Global Cement News

Rwanda: Uganda’s Hima Cement is considering building a new cement plant. It has been conducting discussions with local agencies about the project, according to KT Press. The cement producer operates offices at Nyacyonga in Gasabo district. It also runs a warehouse and a ready-mix concrete batching plant.

Philippines: Church and non-government organisations (NGO) have filed a document with the local government expressing their opposition against several San Miguel projects, including a new 2Mt/yr cement plant at Pagbilao in Quezon. They allege that no public hearing was given for local communities to comment on the projects among other complaints, according to the Business Mirror newspaper. San Miguel is planning to build a group of projects at the site in Ibabang Polo including a coal power plant, a logistics hub and a quarry.

Greece: Titan Group’s share exchange offer between its subsidiaries has failed. It blamed this on a lack of ordinary shares being tendered despite the support of Titan’s core shareholders and its board of directors. The voluntary share offer was intended to help list its shares at exchanges in Brussels and Paris. The group said that its strategy remained focused on international growth. It added that broadening sources of funding and improving access to international capital and credit markets was an important priority.

Germany: HeidelbergCement has been awarded ‘A-‘ in the climate change category of CDP’s Climate A List. It also received the same score in the water security category. The result marked it as the highest-scoring cement company on the list beating other major international producers such as LafargeHolcim, Cemex and CRH. Notably, these other cement companies each received ‘F’ for water security due to a lack of sufficient information available. CDP analyses data from over 6800 large companies around the world.

“This is a strong confirmation that we are on the right track with our Sustainability Commitments 2030. The excellent result encourages us to further reduce our ecological footprint across all business lines and on a global level,” said Bernd Scheifele, chairman of the managing board of HeidelbergCement.

Philippines: LafargeHolcim is considering selling its subsidiary Holcim Philippines. Sources quoted by Bloomberg said that the multinational building materials producer was trying to find the ‘right’ price for the business. Holcim Philippines has been valued at around US$2.5bn. It operates integrated cement plants at La Union, Bulacan, Misamis Oriental and Davao. As part part of its ongoing portfolio assessment scheme, LafargeHolcim announced that it was selling its business in Indonesia to Semen Indonesia for US$1.75bn in November 2018.