Iraq: Pakistan’s Attock Cement has completed civil, mechanical and electrical construction work on its grinding plant at Basra. The unit is now ready for commissioning. The company is currently obtaining permission to import clinker. Once granted the company will start importing clinker and commence trial production at the plant. The producer first announced its intention to build the plant in 2013.

China: Sinoma International Engineering’s new order intake fell by 14% year-on-year to US$4.56bn in 2018. No reason for the decrease was given but orders from its construction business segment fell by 10% to US$3.43bn. By region, local Chinese orders rose by 34% to US$1.3bn but foreign orders dropped by 24% to US$3.26bn.

Bangladesh: MI Cement plans to install a sixth line at its grinding plant at West Mukterpur in Munshiganj. It will add a new 8400t/day grinding unit bringing the site total production capacity to 19,400t/day. The project cost will be around US$70m. Commercial production at the new unit is scheduled to start in January 2021.

Laos: Cement imports rose to a value of US$47.8m in the first 10 months of 2018 compared to US$47.6 for the entirety of 2017. In 2016 the country exported US$0.2m worth of cement, according to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and the Vientiane Times newspaper.

The price of cement in the country reportedly fell when the Vientiane Hongshi Xaythirath Factory in Phabong village, Hinheup district opened in 2016. The unit was built using Chinese investment of US$300m and it has a cement production capacity of 5000t/day. The country has 16 cement plants in operation or under construction. It has a total production capacity of 6.76Mt/yr.