Sri Lanka: Insee Cement has appointed Gustavo Navarro as its chief executive officer (CEO) of its operations in Sri Lanka. He succeeds Nandana Ekanayake, according to the Nation newspaper. Ekanayake will remain at the company as chairman of the board. Navarro has previously held chief executive positions for Holcim in Serbia and Russia, and for CRH in Romania.

Nigeria: BUA Cement has appointed Jacques Piekarski as its chief financial officer (CFO).

Piekarski holds over 26 years of experience in finance with executive level roles in cement, trading, mining and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG). Prior to joining BUA Cement, he was Group CFO for TGI Group Nigeria, a food and agricultural conglomerate, and he held the same role at Flour Mills of Nigeria. His knowledge of the cement industry comes from working as the CFO for Holcim in Egypt with a joint venture with the Orascom Group.

A Swiss and French National, Piekarski was born in Switzerland. He is a graduate from the Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland and holds an MBA from the Robert Kennedy College in Zurich, Switzerland.

Mexico: The total cement demand generated by infrastructure projects in 2020 will be 1.9Mt, down by 95% from 40Mt in 2019. The El Sol de Mexico newspaper has reported that the government plans to invest US$12.1bn in 32 projects throughout the course of 2020.

Cemex president Rogelio Zambrano welcomed the decision to continue investing in infrastructure, saying that the promised sum would likely stimulate private sector investment in construction exceeding US$13.8bn. He added, “Both self-construction and infrastructure activity are to thank for the recovery in the construction industry since June 2020.”

Argentina: The Asociación de Fabricantes de Cemento Portland (AFCP) has reported a 10% year-on-year increase in cement shipments to 1.04Mt in September 2020 from 948,000t in September 2019. Clarín News has reported that this corresponds to month-on-month growth of 13% from 924,000t in August 2020, signalling the start of a recovery from the economic effects of the coronavirus lockdown.

Chamber of Construction president Iván Szczech said, “There are beginning to be positive indices, such as these cement sales. The sector has been working with the government in different lines to encourage both public and private works while waiting for all projects to be completed.” Szczech attributed the longer-term increase in sales to streamlined business models.

US: A US federal court has upheld the ruling of a Colorado district court that Mexico-based Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC) must pay around US$36m compensation to Compañía de Inversiones Mercantiles (CIMSA) for failing to grant it a right of preference prior to GCC’s sale of its 47% stake in Sociedad Boliviana de Cemento (SOBOCE).

Peru-based Consorcio Cementero del Sur obtained 100% ownership of Bolivia-based SOBOCE following its acquisition of GCC’s stake in 2011.

Egypt: Suez Cement has approved the appointment of Grant Thornton Financial Consulting as a financial advisor as it prepares for a fair value study of its shares. This follows a desire expressed by Heidelberg Cement France, the parent company of Simon France. which directly and indirectly owns 55% of Suez Cement shares, for the submission of a bid to fully buy the company’s shares, according to the Daily News Egypt newspaper. In late September 2020 Suez Cement approved the launch of a tender offer to acquire a 100% stake in its subsidiary, Egyptian Tourah Portland Cement.

UK: UK Concrete and the Mineral Products Association (MPA) have launched a roadmap for the concrete and cement industry to become net negative by 2050. It plans to do this through decarbonised electricity and transport networks, fuel switching, greater use of low-carbon cements and concretes as well as carbon capture, use or storage (CCUS) technology.

“We have already made significant progress to reduce carbon emissions but are under no illusion about the scale of the net zero challenge,” said Nigel Jackson, chief executive of the MPA. “Achieving this will require the wholesale decarbonisation of all aspects of concrete and cement production, supply and use. The concrete and cement industry as one sector alone cannot deliver net zero and we will only be able to go beyond net zero with concerted support from government, as well as with significant changes across the wider construction, energy and transportation sectors.” He added that the roadmap could be delivered without offsetting emissions, offshoring production facilities or ‘carbon leakage.’

The ‘Roadmap to beyond net zero’ calculates the potential of each technology and the carbon savings which can be achieved. CCUS technology is vital to delivering net zero manufacturing and according to the roadmap will deliver 61% of the required carbon savings. It intends to achieve a net negative industry by 2050 by the ability of concrete to absorb carbon dioxide during use and the thermal properties of concrete in buildings and structures to reduce operational emissions.

The MPA is also lobbying the government for a financial support model including for the capital and operational costs of carbon capture by no later than 2021. This is desired to ensure the technology can be developed, deployed and become an investable proposition in the 2030s.

France: Social housing developer Immobilière 3F says that it has signed a contract with construction company Groupe GCC for the use of Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies' 78% reduced-carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions concrete for the construction of an 85-unit housing project in Saint-Leu-la-Forêt, Île-de-France.

Groupe GCC says that it participated in the development of the concrete as part of a three-year development partnership agreement with Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies signed in July 2020.

Ivory Coast: LafargeHolcim Côte d'Ivoire says that it is proud to have contributed 60,000t of its Bélier Extra cement to the construction of the Ebimpé Olympic Stadium. Chief executive officer (CEO) Serge Gbotta said, “It is a real honour for all our teams to see their products accomplish international wonders. This is what we are working hard for. We are satisfied to see that, for its quality, Bélier Extra cement remains undeniably the first choice of construction and public works players.”

Nicknamed the ‘Arc de Triomphe,’ the Olympic Stadium will be the official home of the Ivory Coast national football team.

Croatia: A European Union (EU) court has ruled in favour of the European Commission’s antitrust veto of Germany-based HeidelbergCement and Schwenk Zement’s 2017 acquisition agreement with Mexico-based Cemex for acquisition of its subsidiary Cemex Croatia. The court said that the deal was anti-competitive in that it had the potential to push up cement prices in Croatia, in spite of HeidlebergCement and Schwenk Zement’s offer to grant other cement suppliers access to a terminal.