Egypt: The Arab Union of Cement and Building Materials (AUCBM) has moved the location of its 26th Arab International Cement & Building Materials Conference and Exhibition (AICCE26) to Cairo in Egypt. The event will now take place on 15 - 17 January 2023. The event had previously been due to take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It has been moved due to a ‘situation’ outside of the AUCBM’s control.

US: Buzzi Unicem USA has challenged penalties worth US$62,500 and denied that it failed in its duty to protect an employee who died after falling into the Mississippi River while working on a barge at the Natchez terminal in Mississippi in February 2023. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) cited multiple alleged safety violations by the Buzzi subsidiary in a report published in mid-August 2023.

Buzzi Unicem USA said “The company strongly contends that it did not violate the regulations set forth in the citations regarding personal floatation devices and guardrails, and therefore timely filed notice with OSHA that it is contesting the alleged violations contained in these citations (as well as certain aspects of the other citations).” It continued “The company objects to any characterisation by OSHA that the citations are a final determination that the company violated any OSHA regulation or caused the death of our valued employee.”

India: Solar power plant developer Oriana Power has received a US$4.2m order to supply a solar power plant to a cement producer in Rajasthan. The supplier says that it will build a 7MW ground-mounted array at the site of cement plant belonging to the producer. The engineering, procurement and construction will take until the end of January 2024.

Indonesia: The government’s Directorate General of Chemical, Pharmaceutical and Textile Industries has written to industry associations, directing them to ensure that comprehensive emissions monitoring is carried out at all of their members’ plants. The Antara news agency has reported that the city of Jakarta is experiencing pollution levels at over eight times World Health Organisation (WHO) guideline levels. The Ministry of Environment and Forestry collected data from cement plants belonging to Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa, Jui Shin Indonesia and Solusi Bangun Indonesia, and found that they had not exceeded emissions thresholds.

Indonesia’s cement industry is primarily reliant on coal. The country is committed to a transition to 67% renewable energy by 2050. It is in the process of a 35GW national power capacity expansion, of which 20GW (57%) consists of coal-fired power plants.

Ireland: CRH recorded US$16.6m in consolidated sales during the first half of 2023, up by 8% year-on-year from first-half 2022 levels. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) totalled US$2.5bn, up by 14%. Throughout the half, CRH invested US$600m in acquisitions, and maintained a ‘robust’ pipeline of further opportunities. In its Americas business, cement sales were ‘robust.’ There, volumes rose by 5%, and prices rose by 17%, despite adverse weather in Texas and the Western US. Meanwhile, price rises successfully offset local volume declines in Europe, but failed to do so in the Philippines. CRH said that infrastructure projects in the Philippines are experiencing delays. In Ukraine, it said that construction activity increased in the first half of 2023, despite the continuing Russian invasion.

CEO Albert Manifold said "I am pleased to report a strong first half performance, reflecting the continued delivery of our differentiated strategy, further commercial progress across our businesses and good contributions from acquisitions. The strength of our balance sheet, together with our relentless focus on disciplined capital allocation, will enable us to invest in future growth and value creation opportunities for our business."

US: Peru-based UNACEM has entered into a definitive agreement with Martin Marietta Materials to acquire its Tehachapi cement plant in California. North Carolina-based Martin Marietta Materials reported the value of the deal as US$317m. The companies expect to close the deal in mid-late 2023.

Taiheiyo Cement subsidiary CalPortland previously terminated its deal to buy the Tehachapi plant, along with two local cement terminals, in April 2023. Japan-based Taiheiyo Cement said that the parties had been unable to obtain necessary approvals from the US Federal Trade Commission within a suitable timeframe.

Malaysia: Malayan Cement recorded consolidated sales of US$808m during the 2023 financial year, up by 39% year-on-year from US$583m in the previous financial year. Its net profit was US$34.2m, up by 90% from US$18m. The company partly attributed its sales growth to its incorporation of YTL Cement, which took place in the 2022 financial year on 21 September 2021. It also increased its cement sales volumes and prices.

Looking to the current, 2024 financial year, Malayan Cement said “Non-residential construction activities are expected to benefit from higher investments in manufacturing facilities, given the shift in global supply chains. Nonetheless, the group's optimism is tempered with caution, as inflation and higher interest rates may have a knock-on effect on cement demand.” It added “Our ability to deliver seamless solutions to customers will be optimised, boding well for the positive growth and outlook of the group and the industry going forward.”

Malaysia: Hume Cement Industries’ sales were US$218m in the 2023 financial year, up by 40% year-on-year from US$156m in the 2022 financial year. The producer increased its net profit by a factor of 19, to US$12.9m from US$672,000.

India: Bokaro Steel Plant has won granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) supply contracts with ACC and UltraTech Cement. Under the contracts, Bokaro Steel Plant expects to supply 1.3Mt of GBFS from its facilities in Jharkhand for use in cement production in the state. The Pioneer newspaper has reported that the contracts will run until August 2026.

US: Terra CO2 has performed a successful demonstration pour of its OPUS silicate-based supplementary cementitious material (SCM) at a construction site in Texas. Terra CO2 supplied the SCM to indiGO Auto Group for the construction of its Porsche Sugar Land car dealership in Houston. It says that the product delivers durability, strength and functionality on a par with other, traditional SCMs. Tonne-for-tonne, the use of OPUS reduces projects’ CO2 emissions by 70%, and their NOx emissions by 90%, compared to ordinary Portland cement (OPC).

Terra CO2 CEO Bill Yearsley said "Our work at Terra CO2 is about forging a viable path for sustainable construction. We're set on creating a blueprint for the future where performance, cost-effectiveness and sustainability coexist seamlessly across projects. We're moving beyond the lab, beyond the processes that have held us back as an industry, and introducing a sustainable solution to real-world applications."