaluation division of Halliburton with operations in every major global oil and gas market. He was awarded a Master of Business Administration degree from Rice University and holds a Master of Science degree from Texas A&M University and a Bachelor of Science degree from Purdue University, both in Industrial Engineering.

"We are proud to have such a high-calibre and experienced individual as Michael joining the Eagle team," said Rowley. "His placement in this newly created position is timely given our growth progress and strategic aspirations. Haack's experience will be especially valuable given our growth into energy-related markets, most notably in frac-sand and specialty oil well casing cement. This represents a significant step in the expansion of our strong operating leadership team and is aimed at ensuring the long-term continuity of Eagle's enviable performance track record."

UAE: After more than 14 years with HeidelbergCement, Kerim Tunçay has been offered the position of general manager at Union Cement Norcem (UCN). Union Cement Norcem (UCN) is a joint venture between Union Cement Company (UCC) of Ras Al Khaimah, UAE and Norcem of HeidelbergCement. It was set up in 1980 to market and sell the American Petroleum Institute (API) certified oil well cement, concentrating on export markets.

Tunçay, who took charge of his new assignment from 1 September 2014, will be in charge of all domestic and export sales of cement and clinker of UCC in addition to the sales of oil well cement.

Born in Istanbul, Turkey in 1972, Tunçay has a Masters Degree in Business Administration from University of Saarland, in Saarbrucken, Germany and a Marketing Diploma from University of California, Berkeley. Trained as an International Trader Candidate, Tunçay started his career with the cement industry in 2000 at HeidelbergCement Trading (HCT) in Istanbul.

Indonesia: The Indonesian government has selected PT Semen Indonesia president director Dwi Soetjipto as the next president director and CEO of the country's state-owned oil and gas firm PT Pertamina, following interim chief Muhamed Husen, who took over on 1 October 2014 from Karen Agustiawan. As of 28 November 2014, Soetjitpto is leading Pertamina.

Soetjipto managed PT Semen Indonesia's troubled unit, PT Semen Padang, between 2003 and 2005, where his success in overcoming widespread worker's opposition to the government's plan to sell a controlling stake in the firm to Mexico's Cemex landed him the top post in Semen Indonesia.

Soetjipto gained a Bachelor Degree in Engineering from the Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology in Surabaya, East Java, a Masters in Management from the Andalas University in West Sumatra and a PhD in Management from the University of Indonesia in Depok, West Java.

Ukraine: HeidelbergCement Ukraine has appointed Olena Kovaliova as Deputy Chairperson of the Management Board to replace David Andreas Johannes von Lingen. The company's Supervisory Board decided to terminate von Lingen's authority on 25 November 2014 ahead of the original scheduled date of 31 December 2014, according to a company statement. Von Lingen had been in port for three and a half years. The Supervisory Board appointed Kovaliova as the Board Deputy Chairperson from 1 January 2015 for three years until 1 January 2018.

India: Saurashtra Cement Ltd has announced that Anupama Pai, who was appointed as vice president (legal) and company secretary from 1 October 2014, has resigned with effect from 30 November 2014.

A couple of news stories this week from Myanmar present an opportunity to look at the country. Lafarge has opened a cement repacking plant in the Thilawa special economic zone (SEZ). Upcountry meanwhile, Anhui Conch has had a joint venture approved by the government for an upgrade to an existing cement plant in Kyaukse.

Towards the end of 2013 the government announced that 13 companies were to establish joint ventures with the local state-owned cement plants. In addition the Myanmar Investment Commission had approved the construction of nine new cement plants with an aim of a target cement production capacity of 10.53Mt/yr. Following this, Siam Cement Group's on-going investment in a 1.8Mt/yr plant is due for completion in 2016. Semen Indonesia have been pushing for a joint venture since mid-2014 although it was still trying to agree terms in September 2014, according to local media. Italcementi's chief executive Carlo Pesenti also expressed his company's interest in setting up a joint venture in early 2014.

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) investment bank CIMB placed cement demand in Myanmar at 4Mt in 2012 and a local cement production capacity of 3Mt/yr. Cement consumption was placed at 76kg/capita for the country's population of 52.8 million. In contrast, Thai cement engineering supplier LV Technology reported demand of 6Mt in 2012. CIMB recorded Myanmar's capacity utilisation rate at 60%. Cement sales were broken down as 95% by bag and 5% by bulk.

This kind of supply-demand gap excites foreign investors. Neighbouring Thailand has a consumption of 515kg/capita, Myanmar imports cement from Thailand, Indonesia and India and the country's GDP growth rate is currently estimated to be around 8%.

Yet what's notable about Myanmar's industry are the high number of small, low production capacity cement plants. Many of them are wet process plants. Only one plant is reported as being capable of producing over 0.5Mt/yr with the Siam Cement plant project due to significantly bust this record when it is commissioned in 2016. Limited limestone deposits in the country may also make plants larger than 1.5Mt/yr unviable. Fuel is also an issue, with LV Technology advocating a wholesale industry conversion from state-subsidised gas to coal due to power shortages and impending competition issues.

In 2015 Myanmar is set to enact free trade tariffs from its ASEAN membership. Without protection or preparation, its cement plants could face serious consequences from cheaper imports from Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam. The move by the government to encourage joint ventures with foreign partners looks like one way to mitigate this. In a market report in 2013 CIMB described the situation for investors as 'high-growth, high-barrier.' This seems to be an apt description given the experiences of Semen Indonesia.

US: The PCA board of directors has elected Lafarge North America's CEO John Stull as its 2014 - 15 chairman. He succeeds American Cement Co's Cary Cohrs.

"This is an important time for the PCA to champion resilient construction and advocate for critical national infrastructure funding, both of which will ensure the vitality of the cement industry," said Stull, who in addition to being a long-standing director has co-chaired the PCA Manufacturing Technical Committee.

Over a 22-year Lafarge Group career, Stull has progressed through vice president and regional president roles for US, Latin American and Sub-Saharan African businesses. He holds a chemical engineering degree from the University of Akron and is a Harvard Business School executive management programme graduate.

Netherlands: Silicon, a specialist company in refractory anchoring systems and rapid arc stud welding technology, has announced that six new members have joined its team, where they will be instrumental in leading the organisation to drive worldwide business growth.

Marc Beers, who has been appointed as sales manager, has 15 years of experience at different sales management positions. "I look forward to working with such an awesome team and we are excited to work together on providing the best products and services to our customers." said Beers.

Startling news from Hebei, China this week. The northerly province intends to move out its excess capacity in heavy industries, including cement, to other countries by 2023. 5Mt of cement production capacity is planned for transfer by 2017 and 30Mt is planned for transfer by 2023. The larger figure is about the same as the cement production capacity of France or Germany!

Hebei isn't the biggest cement-producing province in China but it has received attention as the authorities have cut down on 'out-dated' production capacity. The region was targeted in a programme to cut emissions from heavy industry due to its proximity to Beijing and that city's smog issues.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) set a target of 60Mt/yr in cement production capacity to be cut by 2017. The region was also the site of massive cement plant demolitions in late 2013 and early 2014. 18 cement plants were demolished in December 2013 followed by 17 cement plants in February 2014 alongside the destruction of connected grinding and storage capacity. Overall an incredible 74 cement plants in the area surrounding Shijiazhuang alone were targeted for demolition by March 2014.

Following this massive spate of capacity elimination, the public announcement to actively move abroad marks a stark change to China's general cement industry strategy so far. The country's equipment suppliers like Sinoma have been taking business from European rivals like FLSmidth or KHD for some time now especially in developing markets.

In 2013, FLSmidth reported a cement market order intake of US$575m and KHD reported an order intake of US$216m. In comparison Sinoma's cement equipment and engineering services reported order intake of US$5.59bn. In its annual report for 2013 FLSmidth estimated that the global market for new kiln capacity was 50Mt. At a capacity construction price of US$150/t this suggests that Sinoma took orders for nearly three quarters of the world's required capacity for new cement kilns in 2013. Order intake covers more than just building cement plants, so this quick calculation presents only a rough impression of what's going on.

More recently Chinese cement producers have started building their own cement plants or funding them outside of China. In October 2014 State Development and Investment Corp and Anhui Conch Cement Company announced plans to fund a plant in Indonesia. In September 2014 ground breaking was held for a Chinese-funded plant in Kyrgyzstan. In June 2014, Huaxin Cement invested in Cambodia Cement. This was its second overseas investment following a project in Tajikistan in 2011.

With China's government still attempting to avoid a hard economic landing as its growth slows, moving industrial overcapacity overseas makes sense. International and national players must be worried about the potential scale of this transition. On the plus side, however, those notorious inscrutable Chinese production figures in the cement industry will be far easier to analyse in plants outside of China facing international competition. Today Hebei, tomorrow the world!

Switzerland: Dominique Drouet, CEO of Holcim Morocco, has been appointed Area Manager for Africa Middle East and member of Senior Management of Holcim with effect from 1 January 2015. He will assume this responsibility in addition to his current role. Drouet will succeed Javier de Benito, who has decided to leave Holcim effective from 1 January 2015, to take up a new challenge outside the group.

Drouet joined Holcim in 1994 as CEO of Holcim Outre Mer and was appointed CEO of Holcim Lebanon in 1999. He took over his current role in 2004. Before working for Holcim, Dominique occupied various engineering, commercial and managerial roles in the construction materials industry. He holds a degree in Engineering from the Ecole des Travaux Publics in Paris and a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics from the University of Toulouse.