US: Ragland Town and St. Clair County administrators have approved France-based Vicat’s US subsidiary National Cement’s plans for a second kiln at its 1.9Mt/yr Ragland cement plant in Alabama, construction of which will begin in early 2020. Birmingham Business Journal has reported that National Cement, which has had legal permission to build a second line since 2006, has announced that the new kiln will enter clinker production in 2022 following a total investment of US$250. National Cement is Ragland’s largest employer, with a staff of 132 at the 111-year-old Ragland plant.

Kazakhstan: The government of the Almaty region in eastern Kazakhstan has announced that the construction of the Kerbulak cement plant, which began in May 2018, ends 2020 at 97% completion. The government and a Singaporean private company have installed preheaters, crushers, raw materials warehouses and a 25MW substation. The launch date of the plant is in March 2020. Of its 1.2Mt/yr cement yield, 80% will be sold on the domestic market, with 20% leaving Uzbekistan for Mongolia and neighbouring countries including China.

Spain: The Port Authority of Gijón granted Cemex España a 30-year concession for use of 2480m² of the El Musel terminal for unloading, storage and bagging on 20 December 2019, subject to the Mexican company’s use of the facilities for a minimum of 50,000t/yr of cement and derived products for the first two years of the arrangement, 0.1Mt/yr for the subsequent three years, and 0.15Mt/yr thereafter. La Nueva España newspaper has reported that Cemex España applied for the concession in February 2019. Its plans consist of a Euro5.0m investment in a development including two 6000t-capacity silos, a 44m crane and bagging facilities. Cemex España will take an estimated 10 months to complete the works from beginning the project in early 2020.

Uzbekistan: The value of 11-month cement imports in the period ending 30 November 2019 was US$0.147bn, up by 12% year-on-year from US$0.132bn between 1 January 2019 and 30 November 2018. The total value of construction projects in Uzbekistan in the eleven months ending 30 November 2019 was US$61.4bn, up by 120% from US$51.2bn in the corresponding period of 2018. The total value of imported building materials was US$1.22bn, representing a 12% year-on-year increase from US$1.09bn. Cement was among US$152m of commodities imported to Uzbekistan from Iran, according to the Israel Defense newspaper.

US: A cement truck travelling on a busy road in Wilmington, Massachusetts, dumped part of its load onto the vehicle of another driver, with whom the truck driver had ‘got into an argument.’ According to the Boston Globe newspaper, the offending truck sped away, but police identified the driver through the cement company. They have charged him with negligent operation of a motor vehicle, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, two counts of malicious destruction of property, leaving the scene of a crash that caused property damage, a marked lanes violation and disorderly conduct.

Burkino Faso: The government has appointed Abdul Rahim, director general of Cim Metal subsidiaries Cimfaso and Cimasso a knight of the Order of Merit of Commerce and Industry for his contributions to domestic cement production.

Cimfaso operates a 1.2Mt/yr integrated plant and a 2.0Mt/yr grinding plant in Burkino Faso’s capital of Ouagadougou, while Cimasso operates one 2.6Mt grinding plant in the second city of Bobo-Dioulasso.

Australia: Adelaide Brighton’s court dispute with Concrete Supply has ended in a ruling in favour of the former. The Advertiser newspaper has reported that between August 2009 and November 2017 Adelaide Brighton supplied US$22.6 to Concrete Supply, for which Concrete Supply paid US$14.5 before entering administration in November 2017. Federal Court judge Anthony Besanko ruled that Concrete Supply ‘could not reasonably have held a genuine belief that it was entitled to the alleged discount or rebate.’

Brazil: Refractory products supplier RHI Magnesita has announced a raft of investments totalling Euro300m in addition to its annual Euro120m maintenance expenditure. The investment will cover projects in all its operating regions, including a new raw materials plant in Austria and ‘significant’ expansions to its Contagem complex in Brazil and Cuttack non-basic brick plant in India. It further stated that it will ‘build secondary raw material sorting, cleaning and production capabilites’ to absorb waste streams.

China: Huaxin Cement’s Guoditang quarry in Dongchuan district, Kunming has won the Chinese government’s ‘Green Mine of the Year 2019’ award after receiving total investments of US$0.9m for vegetation recovery. Huaxin integrates land reclamation and afforestation into its step-mining method at the quarry, using planting quilts, sprinklers and drip irrigation devices to recover 80,000m2 of vegetation so far. The company has estimated that the mine will continue to supply its limestone needs in the area until late 2033.

The National Civil Affairs Commission named Huaxin Cement a ‘National Model Unit for National Unity and Progress’ on 17 December 2019. It is the only building materials producer to have obtained the title.

US: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded 2019 Energy Star Certification to Italy-based Buzzi Unicem’s Chattanooga, Tennessee and Festus, Missouri plants and Alamo Cement Company’s San Antonio, Texas plant for achieving Energy Performance Indicator scores of over 75 and over three years’ satisfactory environmental compliance. This places the plants in the top quarter of ‘similar facilities’ for energy efficiency nationwide.