Global Cement News

Brazil: Paulo Camillo Penna, the president of the National Union of Cement Industry (SNIC), has blamed a fall in national cement sales on a truck drivers strike. Despite forecasting growth a strike in May 2018 caused sales to halt for 10 days. Cement sales fell by 1.5% year-on-year to 25.4Mt in the first half of 2018 from 25.8Mt in the same period of 2017.

SNIC originally expected the local cement industry to grow its sales by 1 – 2% in 2018. However, the poor first half of the year and a slowdown in the country’s economic growth has led SNIC to revise its forecast downwards.

Cameroon: Cimencam, a subsidiary of LafargeHolcim, plans to start producing cement at its new Nomayos grinding plant in early 2019. The 0.5Mt/yr unit had an investment of US$41m, according to Agence Ecofin. Once the new plant is completed Cimencam will have a production capacity of 2Mt/yr in the country.

Pakistan: Maple Leaf Cement’s new production line at its Iskanderabad cement plant is expected to start production by mid-2019. It is building a new 7300t/day line at the site to increase its total production capacity to 18,000t/day. The cost is US$206m. Denmark’s FLSmidth is building the line. Approximately 66% of civil work has been completed and 14% of plant erection work was reported complete at the end of June 2018.

Kazakhstan: A new 1.2Mt/yr cement plant being built at Kerbulak in Almaty region is set to be commissioned in 2019. The joint Kazakh-Singaporean project has an investment of US$145m, according to Kazakh TV. The unit is located close to road and railway links. Once completed the plant is expected to supply the Almaty region and neighbouring regions.

Uzbekistan: Cement production fell by 5% year-on-year to 3.95Mt in the first half of 2018 from 4.2Mt in the same period in 2017, according to the Trend News Agency. The company set price controls for cement earlier in the year to support housing and infrastructure projects.