Turkey: Çimsa’s net sales grew by 27% year-on-year to Euro175m in the first nine months of 2020. Its operating profit more than doubled to Euro37.1m. Local sales grew faster than export sales in the reporting period but export revenue remains greater than domestic revenue. Chief executive officer (CEO) Umut Zenar reflected this when he praised the company’s strong export performance despite the challenges posed by coronavirus.

Philippines: Japan-based Taiheiyo Cement has approved plans for the installation of a new 3.0Mt/yr production line at its integrated San Fernando cement plant in Cebu. The project at subsidiary Taiheiyo Cement Philippines (TCPI) will cost around US$280m.

The company said that it decided to build the upgrade in response to four-year demand growth of 30% to 32Mt/yr in 2019 from 24Mt/yr in 2015, in line with economic growth in the Philippines. It said, “Despite demand shrinking in 2020 due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, it is expected to rise again with strong gross domestic product (GDP) recovery, estimated to be 5% in 2021, and the massive infrastructure investment programme ‘Build Build Build’.”

The company added, “The new line will offer significant advantages in terms of energy efficiency and will reduce CO₂ emissions from energy use in clinker production by more than 10% compared with the efficiency of the current line. Additionally, it is expected that the higher quality clinker produced with the new line will enable a reduction in the clinker factor and thereby realise a further CO₂ reduction per tonne of cement produced.” The line has the potential for expansion to 5.0Mt/yr production capacity.

Oman: Raysut Cement has held the groundbreaking ceremony for its new 1.0Mt/yr Duqm grinding plant. The project will cost US$30m. Chief executive officer (CEO) Joey Ghose said that, when operational, the plant will “contribute significantly to our ambitious capacity expansion targets of 10Mt/yr by 2022, which is expected to be further scaled up to 22Mt/yr in the near future. Secondly, it will help us generate more employment opportunities, aiding our efforts to enhance social and economic progress in Oman.”

The company acquired the lease to the site in the Port of Duqm in September 2019 as part of an on-going series of ‘calibrated’ investments in “locations where demand is high and locally available additives are at close proximity.” Ghose added, “Our aim is to develop Raysut Cement into a global leader in cement manufacturing, supply and exports, and the development of Duqm is an important element in this strategy. Our expansions are dovetailed to the opportunities that exist and are upcoming in the markets we focus on, for instance in East Africa - a booming market for the next 50 years.”

Nigeria: Dangote Cement and Bua Cement have been allowed to export goods by land following a closure of land borders in mid 2019 due to smuggling. The government has granted permission for Dangote Cement to export its products to Niger and Togo, according to the Business Live newspaper. Bua Group has also received approval. However, Lafarge Africa has reportedly not yet received permission.

Tanzania: Tanga Cement says that talks with the government about a new 0.5 – 0.75Mt/yr grinding plant in Arusha are progressing. Discussions about the project with the authorities originally started in 2016, according to the Daily News newspaper. At present the cement company transports cement to the region using a freight train that was recently inaugurated.

Tanzania: Mbeya Cement, part of LafargeHolcim Tanzania, has launched Lafarge Tembo Pozzi, a pozzolana-based cement product. It is intended to replace imports of fly ash, according to the Daily News newspaper. At present the country imports 40,000t/yr of fly ash for the construction industry.

Chad: Idriss Déby, the president of Chad, says that Société Nationale de Ciment du Tchad’s (SONACIM) grinding plant at Baore will reopen in the next month. The government has paid the company a subsidy of US$9m to restart operations, according to the Alwihda newspaper. The price of cement will also be capped locally. The president previously asked SONCAIM to restart production at the unit in July 2020 following reports of cement shortages and price rises.

Uzbekistan: Cement companies produced 7.8Mt of cement in the first nine months of 2020, a rise of 2.6% year-on-year from the same period in 2019. The Trend News Agency reports that the country exported US$24.2m-worth of cement in the period, to Afghanistan, Singapore, Russia, China and Turkey. The value of its cement imports – from Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Iran and Russia – exceeded this by more than double at US$870m.

Turkey: ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions Turkey has launched a new 14,000m² manufacturing and service centre including four workshop halls and offices in Ankara. The company said that the site will employ 30 people to begin with and produce and assemble steel structures, machines, components and spare and ware parts, including for the cement industry.

Managing director Can Yapan said, “This new manufacturing and service centre enables us to even better meet our customers’ increasing demand for services throughout the entire life cycle of their plants and machines.” He added, “We already started contributing Turkey’s economy with the completion and export of our first manufacturing order in October 2020.”

Plant manager Serhan Usman said, “We want to offer the best possible services to our customers. Our maintenance assistance system and performance and quality monitoring make it easier to plan and forecast plant operation. Drone inspections and 3D plant scanning, or remote inspections and remote condition monitoring are just a few more solutions of our digital service portfolio.”

Vietnam: Long Son Cement says that it has nearly completed the installation of a new kiln line at its Long Son cement plant. When commissioned in December 2020, the latest expansion will increase the plant’s capacity by 2.5Mt/yr to 7.0Mt/yr. The Việt Nam News newspaper has reported the cost of the upgrade as US$172m.

The new line is Vietnam’s 86th and brings the country’s integrated capacity to 106Mt/yr, against a domestic demand of 70Mt/yr.