UK: A team of Hanson employees has produced a sign from recycled materials from around the company’s 1.0Mt/yr Purfleet slag cement grinding plant. The 6m-long luminous sign, which reads ‘NHS Thank You,’ has been installed at the plant on the mill three tower overlooking the QE2 Dartford Crossing. Hanson Purfleet plant manager Warren Scott said, “The team wanted to show their appreciation for the NHS and key workers and came up with and executed this idea in their own time.”

Hanson has kept ‘a number of key sites’ open through the coronavirus outbreak in order ‘to supply key national infrastructure projects or to provide maintenance materials to critical sectors.’ Hanson has furloughed part of its staff under the government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

Vietnam: US-based FCT Combustion has published details of a new contract with Vietnam National Coal and Minerals Industry Holding Group (Vinacomin) for the supply of an FCT Turbo-Jet burner to Vinacomin’s 0.6Mt/yr La Hiên plant in Thái Nguyên province. The upgrade aims to enable the use of lower calorific coal while maintaining clinker strength and specific fuel consumption, in order to reduce fuel costs.

FCT Combustion previously provided burners at Vinacomin’s 0.8Mt/yr Quan Trieu cement plant in 2019 and 1.5Mt/yr Quang Son cement plant in 2020, both in Thái Nguyên province.

India: Both Germany-based HeidelbergCement and Aditya Birla subsidiary UltraTech have responded to the government’s partial lifting of the coronavirus lockdown for rurally-located continuous industries by resuming ‘partial operations in some production facilities.’ Orient Cement subsidiary CK Birla said, “We are in the process of partially resuming our operations at our plants in Karnataka and Maharashtra.” Producers require the permission of the relevant state government to restart plants. In Telangana, where the government has not lifted the lockdown, CK Birla’s facilities remain shut.

The Economic Times newspaper has reported that ‘limited transportation facilities, higher than usual inventory and stricter rules regarding labour safety’ have added a note of caution to resumed operations. Shree Cement managing director Hari Mohan Bangur said, given the continuation of restrictions on construction in cities, “We expect just 10% of normal consumption, with hopes of a gradual increase.”

Malaysia: The Cement and Concrete Association of Malaysia (CCA) has praised the government’s decision to grant an exception to cement plants in order to allow production to resume in the third phase of the country’s lockdown, beginning on 28 April 2020. The Straits Times newspaper has reported that the current and previous stages of the lockdown have exacerbated the cement sector’s losses over the past two years.

The CCA said that the development ‘will have a multiplier effect on the economy.’ CCA chair Datuk Yeoh Soo Keng said that 100,000 jobs ‘depend either directly and indirectly on cement production,’ including many ‘in small and medium enterprises’ that will not survive the outbreak without it. “Cement is the fundamental building material of our country’s wealth,” he added. The CCA thanked the government for the ‘welcome reprieve’ and urged it to allow ‘related sectors to slowly and gradually resume operations, for the industry to effectively function.’

Slovenia: Salonit Anhovo suspended production from 20 April 2020 to 4 May 2020. SeeNews has reported the reason for the suspension as a lack of demand from its usual Italian and Slovenian markets amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis. Salonit Anhovo management board member Dejan Zwitter said, "We expect domestic sales to stabilise as the government is providing incentives for construction activities."

The company will continue to serve its customers with deliveries of it products.

Pakistan: Bestway Cement has donated US$3.75m to charity causes between 31 December 2019 and 24 April 2020, including a US$1.25m donation to the state coronavirus relief fund on 23 April 2020. Bestway Group CEO Zameer Choudrey said, “We are conscious of our responsibility as Pakistan’s largest overseas investor. More resources will be devoted as and when necessary.” Bestway Group is based in the UK.

Saudi Arabia: Denmark-based FLSmidth has announced that it has secured an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract with Yanbu Cement for a ‘massive’ efficiency-increasing upgrade to reduce the heat and power consumption of the 5.9Mt/yr integrated Yanbu cement plant in Al Madinah Province.

FLSmidth previously supplied the Yanbu cement plant with an automation upgrade and burner system retrofit in 2018. It concluded a service agreement with Yanbu Cement in 2019.

Indonesia: Japan-based Taiheiyo Cement has announced its acquisition of a 15% stake in state-owned Semen Indonesia subsidiary Solusi Bangun Indonesia for between US$186m and US$232m, subject to the terms of a partnership agreement with Semen Indonesia.

Under the ‘2020 Mid-Term Management Plan,’ Taiheiyo Cement says that it aims to ‘become a corporate group with a strong presence in the Pacific Rim.’ Its partnership with Semen Indonesia is part of Taiheiyo Cement’s response to a forecasted long-term decline in domestic cement demand in Japan.

In the first quarter of 2020 Semen Indonesia sold 9.36Mt of cement, up by 7.0% year-on-year from 8.74Mt in the corresponding period of 2019. InsiderStories News has reported that domestic demand in the period fell by 4.9% to 14.9Mt from 15.7Mt, while exports fell by 2.5% to 1.39Mt from 1.42Mt but rose by 6.2% on a month-by-month basis in March 2020 to 3.09Mt from 2.91Mt in February 2020. April 2020’s cement sales are expected to be lower due to the impacts of the coronavirus outbreak.

Russia: Eurocement subsidiary Belgorodsky Cement has dispatched the first batch of bagged cement from the new packing and palletising line at its 3.8Mt/yr integrated plant in Belgorod West, Belgorod Oblast. The 70t/hr-capacity line produces 50kg cement bags on pallets of 1.7t (34 bags).

Eurocement has also announced the first delivery of cement from its Belgorodsky Cement plant to Yaroslavl, Tolyatti and Nizhny Novgorod by river in 2020. Eurocement senior vice president Alexander Sapronov said, “The delivery of products by river transport is one of the most cost-effective methods of transportation. High-quality loading and reliable packaging guarantee consumers complete cargo safety.”

Eurocement has continued production throughout the coronavirus outbreak, but has restricted meetings, conferences and training sessions since 23 March 2020. The Group said, “Eurocement products are strategically important to the nation's economy. In order to ensure smooth operation of production facilities and of the group as a whole, measures have been taken to minimise the risk of spreading the coronavirus.” These include: ‘regular health check-ups and temperature measurements for employees and subcontractors, air disinfection, antiseptic treatment of operational surfaces, provision of skin antiseptics in toilets and informing employees about safety recommendations.’

EU: The European Council and European Commission have published their joint coronavirus exit strategy, entitled ‘European Roadmap Towards Lifting COVID-19 Containment Measures.’ It advises EU member states on a course of action aimed at restoring community life and the economy, while also preserving public health, after the coronavirus outbreak.

The roadmap consists of a progressive lifting of travel restrictions, initially between border regions, then between regions less affected by the outbreak and subsequently across internal and external borders of the EU. The strategy applies a similar approach to restarting the economy, beginning with ‘essential sectors’ such as construction. The Commission will maintain a rapid alert system for supply chain disruptions, with the help of existing networks such as the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN), Clusters, Chambers of Commerce and trade associations.