Saudi Arabia: Saudi Cement has appointed Khalid Abdulrahman Al-Rajhi as the chair of its board of directors. The term started at the beginning of January 2022 and has a duration of three years to the end of 2024. Other appointments include Mohammed Abdulkarim Al-Khereiji as vice-chairman and Mohammed Ali Al-Garni as secretary of the board of directors.

Zimbabwe: Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe appointed Geoffrey Ndugwa as chief executive officer (CEO) in mid-December 2021. He succeeds Precious Murena, who stepped down in September 2021.

Ndugwa was previously the CEO for Lafarge Malawi from late 2019. He brings experience in the cement industry spanning over 17 years working in various capacities across Africa. Some of his notable appointments include being the Commercial Director for Bamburi Group in Kenya, the General Manager Innovation and Marketing for Lafarge WAPCO Nigeria, the General Manager for Bamburi Special Products in Kenya, the Head of Business Support for Barclays Bank of Uganda and the Sales Manager for Hima Cement in Uganda.

Ndugwa holds a master’s degree in Business Administration from Heriot-Watt University in the UK, a post graduate diploma in marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing in the UK and a Civil Engineering degree from the University of East London.

Uzbekistan: The state assets management agency UzAssets has agreed to sell the Uzbek government’s 87% stake in Qizilqumcement for US$174m, according to the UzDaily newspaper. Under the terms of the deal, United Cement Group will maintain the plant’s personnel and the level of their pay, implement the approved modernisation programme and continue to provide training, support social projects in Navoi region and organise events in the community.

Afghanistan: The acting deputy prime minister of the interim government in Afghanistan hosted talks between investors from Afghanistan and Russia on 4 January 2021. Anadolu News Agency has reported that the investors plan to collaborate on the establishment of a new cement company.

Acting deputy culture and information minister Zabiullah Mujahid tweeted that the meeting covered the establishment of cement plants‘in detail’. He added that the government will strive to establish investor-friendly laws.

Pakistan: All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA) members dispatched 27.5Mt of cement in the first half of the 2022 financial year, down by 4.1% year-on-year from 28.6Mt in the first half of the 2021 financial year. The News International newspaper has reported that exports fell by 32%during the period to 3.39Mt from 5.02Mt.

Saudi Arabia: Qassim Cement has entered into a preliminary agreement with China-based Chengdu Design & Research Institute of Building Materials Industry (CDI) for the engineering, supply and construction of a cement mill at its integrated Buraydah plant. The new mill will have a production capacity of 300t/hr. The project is budgeted at around US$40m and it has an implementation period of 15 months. More binding detailed contracts are expected to be signed by mid-January 2022.

The cement company also plans to appoint a consultant to define the scope of work and identify contractors to build a 30MW solar unit near the Buraydah plant. It said that the company would not incur any capital or operational expenditure as the payment would be based on actual consumption. The solar unit project is part of the country’s Saudi Vision 2030 strategic framework to reduce dependence on oil.

Sri Lanka: Insee Cement plans to spend US$56m on an upgrade to its Galle grinding plant in Southern Province. The project will add an additional 1Mt/yr of production capacity to the 1.4Mt/yr unit, according to the Daily News newspaper. Commissioning is scheduled by the end of 2023. The company’s integrated plant at Puttalam and its grinding plant at Galle have reportedly been running at full utilisation since mid-2020 to meet high local demand.

China: Huaxin Cement and Hunan University have started a pilot production line that uses flue gas from a cement production line to manufacture concrete bricks. The process, being tested at the Huaxin Wuxue Industrial Park in Hubei Province, absorbs CO₂ from the flue gas and uses the heat of the gas to cure the bricks, according to the Xinhua News Agency. The average compressive strength of the bricks is above 15MPa. It is estimated that a production line with a brick output of 100m/yr could absorb 26,000t/yr of CO₂.

Argentina: Welding Alloys Argentina has manufactured and delivered a key set of wear parts for the classifier section of an FLSmidth OK 36.4 type vertical roller mill installed at an unnamed cement plant. The parts were manufactured at a workshop in San Nicolás near Buenos Aires.

They included a new 5000mm diameter by 2760mm high fine separator section complete with full set of vanes. The section was manufactured in two halves for later assembly on the customer’s site with vanes made from 13 sheets of 6+4 Hardplate 100 and flanges from 16mm 450HB through hardened plate. Also included were the lower cone section manufactured from eight sheets of 8+6 Hardplate 100, the upper cone section from 11 sheets of 10+4 Hardplate 100 and the discharge tube manufactured from 8+5 Hardplate 100, all flanged with 450HB through hardened plate.

US: Holcim says that it has completed its acquisition of Washington-based ready-mix concrete and aggregates producer Cowden. The group said that the acquisition expands its footprint in the Pacific Northwest region.

Chief executive officer Jan Jenisch said “This acquisition is another step in our Strategy 2025 – Accelerating Green Growth plan to become the global leader in innovative and sustainable building solutions. We warmly welcome the more than 100 Cowden employees who join the Holcim family. With Cowden and its strong local roots we will strengthen our presence in this growing market and contribute to Holcim’s overall strategy to expand our range of low-carbon products and solutions.”