Uzbekistan: 80% of local cement sales were made through the Uzbek Commodity Exchange in the first nine months of 2018. Local sales fell by 4.7% year-on-year to 5.6Mt from 5.9Mt, according to the Trend News Agency. 4.5Mt of this total was sold through the commodity exchange. Falling sales have been blamed on rising natural gas and electricity prices. Tariffs for gas and electricity have increased by at least 60% during 2018 for industrial users in the construction industry, including cement producers.

Austria: RHI Magnesita has appointed Jacqueline Knox as EVP General Legal Counsel & Company Secretary. She will join the company on 1 December 2018 and will be part of its executive management team.

Knox was previously General Counsel and Company Secretary at Ophir Energy, a Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) listed upstream oil and gas business with a large portfolio of assets across Africa and Asia, which she helped to take from a private company to a London listing. She holds a dual degree in law and international relations (BA/LLB) from the University of Queensland and is a dual British / Australian citizen.

Russia: Eurocement has appointed Sergey Lobov as the manager of its Voronezh subsidiary and Vadim Shablitsky as the general director of its Neviansky cement plant. Yaroslav Stoupa, Vice-President of Eurocement Group for production and technical development, introduced the new appointments at a visit to each plant.

Lobov graduated from the Belgorod State Technological Academy of Building Materials with a degree in mechanical engineering. He has been working in the cement industry for 17 years, of which 14 have has been based at the Oskolcement enterprise, where he has advanced from being an equipment repairman to a deputy general director and technical director. From 2015, he worked as the general director of Neviansky Cementnik.

Shablitsky graduated from Belgorod State University of Technology with a degree in chemical engineering and an engineering qualification. He has been working in the cement industry for over 14 years. At the Belgorodsky Cement he worked in various positions from assistant cement mill driver to plant general director, and then he was deputy general director for production at Mordovcement.

Australia: Nick Miller has been appointed as the next chief executive officer (CEO) of Adelaide Brighton following the scheduled retirement of Martin Brydon. Miller will start the role no later than 17 April 2019, following a transition period.

Miller is currently managing director and CEO of Broadspectrum, part of the Ferrovial Group that designs, funds, constructs, operates and maintains major projects and infrastructure assets. At Broadspectrum he has overseen a workforce of more than 14,500 people in Australia and New Zealand.

Prior to joining Broadspectrum, Miller was managing director at Fulton Hogan from 2010 to 2017, a construction materials, infrastructure services and civil construction company operating across Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific. His 25 years of experience includes five years as CEO of Fulton Hogan’s Australian business, and CEO of Isaac Construction in Christchurch.

Miller has a Bachelors in Engineering, is a Fellow of the Institute of Professional Engineers New Zealand, and a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He is a past director of the Australian Constructors Association (ACA), Orion New Zealand, Quake Core, Rangi Ruru Girls School, Roading New Zealand, Roads Australia and the NZ Council for Infrastructure Development (NZCID).