Germany: Andre Tissen has been appointed manager of the cement business unit at Beumer Group effective from October 2013.

His responsibilities include managing Beumer's cement competency centre at the company's headquarters in Beckum, marketing Beumer's product portfolio, developing Beumer's sales team, optimising the company's sales structure and coordinating communication between the company's factories around the world.

Tissen, aged 43, has previously held various sales positions in the cement industry. Before joining Beumer, Tissen worked as Sales Manager, Europa & Key Accounts, at a conveyor equipment specialist.

The third quarter results are in and signs of a recovery in the construction industry are present. Generally for the European producers, volumes of cement sold in the third quarter of 2013 have improved year-on-year compared to the figures for the first nine months of 2013. Although many of these third quarter sales changes are still negative it seems like the industry has turned a corner.

Lafarge reported that cement sales fell by 4% year-on-year to 102Mt for the first nine months in 2013. In the third quarter of 2013 sales remained stable year–on-year at 36.7Mt. Holcim saw its nine month sales fall by 3% to 104Mt while its third quarter sales remained stable at 36Mt. HeidelbergCement saw its nine month sales rise by 1% to 67.7Mt while its third quarter sales rose by 4% to 25.3Mt. Italcementi saw its nine month sales fall by 6% to 32.6Mt while its third quarter sales fell by 2% to 10.8Mt.

By region some of the differences between the European-based multinational cement producers have been telling. Lafarge, for example, is still down year-on-year on cement volumes sold in North America, denting the perceived wisdom of a strong North American recovery. However, profit indicators such as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) have risen in that region, increasingly in the third quarter. Cemex and Holcim have done better in this region.

Notably, the unstable political situation in Egypt has also impacted the balance sheets for Lafarge and Italcementi. Lafarge reported that cement sales volumes fell by 27% for the first nine months of 2013, principally due to gas shortages, and 19% for the third quarter as the company started to substitute other fuels. Similarly, Italcementi saw overall cement and clinker sales drop by 11.2% in the nine months and 14% in the third quarter.

Meanwhile in China, Anhui Conch produced 86.2Mt for the nine months, a year-on-year increase of 12.1%. Overall revenues in China seem to have risen after decreases in 2012. Anhui Conch reported that its operating revenue rose by 15% to US$6.08bn for the first nine months and US$2.20bn for the third quarter of 2013. Analysts have pinned the return to profit to building in the country's eastern and southern provinces and the effects of government-led industry consolidation. Bucking this trend though, China National Building Materials (CNBM) saw its revenue rise by 37% to US$13.5bn for the first nine months of 2013 but its profit fell by 8.1% to US$542m.

Anhui Conch, Lafarge, Holcim, CNBM, Italcementi and HeidelbergCement all feature at the top of Global Cement's list of the 'Top 75 global cement companies' to be published in the December 2013 issue of Global Cement Magazine. Ahead of final publication we want to know whether readers agree with the rankings. Download our list (registration required) and let us know your comments by 1 December 2013.

Germany: Reinhold Festge, Managing Partner of Haver & Boecker, has been elected as the new president of the German Engineering Federation (VDMA) at a gathering of its members in Stuttgart on 18 October 2013. He succeeds Thomas Lindner of the Groz-Beckert KG in Albstadt who served as president of the VDMA since 2010. Karl Haeusgen and Carl Martin Welcker were elected as vice presidents.

Festge, born in 1945, originally trained as a doctor before he majored in Business Administration and then became managing director of Haver & Beumer Latinoamericana in Brazil. From 1985 to 1987 he served as the managing director of Haver Filling Systems in the US. In 1987 he became a partner of Haver & Boecker.

Festge is a member of the restricted board and sits on the main board of the VDMA. From 1998 to 2004 he was chairman of the VDMA professional association for construction and building material machinery. He was chairman of the VDMA state federation of North Rhine Westphalia from 2005 to 2011.

China: The board of directors of Anhui Conch has announced that Ji Qinying tendered his resignation as an executive director on 1 November 2013. A new executive director will be elected and appointed in due course.

Demand for cement is so intense in Saudi Arabia that certain producers have reported production line shutdowns in dedicated stock market statements. Notably, industry newcomer Hail Cement reported a scheduled shutdown for late October/early November 2013, Al Jouf Cement reported unscheduled shutdowns in October and June 2013 and Najran Cement reported scheduled maintenance in July 2013. Even a short delay to cement production is a newsworthy event for both investors and analysts.

Saudi cement producers have risen to the infrastructure challenges of the country's Ninth Development Plan, increasing cement production by 6% year-on-year to 42.7Mt for the first nine months of 2013. In this febrile environment, the king ordered 10Mt of cement imports in April 2013 followed by government demands for producers to build up a two-month 'strategic' inventory reserve. Unsurprisingly, as we report this week, exports of cement from Saudi Arabia have fallen by 55% for the first nine months of 2013.

At the time of Global Cement's feature on Saudi Arabia in December 2012 only two of the country's cement producers had an inventory of joint clinker and cement stock meeting the government's stockpiling request. For the first nine months of 2013 the situation remains the same although the overall inventory has increased by 18% year-on-year to 10.3Mt. This compares to the end of 2012 where inventories fell year-on-year by 14% to 7Mt.

Unsurprisingly again, the Kingdom's major cement producers have seen balance sheets bulge so far in 2013. Yamama Cement reported a 12% year-on-year rise in net profit to US$145m for the first half of 2013 on the back of local demand. Saudi Cement Company reported a 5% year-on-year rise in its net profits to US$173m and Southern Province Cement saw a 4% year-on-year rise in its net profits to US$150m for the same period. Yanbu Cement saw its net profit rise by 29% year-on-year to US$176m for the first nine months of 2013.

With more large government infrastructure contracts pending, analysts expect the Saudi cement market to remain heated. Although as NCB Capital pointed out in September 2013, uncertainties over fuel supplies for coming cement plant expansions provide uncertainty to the situation. Nobody wants a repeat of the Yanbu - Aramco spat over fuel supplies that occurred in 2011. Irony would barely describe the situation if a Saudi Arabian cement boom was dented by a lack of fuel in one of the countries with the biggest oil reserves in the world.

Global Cement will be at stand T9 at the 18th Arab-International Cement Conference and Exhibition in Jordan from 11 – 13 November 2013

Switzerland: Bernard Terver, Member of the Holcim Executive Committee, has been appointed head of a company region encompassing Africa, Middle East and the Indian subcontinent. The appointment caps a series of changes in the company's senior management. All changes become effective on 1 January 2014.

Onne van der Weijde will remain Area Manager for India and will assist in the restructuring of Holcim's subsidiaries, ACC and Ambuja Cements. Javier de Benito will remain Area Manager for Africa and the Middle East, reporting directly to Terver. Member of the Holcim Executive Committee, Ian Thackwray will become responsible for East Asia, South East Asia, Oceania and Holcim Trading.

Daniel Bach, currently CEO of Holcim Romania, will be appointed Area Manager for South East Asia and member of senior management of Holcim. Alain Bourguignon, currently CEO of Aggregate Industries UK, will be appointed Area Manager for North America / UK and member of senior management of Holcim. He will report directly to the CEO of Holcim. Investor Relations and Risk Management will now report to CFO Thomas Aebischer.

Member of the Holcim Executive Committee Paul Hugentobler, currently responsible for South Asia and the ASEAN nations (Association of Southeast Asian Nations excluding the Philippines), will be retiring upon reaching the statutory age limit in February 2014. He will act as an advisor to the CEO of Holcim starting from 1 January 2014.

The area of responsibility of Holcim Executive Committee members Roland Köhler, in charge of Europe excluding the UK, and Andreas Leu, responsible for Latin America, will remain unchanged.

Eurocement recently trumpeted the production of two new types of cement at its Podgorensky plant in Voronezh Region. A focus on standards follows a self-declared offensive being taken by the leading Russian cement producer against foreign imports since August 2013.

When the 3Mt/yr Podgorensky plant reached its full production capacity in July 2013, Eurocement president Mikhail Skorokhod gave a press conference to promote his products over the imports from Iran and Turkey. Some of the more humorous comments Skorokhod made to the press included suggesting that Iranian cement might be radioactive and the revelation that the title of Eurocement's in-house magazine, 'All Shades of Grey', might be inspired by an erotic novel with a similar name ('50 Shades of Grey').

More seriously, Russia's southern regions between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea are vulnerable to foreign imports. Both Turkey and Iran have high cement production capacities and they have access to the country via these two seas. In addition to rising housing construction in Russia since 2010, cement demand is expected to further take a boost from building associated with the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics and the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

As stated by Skorokhod, the Podgorensky cement plant was created to fight foreign imports. Hence the focus on standards and government approval. The cement types in question - TSEM I 52.5N and TSEM II/ A-Sh 42.5N - were certified by NIIMosstroy (the Moscow Construction Research Institute) with additional testing conducted by the Voronezh Regional Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology. The move was similar to attempts made in recent years by local producers in southern and eastern Africa to focus consumers' minds on quality versus the potential risks of low-cost imports.

Eurocement clearly wants to fight imports head on given that, according to CMPRO data, total cement imports to Russia nearly doubled from 2.8Mt in 2011 to 5.1Mt in 2012. Turkey, Belarus and Iran were the main importers in 2012. In 2012 cement imports as a percentage of consumption hit their highest level since 2008. At the same time Russian consumption of cement rose by 13% to 65Mt in 2012 from 58Mt in 2012.

Back in August 2013, Skorokhod said that the Podgorensky plant had cut imports to the southern ports. With no figures available yet for imports in 2013 we can only wait and see.

Romaina: Holcim Romania has announced the addition of three members to its management team. Anca Alexandru is the new Ready-mixed Concrete and Aggregates Director of Holcim Romania, Mădălina Craciunescu has been appointed as Human Resources Director and Ioana Borangic is the new Communication Manager.

"We take pride in the fact that Holcim Romania, a company from the building materials industry, where most employees are men, now has an executive team formed of 50% ladies", said Daniel Bach, General Director of Holcim Romania.

Alexandru, aged 46, joined Holcim in 2002 and has held various managerial positions in the RMX segment. She succeeds Bogdan Dobre who has become the Marketing and Sales Director for Holcim Romania. She has been in post since 1 September 2013.

Craciunescu, aged 32, has held various positions with Holcim Romania since January 2005. She replaces Nicoleta Sălăjan, who has become the HR Director of Holcim Group for the Africa and Middle East Region

Borangic, aged 30, joined Holcim in 2010 as Internal Communication Specialist. Before joining Holcim Ioana gained over 10 years of experience in corporate communications in several multinational companies. Borangic succeeds Andreea Nicolae who have become the Marketing Manager for Holcim Romania.

Holcim Romania runs two cement plants, one grinding plant, 13 eco-friendly concrete stations, three aggregates stations, two special binders stations and one cement terminal.

In the run-up to the publication of the Global Cement Directory 2014 we have released a Beta (draft) version for readers to provide corrections, clarifications or additions ahead of the final publication in late November 2013. In this week's issue of Global Cement Weekly we cover news stories on new cement plant or production upgrade plans in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Niger and Venezuela. This demonstrates how fast cement production can change around the world in just one week!

Looking at the major trends of the past year, we see a gradual re-emergence of 'developed' economies from the Global Financial Crisis of 2007 - 201? - with an increase in cement demand that is patchy in the extreme. The US cement market is starting to heat up - but it starts from a historically low base. Former superstars stars like Spain and Italy are still firmly in the Doldrums and show no sign of growing, countries that are becoming used to a painfully permanent lower cement demand.

India has suffered from over-capacity (whilst at the same time building even more capacity – one wonders how the industry still manages to make a profit). China's cement industry continues to defy gravity – partly through state support and partly through central edicts as to which plants will close (handily reducing nominal overcapacity) and which will stay open. Chinese cement plants have rapidly been installing environmental abatement equipment amidst an ongoing environmental crisis in China. It remains to be seen if China can avoid a 'hard landing.' Other Asian countries are progressing well a full 15 years after the Asian Crisis.

Africa continues to get its act together and could yet become a global cement demand powerhouse. South America shows strong promise, particularly Brazil. The Middle East is a perfect example of the old saying "Be careful what you wish for."

Download the Beta version of the Global Cement Directory 2014 (free download - registration required)

India: Suman Mukherjee, CEO and Managing Director of Shree Digvijay Cement Company, has resigned from the cement producer due to personal reasons. His resignation takes effect from 31 October 2013. He will also leave the board of directors at this time.