Canada: Lafarge Canada has announced a five-year in-kind donation with the Nicomekl Enhancement Society (NES) in British Columbia. The agreement will see the building materials producer donate around US$15,000/yr in aggregates, concrete and labour to enhance the sustainability of the wild Pacific salmon population and ecosystem within the coastal area of the Nicomekl River.

Lincoln Kyne, Vice President and General Manager of Lafarge Canada in British Columbia and the US Pacific Northwest, said, “This key initiative led by NES is a great example, as we will be able to provide the required green construction materials and labour to stabilise, re-shore and line critical spawning beds for returning salmon until 2028.”

Madagascar: Cementis Océan Indien has launched a US$120m upgrade project to its integrated Ibity cement plant. The project is intended to increase the unit’s production capacity to 1Mt/yr from just under 0.2Mt/yr at present. A memorandum of understanding was signed by Cementis and the Ministry of Industrialisation, Commerce and Consumer Affairs in early December 2022. Completion of the project is scheduled for 2025.

Cementis agreed to buy Holcim’s businesses in Madagascar, Reunion, Comoros, Mauritius and Mayotte in late 2021.

China: Jinzhou Tiansheng Heavy Industry has ordered a lime plant with a production capacity of just under 5000t/day from Switzerland-based Maerz Ofenbau. The order includes six PFR-type kilns and will be based at a carbide plant that is being built by Mundra Petrochem, a subsidiary of India-based Adani Group. Maerz says that the new plant will be the largest lime unit ever built at a new site. The equipment manufacturer will supply engineering, material and equipment for the R5S carbide-gas-fired kilns, each with a production capacity of 800t/day.

Vietnam: ThyssenKrupp Polysius’ Asia Pacific division has secured an order for two Polflame-type main burners for an unnamed cement plant. The equipment supplier has highlighted the ability of its burner product to cope with low-grade coal and support high alternative fuel substitution rates as key selling factors. The order follows the purchase of an Impact Crusher by the same customer previously.

Lukas Schoeneck, the chief executive officer of Polysius Asia Pacific, said "We are very proud to add burners number 17 and 18 to our installed base in Vietnam which ensures our market leader position. Now we have to put our focus on the delivery and installation of the burner - in time and quality.”

Australia: Bruks Siwertell has received an order from Hallet Capital for an enclosed ship unloader for Port Adelaide. A gantry-mounted Siwertell 490 F-type unit has been ordered along with a jetty screw-conveyor system feeding a dome silo and individual screw conveyors for installation inside the dome. The unloader will be suitable for discharging bulkers up to 40,000dwt at a rated cement handling capacity of 500t/hr. It is planned for delivery in August 2023 and will be assembled on site.

Hallett Group announced plans in mid-2022 to build a slag cement grinding plant in Port Augusta, South Australia. The project will also include a new distribution facility at Port Adelaide.

Algeria: The National Centre for Cleaner Production Technologies (CNTPP) has signed a cooperation agreement with Lafarge Algeria. The arrangement is intended to provide government assistance towards producing cement more sustainably at the manufacturer’s plants, according to Le Quotidien d'Oran newspaper. The CNTPP is an organisation setup by the Ministry of Environment to support industrial and commercial companies.

US: Lehigh Hanson is preparing to start cutting jobs at the Glens Falls cement plant in New York from April 2023. The majority of the employees at the site will be laid off in April 2023 with some staff to be retained until later until 2023, according to the Times Union newspaper. It was previously reported in November 2022 that the subsidiary of Germany-based Heidelberg Materials was planning to close the plant in a phased manner in 2023. Production from the Glens Falls site will be covered in the future by the company’s new Mitchell plant in Indiana.

Morocco: NovaCim’s new 1.4Mt/yr cement plant at Ouled Ghanem near El Jadida has produced its first cement. Denmark-based FLSmidth supplied equipment for the unit including an OK type vertical roller mill, which it says is the first such installation of the product in the country. FLSmidth said in 2019 that it was going to build the plant for TEKCIM in conjunction with the Société Générale des Travaux du Maroc (SGTM). Full commissioning is scheduled for 2023.

US: Canada-based CEMSI Specialties, a subsidiary of Kontrol Technologies, has received an order for an emission analyser product from an unnamed global cement company. The analyser will provide real-time analysis of continuous emissions from the plant. The contract also includes ongoing annual preventative maintenance. Delivery and installation is scheduled for late 2022 and the first quarter of 2023. No value for the order has been disclosed.

Canada: Lafarge Canada’s Brookfield plant in Nova Scotia has switched to Portland Limestone Cement (PLC) production. The unit will now manufacture the company’s OneCem PLC product. It is the cement producer’s third plant to transition to PLC production in 2022 following the Bath plant in Ontario and the Richmond plant in British Colombia.

Andrew Stewart, the Vice President of Cement at Lafarge Canada (East), said, “We have been steadily moving the needle forward when it comes to cement decarbonisation and we will continue to honour our commitment in progressing our greener portfolio in Eastern Canada over the coming years.”