India: Sagar Cements reported sales worth US$136m in the first half of the 2024 financial year. This corresponds to a year-on-year rise of 9.1% from US$124m in the first half of the previous financial year. The producer recorded a loss for the period of US$6.31m, down by 3.9% from US$6.57m. This was in spite of a 7.8% rise in its total costs, to US$148m.

Mexico: Cementos Moctezuma has awarded a contract to France-based Fives FCB to supply an FCB Horomill 3800 grinding mill for its Morelos cement plant in Tepetzingo. The supplier says that the mill offers a lower power consumption than any competing product in the market. The latest mill will be the 15th Fives FCB mill at a Cementos Moctezuma cement plant in Mexico. Fives FCB says that its mills had accumulated 1.5m hours of operation across three different sites at the end of 2022.

Thailand: China-based intelligent dumptruck supplier Waytous has partnered with Siam Cement Group (SCG), as well as Thailand Advanced Info Service, Huawei, and Zhengzhou Yutong Mining Equipment, to develop full-scope automated operating systems for limestone mines. SCG will host a study at its Saraburi limestone mine in Central Thailand. The study will use Waytous’ driverless vehicles, supported by 5G, AI, cloud computing and new battery technologies.

Waytous CEO Chen Long "We've carried out two phases of unmanned mining research for this project and found the most comprehensive, efficient, and effective unmanned solution for cement mines in Saraburi.”

Qatar: Qatar National Cement recorded a net profit of US$41.6m during the first nine months of 2023. Reuters has reported that this corresponds to a drop of 11% year-on-year from US$46.9m in the same period of 2022.

Tanzania: The Fair Competition Tribunal (FCT) lamented the ‘mischief prevailing in the market’ in a ruling nullifying the Fair Competition Commission (FCC)’s approval of Scancem International’s planned acquisition of a 68% stake in Tanga Cement, dated 28 February 2023. The Citizen newspaper has reported that the FCT granted the parties leave to apply for a review of its earlier decision of 23 September 2022, in which it initially rejected the attempted deal. In its latest judgment, the tribunal drew on principles from South African law to show that companies should be able to submit a new application within one year of rejection, provided there is a ‘substantial change’ of circumstances or market dynamics. The court added that no blame lay with the parties for having lodged their second attempted merger notification within such a timeframe.

India: Adani Group has reportedly indicated an interest in acquiring the 1.2Mt/yr Shahabad cement plant in Karnataka from Jaiprakash Associates. The plant is the subject of an as yet incomplete deal between Jaiprakash Associates and Dalmia Bharat for the transfer of the former’s cement and power plants for US$671m.

The Business Standard newspaper has reported that Adani Group is in talks with ‘several companies’ over possible bolt-on acquisitions, with a view to doubling its cement capacity to 140Mt/yr by the end of 2028.

Switzerland: Reduced-CO₂ cement catalyst developer Nanogence has secured an undisclosed sum from a consortium of investors led by investment fund CirCap. Nanogence’s catalyst reduces the CO₂ emissions of cement production by 40%, without changing production processes. Tech EU News has reported that the catalyst is capable of increasing cement’s strength and durability compared with that of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) produced without it. Prior to the latest financial development, the company had raised US$2.7m-worth of funding.

CEO Abhishek Kumar said “We are excited to receive the support from incoming renowned investors in this essential journey to accelerate the transition towards a low carbon built world. With growing demand worldwide, we need to align with like-minded strong backers for our growth phase.”

Pakistan: The deputy general manager and a plant engineer of a cement plant in Iskandarabad died after being shot by a colleague on 18 October 2023. The shooter was a chemical engineer at the plant, who shot the men after ‘flaring up’ in a meeting. Emergency services took a third victim, an engineer, to hospital for treatment. The Dawn newspaper has reported that police are investigating the tragedy, including the matter of how the shooter managed to enter the plant armed.

Heidelberg Materials reversed the prevailing wisdom for western multinational cement companies this week when it said it was preparing to buy a cement plant in Indonesia. It announced on 17 October 2023 that its Indonesia-based subsidiary Indocement had signed a deal to acquire all the shares of Semen Grobogan’s integrated cement plant in Central Java for an undisclosed sum. This challenges the trend since the mid 2010s of the likes of Holcim and CRH selling up in the developing world and concentrating instead in markets in North America and Europe.

The decision to buy a cement plant in Indonesia raises eyebrows because the country can produce far more cement than it needs at present. Its cement capacity utilisation rate has been below 60% since 2020 and Central Java has the most plants out of all the nation’s regions. Indocement’s own investor relations presentation for the first half of 2023 laid out data from the Ministry of Industry and internal sources forecasting that the utilisation rate would only reach 57% in 2025. National production capacity meanwhile is around 117Mt/yr at present and expected to reach just below 120Mt/yr in 2025.

Before this latest agreement, Indocement operated four integrated plants in the country and it was the country’s second largest cement producer after Semen Indonesia. Heidelberg Materials bought the company in 2001 and currently owns a 55% share in it. Three of these plants it owns directly, with a capacity of around 25Mt/yr across 14 production lines. One of these is the 18Mt/yr Citeureup plant, one of the world’s largest cement plants. However, in 2022 the company leased the Maros integrated cement plant in South Sulawesi, the Banyuwangi grinding plant in East Java and several cement terminals owned by Bosowa Group, including terminals in Makassar, Barru and Garongkong, via production facility lease agreements. It said this was part of a plan to reduce logistics costs and target the east of the country better. The integrated plant has been leased for three years from March 2022 and the grinding plant and terminals for five years from September 2022.

Semen Grobogan’s plant started commercial production in 2022, has a cement production capacity of 2.5Mt/yr and limestone reserves of over 50 years. Germany-based Heidelberg Materials was keen to point out that the acquisition would reward it with “significant synergies with Indocement’s existing plants in Indonesia” such as in logistics, alternative fuels, and transfer of technical and sustainability knowledge.

It is worth noting financially that Indocement suffered a couple of bad years during the Covid-19 pandemic with revenue and profit down. However, the situation improved in 2022 with both net revenue and earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the year up by 11% year-on-year to US$1.04bn and 4% to US$220m respectively. Despite the company’s sales volumes falling by 2% to 17.6% and energy prices increasing it was able to raise its prices. The first half of 2023 has seen the improvements accelerate with more price rises, higher domestic sales volumes from the new leased operations and increased clinker exports to Bangladesh and Brunei.

The improving financial outlook for Indocement and the new condition of many of its clinker production lines may help to explain what is going on here. The Citeureup plant started up in late 2016 and, combined with the Semen Grobogan plant that started up in 2022, both plants cover three-quarters of the company’s production capacity. In a highly competitive market such as Java this may make a significant difference. Consider also the leased plant at Maros, in the less well-served Sulawesi region, and that focus on terminals elsewhere. Here one might be able to view another approach to coping with overcapacity, by targeting different markets either directly or via exports.

It won’t be clear how well Heidelberg Material’s strategy in Indonesia is working until like-for-like financial figures start to be released. The company itself has warned of various risks such as the country’s impending ban on overloaded trucks and the potential effects of a proposed carbon tax on electricity prices. Another thing to consider are last week’s rumours in the press about Heidelberg Materials selling up in India. If this did happen then the proceeds might well help advance the company’s plans in Indonesia. All of this goes to show that one doesn’t always have to copy one’s corporate peers. The retreat by the western multinationals to safer havens has slowed… for now at least.

UK: Fernando Gonzalez has been appointed as the president of the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA). He has been the association’s vice-president since 2018 and succeeds outgoing president Jan Jenisch.

Gonzalez has called for industry and governments around the world to establish a "robust regulatory framework" that can further accelerate the cement and concrete sector's decarbonisation efforts. He said "It is a great honour to be president of the GCCA - cement and concrete are the world's essential building materials. As an industry, we've gone beyond the commitment phase to taking decisive action today to reduce our CO₂ emissions."

Gonzalez is the chief executive officer (CEO) of Cemex. He has worked for the company since 1998. On the operational side, he has led various regions of Cemex, including Europe, Asia and South Central America and the Caribbean, and has held corporate positions in strategy, planning, business development and human resources. He was appointed Executive Vice President of Planning and Development in 2009, chief financial officer in 2011, and has been the company's CEO since 2014.