Philippines: Cemex Holdings Philippines has appointed Luis Guillermo Franco Carrillo as its president and chief executive with effect from 1 June 2022. He has succeeded Ignacio Mijares, who will now lead Corporate Strategic Planning at the Cemex central office.

Franco Carrillo previously worked as the Builders Segment Vice President for Cemex Mexico. He holds over 23 years of experience with Cemex, since joining the company in 1999. Prior to his assignment to the Philippines, Luis worked in senior positions in the UK, Hungary and Mexico. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM) and a master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA) from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Nigeria: Guillaume Moyen has resigned as the chief financial officer (CFO) of Dangote Cement. He cited personal reasons for his departure from the post. Moyen will be succeeded by Gbenga Fapohunda as the acting CFO.

Fapohunda holds over 20 years of experience in corporate finance. He joined Dangote Cement as the Regional CFO in Nigeria in early 2021. Prior to this he held regional CFO roles for Japan Tobacco International and British American Tobacco. Earlier in his career, he was a manager within the financial advisory team at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) and also worked as a consultant at KPMG Professional Services.

He holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Finance from the London Business School and a Doctor of Philosophy (Marketing) from Delta State University in the US. Gbenga holds membership of a number of professional accountancy and finance bodies in Nigeria.

Vietnam: High costs have resulted in the cancellation of four planned new integrated cement lines by a local cement producer. Viet Nam News has reported that the producer in question presently faces costs of US$59.9 - 64.1/t cement, with a net loss of US$8.55 - 10.30/t. Coal prices are US$237/t, more than triple those at the start of 2022 of US$85.5/t. Gypsum and diesel prices rose by 50% over the first half of 2022. The producer reportedly attributed the coal price rise to the effects of the Covid-19 conflict and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Kazakhstan: Steppe Cement's first-half sales were US$41.4m in 2022, up by 18% year-on-year from first-half 2021 levels. Sales volumes were 837,000t, down by 0.4% year-on-year from 841,000t.

US: Silicate-based supplementary cementitious material (SCM) developer Terra CO₂ raised US$46m in its first funding round, it announced on 12 July 2022. Fast Company News has reported that climate innovation venture capital company Breakthrough Energy Ventures led the round.

Terra CO₂'s SCM consists of silicate-containing igneous rocks and sediments, which are ground and heated to form glass spheres. The company says that these behave in a similar way to natural pozzolan and fly ash. Terra CO₂ says that its product offers a 70% CO₂ emissions reduction compared to ordinary Portland cement (OPC).

Sri Lanka: Insee Cement's Ruhunu cement plant in Galle has begun producing Portland composite cement (PCC) using slag and fly ash. Insee Cement first produced PPC at its Puttalam cement plant.

Insee Cement's head of products and solutions Moussa Baalbaki said "Insee Cement introduced PCC for the first time to the local market in 2021 as part of a two-pronged approach: to create value for our customers by augmenting the sustainability performance in their constructions, and also to steer Sri Lanka's construction industry towards ambitious, globally benchmarked sustainable goals." Baalbaki continued "We are truly encouraged by the growing demand across the local market for PCC, and trust our production expansion to Galle is testimony to our commitment towards sustainable production practices."

Pakistan: Cherat Cement and Lucky Cement are among three companies to have imported 10,000t of coal from Afghanistan in the two-month period up to 11 July 2022. Asian News International has reported the other company was Fauji Fertilizer Power Station.

The local coal price in Afghanistan was US$188/t on 11 July 2022.

Middle East: The UK-based chemical solutions Aubin Group developer and supplier has landed a two-year contract worth US $5m to make and supply additives to a Middle Eastern concrete well company. Under the deal, Aubin Group will supply the company with CFL-575, a high temperature fluid loss additive which it says is compatible with a wide range of cement types and for use in oil wells. CFL-575 sales volumes surpassed 170,000kg/yr.

Omar Raafat, Middle East North Africa general manager at Aubin Group, said “It’s a very agile product, and lots of clients are seeing success within a wide range of environments. We are now scaling up production of CFL-575 to meet this growing demand, and we are delighted to be conducting this locally at our manufacturing facility in Abu Dhabi.”

Turkmenistan: Aumund has won a contract to equip Baherden Cement’s Ahal cement plant with three 300t/hr belt bucket elevators, three 450t/hr bucket elevators with central chain, a 1030t/hr double chain bucket elevator, two 200t/hr pan conveyors and 11 silo discharge gates. The equipment will serve raw materials preparation through to clinker grinding operations at the plant’s upcoming 1Mt/yr new line. Turkey-based cement plant builder Bilim Makina will receive the order.

Australia: Hallett Group plans to establish a slag cement grinding plant in Port Augusta, South Australia. Magnet News has reported the cost of the project as US$83.9m, towards which the producer has received US$13.4m in government funding. The plant will produce cement using South Australian ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) from Nyrstar’s Port Pirie and Liberty Primary Steel’s Whyalla steel refineries and fly ash from the site of the former Port Augusta power plant. Its operations will be 100% renewably powered. An accompanying new distribution facility at Port Adelaide will ship the cement to markets. The project will create 50 new jobs.

When the Port Augusta grinding plant becomes operational in 2023, its products will reduce regional CO₂ emissions by 300,000t/yr, subsequently rising to 1Mt/yr, according to the company’s expansion plans.

Hallett Group chief executive officer Kane Salisbury said "We're talking about 1% of the entire country's 2030 [CO₂ reduction] commitment, delivered through this project." Salisbury added "We're looking at turning South Australia into a global leader in manufacturing green cement."