Denmark: FLSmidth has completed its acquisition of IMP Automation Group following the approval by the competition authorities. The purchase was first announced in February 2019 when FLSmidth said it was adding the company as part to its portfolio of automated laboratory solutions for the mining industry. It said that the integration of IMP would enable FLSmidth to support the expanding market for automated laboratories, which has experienced recent growth due to a combination of high exploration activity and increased focus on productivity, automation and digitalisation.

"We also see great potential from the joining of our new colleagues to further enhance the development of our digital solutions for mining. For instance, data collected from online analysers and the laboratory can be used to optimise the entire flow sheet for mining operations. Using this data to augment our process optimisation initiatives is an exciting prospect," said Tina Knudsen, FLSmidth’s general manager for Sampling, Preparation and Analysis – Mining.

FLSmidth gains 130 IMP employees, including IMP's managing director, Boyne Hohenstein. The IMP business will be consolidated into FLSmidth from 1 June 2019 and the cost of the purchase will be paid out in the second quarter of 2019.

Armenia/Iran: The Armenian parliament has approved a tariff of US$29/t on imported cement from Iran. A previous attempt to pass the bill was blocked in April 2019, according to the Armenpress News Agency. During the recent vote construction workers demonstrated outside the parliament building warning that prices could price as a result of the new duty.

South Africa: The government has introduced a carbon tax of around US$8/t for carbon dioxide-equivalent (CO₂e) emissions. The carbon tax will initially only apply to scope 1 emitters in the first phase. The first phase will be from 1 June 2019 to 31 December 2022, and the second phase from 2023 to 2030. Large-scale tax-free emission allowances from 60 – 95% will be provided in the first phase. Industries such as cement or iron production will benefit from a basic threshold of 70%.

A review will be held before the second phase starts to measure progress. The treasury reinforced that the introduction of the carbon tax would not raise electricity prices due to tax breaks for renewable energy sources and credits for existing generation capacity.

US: Mississippi Lime has declared a force majeure event due to flooding by the Mississippi River caused by ‘significant’ precipitation in the central US. The flooding has impacted the lime producer’s distribution and supply capabilities. This is expected to cause delays in supplying products to customers and will incur additional costs that it will pass through as a surcharge. The company added that, despite this, the flooding has not affected production.

Flooding on the Mississippi River forced the closure of Mississippi Lime’s barge loading facilities in early May 2019 and an alternate barge loading facility later in the month. The company does not anticipate re-opening its facility until the flood waters recede to a safe level, possibly in late June 2019. In the meantime the closure of flood gates near the company’s Ste Genevieve, Missouri unit has forced the company to use an alternate rail route with reduced shipment capacity, additional transit time and higher cost for both inbound and outbound shipments. Mississippi Lime anticipates resuming rail shipments in late June 2019, depending on weather conditions.

US: The Netherlands Verder Group has entered into an agreement to acquire US-based Microtrac and Japan’s MicrotracBEL from Nikkiso. Verder's Scientific Division will extend its product portfolio with product lines for particle characterisation by laser diffraction, dynamic light scattering and surface analysis.

“With Microtrac and MicrotracBEL two technological leaders in particle and surface analysis are united under the roof of Verder Scientific. We look forward to welcoming the Microtrac and MicrotracBEL teams to our group. Both companies will have access to additional resources to push international expansion and extend its innovative product range”, said Jürgen Pankratz, chief executive officer (CEO) of Verder Scientific.

Microtrac is a manufacturer of instruments for particle analysis that use laser diffraction and dynamic light scattering technologies. The instruments are used both for industrial applications and material research. Microtrac has two units in the US at Montgomeryville and York in Pennsylvania

MicrotracBEL is a manufacturer of instruments for surface area and porosity analysis applying adsorption technologies. The instruments are used in research intense fields for particle characterisation. MicrotracBEL has three units in Japan based in Osaka, Tokyo and Nagoya.

Microtrac and MicrotracBEL will maintain their headquarters in the US and Japan respectively and these locations will also be used to support further expansion of the Verder Group. The existing Mictrotrac and MicrotracBEL management team will continue to be in charge. No value for the transaction has been disclosed.

India: GE Power India has been award a contract by Aravali Power worth US$107m for a flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) system. The contract is for design, engineering, civil work, supply, erection and commissioning of wet FGD systems along with auxiliaries like limestone and gypsum handling systems and wet stack on full turnkey basis.

Aravali Power is a joint venture company between NTPC, Haryana Power Generation Company and Indraprastha Power Generation Company. It operates a coal power station near Jharli, Jhajjar in Haryana with three 500MW units. An additional two 660MW units are planned for a future expansion project.

Mexico/US: Yanina Navarro, the general director of the National Chamber of Cement (CANACEM), says that Mexican cement producers are not worried by US tariffs on imports. Mexico exports 1.42Mt or 3.4% of its total production of 44Mt/yr to its neighbour, according to the EL Financiero newspaper. Data from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) placed Mexico at the fifth largest exporter of cement to the US after Canada, Turkey, China and Greece.

Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC) could be affected more than other Mexican producers by any tariffs as 17% of its production is exported to the US. Mainly this covers production from plants at Samalayuca and Juárez in Chihuahua. Hoevever, GCC operates five plants in the US, which would enable it to reduce the potential negative affects of tariffs.

Dominican Republic: Cementos Argos has opened a new packaging plant to support its Najayo grinding plant. The unit has a capacity of over 1000bags/hr. It also improves dust collection efficiency compared to the previous system. The Colombian cement producer operates two ready-mix concrete plants and a cement grinding plant in the country.

Mexico: Cemex says it has completed the global deployment of its digital platform Cemex Go. The product is available in 21 countries with 96% of the company’s total recurring customers using it. 45% of Cemex’s total global sales are processed through the platform, over half a million payments are completed through it per year and 1.5 million deliveries use the system annually.

“We are incredibly proud that our vision of providing a superior customer experience enabled by digital technology has been deployed to our customers around the world. Cemex Go has proven itself as a game changer, an established and essential tool for our customers, accessible anywhere, any time to help them run their businesses with increased efficiency,” said Fernando A Gonzalez, chief executive officer (CEO) of Cemex. He added that platform was only part of the ‘initial’ stages of the company’s digital transformation plans.

Nigeria: Dangote Cement has published its first sustainability report following Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards. Key data from the report include a CO₂ emissions per tonne of cementitious material of 687kg CO₂/t across all operations. Its total CO₂ emissions were 16.4Mt. In 2017 it reported estimated total CO₂ emissions of 8.45Mt from its domestic operations. The cement producer had an energy consumption of 52M GJ 2018. It had a 49% production capacity utilisation rate at its Nigerian plants. The group said that it supported 37,000 direct, indirect and induced jobs in Nigeria.