Niger: President Issoufou Mahamadou has launched the construction of the upcoming 1Mt/yr Kao cement plant at a ceremony at the integrated plant’s site in Kao, Tahoua Region. Minister of Industry Adeniyi Adebayo said that the US$290m plant will generate 314 jobs, according to the Angola Press Agency. It is expected to be completed by early 2022. Kao Cement is 33% owned by private investors from Niger and Mauritania.

India: Shiva Cement is preparing to break ground on an expansion project to set up a 4000t/day clinker unit and a 1Mt/yr grinding unit. The subsidiary of JSW Cement will spend around US$208m on the works from a mixture of debt and equity.

India: JSW Cement subsidiary Shiva Cement’s three-month net loss for the quarter ended 30 September 2020 – the second quarter of the 2021 financial year – was US$0.85m, up slightly from the second quarter of the 2020 financial year. Dion News Service has reported that the company recorded a revenue fall of 6.5%, to US$0.72m from US$0.77m. Operating expenses fell by 12% to US$1m from US$1.2m.

Uganda: The Uganda Development Corporation has announced that its subsidiary Moroto Ateker Cement is ready to begin construction of a 1.2Mt/yr integrated cement plant in Moroto District. The New Vision newspaper has reported that employees are clearing land and erecting a fence around the site. The company says that cement production will follow 18 months after the start of construction of the complex, which will also produce lime and marble. Senior engineer David Ekanya said that 600 local people will be directly employed in the plant’s operations.

It was previously reported in 2016 that Moroto Ateker Cement is a 51:49 joint venture of the state-owned Uganda Development Corporation and Savannah Mines.

Cuba: The production of ‘low-carbon’ (LC3) cement consisting of clinker, calcined clay, limestone and gypsum has begun at Marta Abreu University’s 1460t/yr pilot integrated cement plant in Las Villas. The Granma newspaper has reported that the plant is currently producing 4t/day of cement, and plans to double this to 8t/day when fully operational.

Germany: Mining equipment supplier Halbach & Braun has announced its 100th anniversary, and says that it has postponed an official ceremony for the event until after Covid-19 lockdown restrictions are over.

Sales and marketing director Uwe Hackenberger gave, “very special thanks to our partners, the Yangquan Coal Industry Group, whose support paved the way for us to enter a new home market. Together and strong enough for the future, we are now able to supply complete mining systems from one source.” He added, “We would also like to thank our employees, suppliers, banks and state and local politicians who have always supported us with all their strength and accompanied us on our journey through the century.”

Ed Sullivan was present to tell Global Cement Live viewers about the Portland Cement Association’s (PCA) autumn forecast last week. The PCA expects US cement consumption to drop by 1.5% year-on-year on 2020. This is a weighted average of its three projections, which cover a gradual recovery from coronavirus-related economic disruption, a less controlled scenario and one where wide-spread vaccination has a positive effect in the second half of 2021. The first scenario is the PCA Market Intelligence’s most likely one but only the fast vaccination scenario predicts a return to growth in 2021. This is wide but understandable deviation from the PCA’s autumn forecast in 2019 that expected moderate growth albeit a slowly weakening economy. Almost nobody seriously expected 2020 to turn out like it has. Follow the link at the bottom of this article to view the presentation in full.

Graph 1: Portland & Blended Cement shipments by US region in 2019 and 2020. Source: United States Geological Survey (USGS).

We’ll now take a general look at the US cement industry so far in 2020 to compliment Sullivan’s economic overview. Up until 2020 cement consumption, production and imports had been growing steadily since the financial crash in 2008. Using August 2020 data the PCA says this is changing. Graph 1 above shows a general reverse of the position in the autumn of 2019 [LINK] with declines in the South and North-East and growth in the West and Midwest. Imports alongside this have continued to build. Overall, national cement shipments increased by 2.2% year-on-year to just under 50Mt in January to July 2020 from 48.9Mt in the same period in 2019. This was driven by growth of 10.8% in the Midwest. Missouri is the standout in the region, behind only Texas and California nationally as the third biggest cement shipping state so far in 2020.
From the corporate side, LafargeHolcim, the US’ biggest cement producer, described North America as having, “…the most resilience of all regions despite Covid-19 restrictions in some areas.” It reported an overall fall in cement volumes of 1.4% year-on-year to 8.9Mt in the first half of 2020. However, it didn’t go into specifics for the US. Cemex’s experience seemed to be doing better with an 8% rise in cement volumes supported by the infrastructure and residential sectors. HeidelbergCement went further and described the impact of coronavirus on the US economy as ‘significant.’ It reported a decrease in cement deliveries at its North American plants of 4.9%, to 7.1Mt. Both Buzzi Unicem and CRH reported cement sales growth of 4 – 5%, with CRH noting that, “strong volume trends in West supported by growth in our downstream businesses drove performance.”

Perusing the industry news reveals a slew of environmental stories. So far in 2020, Holcim US said it was going to run a carbon capture and storage (CCS) study at its Portland cement plant in Colorado, Alamo Cement signed a deal to build a solar farm, Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua’s (GCC) Rapid City plant in South Dakota announced plans for a wind farm, CalPortland launched a sustainable product line with a lower clinker factor, LafargeHolcim launched its ECOPact low-carbon concrete range, LafargeHolcim US also said it was adopting new environmental product declarations and Holcim US opened a solar power plant at its Hagerstown cement plant. There have been a few upgrade stories, like the new line being built at National Cement’s Ragland plant in Alabama or Lhoist’s new lime kiln projects, but Lehigh Hanson said it was suspending work on the upgrade to its Mitchell plant in Indiana in April 2020.

At this point all eyes are on the US Presidential election scheduled to run on 3 November 2020. Donald Trump’s long promised but never delivered infrastructure still hasn’t arrived although blame could be apportioned to both sides of the local political divide for this. The PCA believes that both presidential candidates will probably see it through although the Republicans’ interpretation might well involve more cement! In the interest of balance though, it also expects the Democrats to focus on low-income housing construction. At this stage it seems more likely that the early arrival of a coronavirus vaccine will have more impact on the cement industry in the short to medium term than the results of the election.

View Ed Sullivan’s presentation at Global Cement Live

India: Dalmia Bharat’s chief financial officer Jayesh Doshi has submitted his resignation to the board of the company. Hi departure will become effective after 31 October 2020.

India: UltraTech Cement’s consolidated net sales grew by 8% year-on-year to US$1.39bn in the second quarter of its financial year to 30 September 2020 from US$1.29bn in the same period in 2019. Its profit after tax more than doubled to US$167m from US$78.5m. The group attributed its progress to, “strong quarterly performance on the back of operational efficiencies and its ability to serve all India markets.”

It added that it had focused on health and safety and ‘efficient working conditions’ as it had gradually resumed operations following coronavirus-related lockdown restrictions. Overall, the group’s revenue from operations fell by 14% year-on-year to US$2.44bn in the first half of its financial year from US$2.85bn in the same period in 2019.

Germany: Robecco says that it took over the inerting business from Yara on 1 September 2020. The acquisition is intended to support customers and their future needs. The company says that combination of Yara’s inerting systems and robecco’s monitoring and control technology is a ‘unique tailor-made solution’ to maximise safety in preventive explosion protection.

With over 25 years’ experience, Robecco has become a specialist in preventive explosion protection and can provide complete packages of equipment for monitoring, control and CO₂ / N₂ inerting systems from a single source and one interface according to the relevant international and European norms and rules. The company holds long-established business relationships with customers worldwide providing preventive explosion protection solutions and automation services for the integration of explosion protection solutions into customers’ systems.