Worldwide: Lafarge and Holcim have released plans regarding who will lead their proposed merger, LafargeHolcim. The chairman of the new board will be Wolfgang Reitzle, the future chairman of Holcim. Bruno Lafont, chairman and CEO of Lafarge will become CEO of the new group and member of the board.

Thomas Aebischer, Holcim's CFO will become CFO of the new group. Jean-Jacques Gauthier, Lafarge's CFO will become chief integration officer of the new group. The Executive Committee will be formed from both Lafarge and Holcim management.

In order to ensure efficient execution of the merger, an integration committee will prepare the integration plan to be implemented straight after the closing of the transaction. Bernard Fontana, Holcim's existing CEO will remain in charge of Holcim until completion of the transaction. He will co-chair the integration committee.

The merger is expected to be completed in the first half of 2015 subject to shareholder approval and regulatory approval in the many countries that the two multinational building materials producers operate in.

Our spotlight is on Uzbekistan this week following an update on the Almalyk Mining and Metallurgical Combine's (AMMC) plans to build a new cement plant in the south of the country. The news emerged in the wake of the completion of the AMMC's cement grinding plant, in the Jizzakh region, which was finished in late March 2014. Meanwhile, Eurocement announced that its subsidiary in Uzbekistan, the Akhangarancement plant, had received a limestone and marl quarrying licence.

Previous to the new AMMC grinding plant, Uzbekistan had five cement plants with a total cement production capacity of nearly 6Mt/yr. Only one of these was a dry production process plant, the 2.5Mt/yr Krzylkumcement plant, in the south-western Bukhara province. Cement consumption in the country was estimated to be around the same, also at 6Mt/yr.

Back in 2011 the government of Uzbekistan planned to invest US$6.94bn to develop infrastructure, transport and communication construction from 2011 - 2015. This investment has now been followed up with a direct financial injection into the cement industry.

In late February 2014, local building materials company JSC Uzbuildmaterials announced government plans to invest US$49.1m into the local cement industry. The programme includes nine projects for the three largest cement plants in the country: the Kyzylkumcement plant, the Ahangarancement plant and the Bekabadcement plant. Kyzylkumcement will receive the majority of the investment, US$39.6m to spend over three years on a new cement mill, upgrades to the clinker production lines and construction of a 220/10kV main substation. Ahangarantcement and Bekabadcement will replace 'out-dated' equipment and will upgrade their production lines.

Mineral-rich Uzbekistan is relatively undeveloped but this is changing. Its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was reported to be US$51bn in 2012 by the World Bank, having seen steady growth since 2002, and its population was just over 30m in 2013. Its cement consumption is 300kg/capita, a figure below the global average (estimated at 536kg/capita in a forthcoming Global Cement Magazine report on 'Cement consumption versus Gross Domestic Product'). This places Uzbekistan in a favourable position for future development on a graph of GDP per capita against cement consumption per capita. The latest investment programme suggests that the Uzbek government are hoping that this is the case.

Venezuela: Industries minister José David Cabello has overturned a resolution designating Gilberto Barrios Contreras as president of the Cemento Andino. Barrios Contreras was appointed to the post by the previous industries minister in a resolution dated 25 march 2014.

Three news stories this week cover the gamut of fuels used by the cement industry in North America.

First we had an example of the changing trends in fossil fuel usage when TruStar Energy announced a deal to supply compressed gas to Argos USA. Then we moved to an example of recycled fuels used in co-processing when chemical waste firm ChemCare trumpeted its 100 million gallon milestone (that's 379,000m³ to the rest of the world) in supplying fuel-quality waste to the Lafarge co-processing subsidiary Systech Environmental. Finally, Cemex rounded off the main fuels groups with renewables, when it released pans to build a US$600m wind farm project in north-east Mexico.

Obviously fossil fuels still dominate in kilns north of the Darian Gap, as they do almost everywhere else, and fuel buyers wouldn't be doing their job properly if they weren't searching for the next best deal. Yet the range here shows a dynamic industry.

Jan Theulen from HeidelbergCement pointed out one example in the US at the recent Global CemFuels Conference held in Vienna. Here, rising landfill prices are increasing opportunities for alternative fuels use alongside changing US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) permitting for solid recovered fuel. Alternative fuels consultant Dirk Lechtenberg, in an interview with Global Cement Magazine in February 2014, singled out the US as one country that is developing its alternative fuels use. As he explained, "Even though the fossil fuel prices are quite low in the US, the industry is developing supply chains for alternative fuels to be more independent with their fuels sourcing."

This race between cheaper fossil fuels in the US (via shale gas) and increasing development in alternative fuels is fascinating. Specifically: why is it happening now? Gas prices have fallen and demand for cement is returning in the US. The annual mean Henry Hub natural gas spot price in the US fell from US$8.86/million BTU in 2008 to a low of US$2.75/million BTU in 2012. This compares to up to US$15/million BTU in Japan and US$9/million BTU in Europe.

Public environmental pressure made manifest by the policies of the EPA and general increased knowledge about co-processing may be factors for the surge in alternative fuels investment. Long lead times for alternative fuels schemes may be another. Planners making a decision about what fuels mix to pursue in 2008 at the start of the recession might well have bet on alternatives to spread their risk. Yet the cause could be something else, as shale gas takes over higher paying industries, such as electrical generation, and the cement industry continues to be priced out of the leftovers.

Ultimately what burns in a cement kiln comes down to price. Depending on how the shale gas market plays out in North America it would be ironic if 'frackers', the bogeymen of current environmentalists, inadvertently cleaned up the cement industry.

South Africa: The board of directors of Sephaku Holdings have announced that Johannes Wilhelm Wessels died on 23 March 2014. Wessels was an alternate director to Rudolph de Bruin since 2007 on the Sephaku Holdings board.

Wessels originally provided legal counsel on the emerging business structure in 2005 and he later joined Sephaku Holdings as Head of Corporate Affairs holding key responsibility for group legal counsel, transaction structuring advice and contractual negotiations. He led the process of the group's unbundling strategy and worked on the legal and tax aspects of the process. Wessels helped reposition the company from a multiple mineral exploration company to a construction and building materials focused company.

"Wes was pivotal in negotiating the relationship agreement with Dangote Industries PLC to establish Sephaku Holdings' partnership in South Africa's newest cement producer since 1934, Sephaku Cement. At the time of his untimely death Wes was also serving as a director of the Sephaku Cement board. We will always remember him for his astuteness, legal savvy, business acumen and spontaneous sense of humour," said Chief Executive Officer, Lelau Mohuba.

Bangladesh: Asadul Haque Sufyani has been promoted to Chief Marketing Officer of Seven Circle (Bangladesh), a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Shun Shing Group. Previously Sufyani had been working as the General Manager (Sales, Marketing & Distribution) of Seven Circle. He joined in Shun Shing Group in 2009.

Sufyani, aged 40, started his career in the Brand Management department of Sanofi-Aventis and later worked as a Senior Marketing Manager in Bengal Group and Head of Trade Marketing in Robi (formerly AKTEL). Sufyani graduated in Commerce from Delhi University, India and later gained his MBA from the Lincoln School of Management, University of Lincoln in the UK.

Australia: Len Buckeridge, Australia's 19th richest person, died of a heart attack at the age of 77 on 11 March 2014. The billionaire owner of Buckeridge Group of Companies (BGC), was a well-known and long-standing character in the Australian construction industry. The group has interests in gypsum wallboard, bricks and cement as well as residential construction.

Buckeridge built up BGC, which turns over US$2.25bn/yr, from humble beginnings in the 1960s following his training as an architect at Perth Technical College. Hard-but-fair in business, his determined approach saw him amass a personal fortune of over US$1.5bn via the group. Despite his success he retained a down-to-earth approach to the company's day-to-day operations, latterly running the business from the dining room table in his house at Mosman Park, near Perth.

His hard-nosed stance, which helped him in some aspects of his business life, also made him a controversial figure. Buckeridge was involved in a number of deeply-entrenched confrontations with construction unions in Australia. He also attempted to sue the Government in the Supreme Court over a stalled private port project. Upon his death, Buckeridge was described by former construction union boss Kevin Reynolds as 'a formidable opponent.' "People will remember Len as a person who was prepared to take on anyone and everyone whether it would be the unions, government, other employer groups or other builders," said Reynolds. "If Len believed in something he would take them on."

Buckeridge, who had been contemplating succession plans for BGC without coming to a conclusion prior to his death, owned 100% of the group. The Australian business world and the global cement and gypsum industries is awaiting news on how the future ownership of the company will look. Buckeridge is survived by his wife, six children and eight grandchildren.

Cement cartels (or at least cases of cartel-like behaviour) have reared their ugly heads this week... again. In two different markets, Australia and Brazil, competition authorities are at various stages of taking major action against large proportions of their respective cement industries. In another, Europe, it is the cement producers that are taking on the authorities.

This week, the Australian Federal Court has found five producers guilty of agreeing anti-competitive contracts with regard to fly-ash supply contracts from power stations in the state of Victoria. Only Cement Australia Holdings was not accused. Penalties are to be determined at a later date – watch this space.

As drastic as the Australian situation may be, it is Brazil's anti-trust authority Cade that looks set to make the biggest 'splash' in a cement industry in 2014. On 13 March 2014 it was reported that a US$1.32bn fine, split over six cement producers, has been put on hold after the producers disputed a ruling that would see them lose an average 24% of their cement assets each. So big is this fine that it actually eclipses the US$1.1bn fine seen in India in 2012. In light of the amount of influence that they look set to lose, it now looks extremely likely that the producers will appeal. This sets the scene for indeterminably long waits for legal proceedings and more evidence to be collected. Whatever happens in Brazil, there will be major implications for its increasingly-concentrated cement market.

Elsewhere, in a strange inversion of the normal situation, in Europe it is the cement producers that are taking action. This week the European Court has rejected an appeal from eight major cement producers including Holcim, HeidelbergCement and Cemex subsidiaries with respect to the European Commission's handling of an anti-cartel investigation that began in 2008. That case saw anti-trust investigations start in 2010. Proceedings continue.

As stated previously in this column, cartel-like behaviour is not necessarily indicative of a formal cartel. There are innumerable factors that make every case different and, in each, proving actual collusion is very hard indeed. In the cement industry however, it appears that 'convictions' in cartel cases are easier to spot than in other sectors.

"The first thing for any new competition regulator is to go out and find the cement cartel. My experience of this subject is, it is always there, somewhere," wrote Richard Whish, a Professor of Law at King's College London in 2001. "The only countries in which I had been unable to find the cement cartel is where there is a national state-owned monopoly for cement."

The authorities will keep looking and producers, guilty or not, will continue to wait for their call.

Moldova: Nicolas Valdinoci has become the new director of Lafarge Moldova. He replaces Louis de Sambucy who has moved to Lafarge Algeria. Valdinoci worked for three years in Lafarge's department of strategy and in 2010 he became the financial director of the concrete and aggregates division in Lafarge Algeria. In 2012, he was appointed as deputy director of sales at Lafarge Algeria.

Dangote Cement let everybody know this week that it is now producing 52.5MPa grade cement in Nigeria. The move was a response to building pressure from professional and civil groups in the country which have reacted in recent months to the high incidence of building collapses in the country. With the 42.5MPa grade looking likely to become the new legal standard, Dangote's adoption of an even higher standard looks like canny marketing.

The background to this tussle lies in the spate of building collapses that have plagued Nigeria in recent years. A widely cited paper in the Global Journal of Researches in Engineering from 2010 reported at least 26 incidents in Nigeria between 1975 to 1995 with 226 fatalities. Later figures from 2004 to 2006 reported at least 10 incidents with 243 fatalities, a significantly higher prevalence than in the earlier period. The paper recommended adopting standards for building materials such as cement among other measures. Since the publication of this paper news reports have been hard to collate. Commentators placed the toll at 15 collapses with 30 fatalities for the first eight months of 2013 alone.

The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) reacted to the latest outcry over building collapses by saying that they were caused by poor application, such as a using the wrong quality of cement for a particular task, not poor standards. According to the SON, 32.5MPa grade cement is recommended for activities such as plastering, flooring, block moulding, culvert making and building simple domestic houses. 42.5MPa grade is designed for the construction of tall buildings, bridges and load bearing columns.

Adopting a national standard of 42.5MPa grade is intended to stop misuse of lower grade cement being used for the wrong applications. One example commentators have mentioned is how to help illiterate builders select the right kind of cement for a given task. Choosing an overall higher standard is one solution to this problem. Education is another.

One fact that has emerged from the debate is that, according to Dangote Chief Executive Officer DVG Edwin, the SON imposed 42.5MPa grade as the minimum for imports before most imports were stopped in late 2012. Edwin used this as an argument for the SON enforcing the same standard for domestic cement production. Anything that can cut the number of building collapses can only be a good thing.