Global Cement News

Germany: Klaus Keysberg has been appointed as the chief executive officer of ThyssenKrupp Materials Services, with effect from 1 January 2019. He was previously working as the division’s chief financial officer (CFO). In addition, Ilse Henne will join the board of the business area as chief operating officer (COO).

Keysberg has been a member of the board of the business area since 2011 and CFO since 2014. He is to retain this post until further notice. As CEO, Keysberg will succeed Joachim Limberg, who will retire. Before his appointment as CFO of Materials Services, Keysberg was COO of the business area from 2011 to 2014 and also held various management roles at operating units.

Henne has worked as the CEO of ThyssenKrupp Schulte and the Western Europe and Asia-Pacific regions. She will continue to hold this post until a successor is found.

Germany: Schmersal has appointed Axel Schneider as its new chief technology officer (CTO). The 49-year old is a graduate in electrical engineering. Previously, he worked in senior positions at international companies in the automation and telecommunications industry. He holds experience in product development, network technology and industrial IT systems. Schneider has also completed various additional courses on agile product development and project and change management and is a certified Professional Scrum Product Owner.

As head of the research and development (R&D) Division at the Schmersal Group, Schneider will be responsible for the global coordination and reconciling of development capacities and innovation projects. This includes, among other things, the establishment of group wide R&D standards and the continuous advancement of Schmersal’s global product portfolio.

India: The board of ACC has approved plans to build a new cement plant at Ametha, District Katnl in Madhya Pradesh. The unit will have a clinker production capacity of 3Mt/yr and a cement production capacity of 1Mt/yr. The subsidiary of Switzerland’s LafargeHolcim plans to expand a 1.6Mt/yr grinding plant at Tikaria, Uttar Pradesh and a 2.2Mt/yr grinding plant also in Uttar Pradesh. The board also agreed to build a 1.1Mt/yr grinding plant at an existing unit at Sindri in Jharkhand. The projects are expected to cost around US$417m.

Kazakhstan: Gezhouba Shieli Cement has launched its 1Mt/yr oil well cement plant in the Kyzylorda region. 260 jobs have been created at the site and 48 of the local staff were trained in China. The project is a joint venture majority owned by Chinese investors with a minority stake from a local cement company. China Triumph International Engineering built the plant.

Jamaica: Caribbean Cement has taken out a five-year loan for US$3bn from the National Commercial Bank Jamaica to repay debt. It also said that some of the loan would be used for general corporate purposes, according in the Gleaner newspaper. The cement producer is also planning to expand its gypsum and limestone operations at two sites but it is unknown if the new borrowing will be used to fund this. The latest loan follows a US$102m loan from its parent company, Cemex España in June 2018.